J. Wesley Null, Peerless Educator. The Life and Work of Isaac Leon Kandel.

J. Wesley Null, Peerless Educator. The Life and Work of Isaac Leon Kandel. J. Wesley Null, Peerless Educator. The Life and Work of Isaac LeonKandel, New York, Peter Lang, 2007, xxxv + 338 pp, ISBN978-0-8204-7488-8, pbk. I still have the nine pages of notes I made more than fifty yearsago when I discovered I. L. Kandel's The Cult of Uncertainty. I didnot realise until I read Null's book that Kandel's 1943 attackon progressive education was a response to The Quest for Certainty byhis world-famous colleague at Teachers' College, ColumbiaUniversity, John Dewey, father of American progressive education. Theauthor of this biography, the distinctively named J. Wesley Null, is acurriculum theorist and historian of education at Baylor University, along-established Baptist liberal arts university in Waco, Texas. Null, aMethodist, is the author, co-author, and co-editor of several books onAmerican education. He is editor of the American Educational HistoryJournal. His book has a Foreword by Diane Ravitch, Research Professor ofEducation at New York University, senior fellow at the Hoover andBrookings Institutions, Assistant Secretary of Education from 1991 to1993, and co-editor with Null of Forgotten Heroes of American Education. Apart from criticising progressive education, Kandel stronglyadvocated liberal education for all students. He did not rejectvocational training but believed that skill-based education should occuronly after American youth had been taught the cultural heritage theyshared. Kandel has additional significance for Australians because hevisited this country in 1937-38 and wrote several books on Australianeducation. But his main claim to our attention is his work in thehistory of education, the philosophy of education, and comparativeeducation. Null's book of fourteen chapters is divided into five parts:'Romania, Freedom, and Manchester (1870-1899)', is followed by'University, Teaching Experience, and America (1899-1908)','Building a Career in America (1908-1929)', 'Controversyand Global Influence (1929-1948)' and 'Elder StatesmanshipAcross Continents (1948-1965)'. Kandel was born in Rumania but his family moved to England in 1885.At Manchester University he took courses in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Logicand Education, the first two at the honours level. His work for amaster's degree brought him under the influence of two eminentscholars: J.J. Findlay, who had studied in Germany and was dedicated toneo-Herbartian ideas of liberal education; Michael Sadler who was anexpert in educational administration and comparative education. Kandel completed his M.A. degree in Education in 1906. Afterteaching for a few years in a grammar school in Belfast, he went toTeachers College Columbia to write his doctoral dissertation on teachereducation institutions in Germany. From 1913 he was a part-time lecturerat the Teachers College. After some ten years during which he wrotebooks and articles, mainly on comparative education, he was offeredappointment as a professor (i.e. a tenured lecturer) in 1923. Kandel wasthe first Jew to be appointed to the Teachers College staff. Strangely, Null's account of Kandel's 1937-38 visit toAustralia does not mention his participation in the International NewEducation Fellowship conference. According to W. F. Connell'shistory of the Australian Council for Educational Research most of the21 speakers were advocates of progressive education, but Kandel andthree or four others were non-believers. In his address, 'TheStrife of Tongues'. Kandel poured scorn on child-centredprogressive education. A Canadian visitor with artistic talent producedtwo cartoons on the final night of the Melbourne sessions. One, called'The Tongue of Strife', showed Kandel in academic dressputting an extinguisher over a lighted candle labelled NEF; the otherdepicted Kandel himself about to disappear under a large fireextinguisher with the caption 'Out Brief Kandel.' Kandel also gave his 'Strife of Tongues' lecture, inwhich he discussed battles over educational theory and practice, withspecific reference to Australia, at Melbourne University. It waspublished jointly by Oxford University Press and Melbourne UniversityPress. The governments of Australia and New Zealand had invited Kandelto assess their school systems. His reports were published in 1938 intwo books, Impressions of Australian Education (ACER) and Types ofAdministration, With Particular Reference to the Educational Systems ofNew Zealand and Australia (MUP and OUP). Null does not mention, thoughConnell does, that one of Kandel's distinctive conclusions was toattribute the 'middling standards' in Australian education tocentralisation. Kandel retired in 1946. His final academic years were lonely.'The Progressive philosophy that he had battled throughout the1930s and the early 1940s--mostly without success - now thoroughlydominated the thinking of the faculty.' (p. 211). But hisinternational reputation encouraged him to continue writing andtravelling. He died in Switzerland in 1965. In this readable book Null integrates Kandel's personal andprofessional lives in an eventful period in the history of westerneducation. Two valuable by-products are his accounts of teacher trainingand educational studies in England and America. ALAN BARCAN Conjoint Fellow, University of Newcastle