Rice, Joseph Mayer
RICE, JOSEPH MAYER
RICE, JOSEPH MAYER (1857–1934), U.S. physician, editor, and educator. Rice, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a pediatrician. Interested in problems of prophylaxis, he became increasingly concerned with school programs, and from 1888 to 1890 studied pedagogy at Jena and Leipzig. When he returned to the United States, he launched a journalistic crusade to reform the schools along progressive German lines. He first published his criticisms and recommendations in The Forum and Century, and then in a book entitled The Public-School System of the United States (1893). Later, while serving as editor of The Forum and Century, he undertook some of the first scientific investigations into teaching, beginning with a study of the effects of systematic instruction on achievement in spelling. Rice's studies and conclusions were collected in Scientific Management in Education (1913).
[Lawrence A. Cremin]