John I. Goodlad (1920 – 2014)
John I. Goodlad (1920 – 2014)
In late summer, 1974, I attended an orientation for incoming students at UCLA’s Graduate School Of Education. After sitting through a series of welcoming speeches and perfunctory administrative directives, we were escorted outside to a patio area where we were invited to pick up paper plates and plastic eating utensils, and partake of a self-serve, buffet style lunch of franks and beans.
That same day, UCLA’s law school was also holding it’s orientation program. I knew this because one of my best friends was a newly admitted law student. Rather than stand at the end of the long franks-and-beans line, I decided to check out the law school festivities. A few hundred yards away, the members of the incoming law school class were seated at white cloth covered tables where they were being served by a formally dressed wait staff. (Were those actually wine glasses on the tables? Yes!)
While walking back to partake of my hot dog I found myself thinking, somewhat cynically, that my friend and I were experiencing a sort of cultural induction. This is what we could expect from our respective choice of careers.
Several years later, I had occasion to recount the experience and my accompanying thoughts to the dean of the school. I remember him to have appeared momentarily puzzled, or taken aback, before responding matter-of-factly, “No. It’s just that we prefer to see scarce resources find their way to classrooms.”
That man was John I. Goodlad, whose recent passing has left the nation bereft of one of its preeminent educators, scholars, leaders and reformers.
Rising from humble origins as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse (encompassing eight grades) in rural British Columbia, John Goodlad went on to achieve a distinguished academic career that produced no fewer than twenty honorary doctorates from institutions throughout the U.S. and Canada. The author of more than 200 scholarly articles and over a dozen books, Dean Goodlad may be best known for his landmark 1984 opus, A Place Called School, a sobering yet inspiring work that many believe to have kick-started the contemporary school reform movement.
In both thought and deed, Dean Goodlad proved capable of reconciling idealistic and pragmatic strains of educational philosophy to produce a results-oriented focus that never lost touch with a humanistic view of learners and teachers. Not only was Dean Goodlad capable of bringing apparently disparate streams of thought together; he did the same with people, which is but one of many reasons he proved to be such a gifted and effective leader.
Following graduate school he commenced his academic career with an appointment (at the tender age of 29) as head of Emory University’s Division of Teacher Education. Thereafter, he returned to the University of Chicago to assume a professorship. In 1960 he moved west, commencing a relationship with UCLA that would persist for a quarter of a century, first as a professor and director of the university’s Laboratory School, and then for sixteen years as dean of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education. You can read something of an abbreviated biography of the man (produced a decade ago), here, and a brief remembrance published on Education Week’s Inside School Research blog, here.
Several weeks after the franks and beans “luncheon,” Dean Goodlad delivered a lecture to formally commence the new academic year. It marked the first time I saw the man and heard him speak, and I was immediately awe-struck by both his elegance and eloquence. Most remarkably – and I can think of no greater compliment than this – I actually remember what he had to say, to this very day. He spoke of the disconnect between the academy and the classroom, and charged professors and students, alike, with the responsibility of closing the gap between theory and practice, research and results, the ivory tower and the classroom door.
Whenever I think of John Goodlad, I picture him commanding the lectern that day. He looked distinguished simply standing there. Charmingly suave, articulate, passionate and noble, it’s little wonder he led UCLA’s Graduate School of Education to achieve consistent Top-5 rankings. Dare I say that what John Wooden was to UCLA basketball, John Goodlad was to its Graduate School of Education? I do, and I will. Thank you, Dean Goodlad. You will not be forgotten.
