Abstract
In January of 1952 the School Executive, a professional journal for school administrators, published a special issue on citizens and schools that called attention to a flurry of citizen involvement with public education in the United States since the end of World War II. Of course, citizen participation in public education was, by then, nothing new. In the nineteenth century, citizens had often concerned themselves with schools, forming school societies, organizing advocacy groups, and joining school boards. Such volunteers were usually educated men of means, but women became involved too. The Civic Club of Philadelphia, for example, brought together many prominent white women who aimed to promote “by education and active cooperation a higher public spirit and better public order.” The club’s agenda included the election of women to school boards and the beautification of public schools. But even as these men and women were reaching out, the professionalization of teaching and the centralization of policy making were gradually changing the relationship between citizens and schools, erecting barriers, both formal and informal, to citizens’ influence.