George Counts

George Sylvester Counts (1889-1974) was an American educator and education theorist who became the leading proponent of social reconstructionism, the view that schools should actively work to reform society rather than simply transmit it. An early supporter of John Dewey's progressive education movement, Counts argued in his influential 1932 pamphlet Dare the School Build a New Social Order? that educators had a duty to confront social and economic inequality. He taught for decades at Teachers College, Columbia University, served as president of the American Federation of Teachers, and was active in New York state politics through the Liberal and American Labor parties.