John Franklin Bobbitt

 John Franklin Bobbit was born near English, Indiana on February 16, 1876. He was a son of
James and Martha Bobbitt. He was born of true American stock, who believed that hard work,
study, self-discipline, religious faith, and devotion to duty were the absolute ingredients for
survival in this life and entry into the life beyond. He was a university professor and author. He
also taught school from 1903 to 1907 at the Philippine Normal School in Manilla. John Franklin
Bobbitt was a social efficiency advocate who saw the curriculum as a means for preparing
students for their adult roles in the new industrial society. His work greatlyinfluenced the
development of curriculum by emphasizing specifications and responses to current social needs
rather than on teaching classical subjects. In 1918, Bobbitt authored 
The Curriculum. This was the first book to focus specifically on curriculum. This book has
beenrecognized by many scholars as the beginning of structured curriculum. Bobbitt realized that
it was not enough to just develop new curricula, but saw there was a need to learn more about
how new curricula could best be developed. This insight came through his vast experience in the
field of curriculum.
In his book, Bobbitt tells of a personal experience that caused him to look at curriculum from the
point of view of social needs rather than mere academic study. He had gone to the Philippines
early in the American occupation as a member of a committee sent to draw up an elementary
school curriculum for the islands. With the freedom to recommend almost anything to meet the
needs of the population, the committee had the opportunity to create an original,constructive
curriculum. Originally they assembled American textbooks for reading, arithmetic,geography,
United States history, and other subjects with which they had been familiar in UnitedStates
schools. Without being conscious of it, they had organized a course of study for the traditional
eight elementary grades, on the basis of their American prejudices and preconceptions about
what an elementary course ought to be.
A director of education in the Philippines helped Bobbitt and the committee to look at the social 
realities, and they then threw out their original plan. Ultimately, they brought into the course a
number of things to help the people gain health, make a living, and enjoy self-realization. The
activities they introduced came from the culture of the Philippines and were quite different from
those found in the American textbooks.  His experience in the Philippines helped Bobbitt to see
his difficulty: his complete adherence to traditional curriculum beliefs had kept him from
realizing the possibility of more useful solutions. He had needed something to shatter his
complacency. His experiences stimulated other workers in the field of curriculum. His book,
How to Make a Curriculum, was the forerunner of others in the subject and had great influence
on school practice.
Bobbitt formulated five steps in curriculum making: (a) analysis of human experience, (b) job
analysis, (c) deriving objectives, (d) selecting objectives, and (e) planning in detail. Step one
dealt with separating the broad range of human experience into major fields. Step two was to
break down the fields into their more specific activities. The third step was to derive the
objectives of education from statements of the abilities required to perform the activities. The
fourth step was to select from the list of objectives those which were to serve as the basis for
planning pupil activities. The final step was to lay out the kinds of activities, experiences, and
opportunities involved in attaining the objectives.
Bobbitt�s final book, Curriculum of Modern Education, shows that after three decades in the
curriculum field that he changed his position somewhat in the early 1940�s. 
 
References
Bobbitt, C.K.(webpage), (7/10/00) 
http://calvin_kyle_bobbitt.tripod.com/Individuals/JohnFranklinBobbittPhD.html
Current Biography Yearbook. (1992). New York:H.W.Wilson Co.,1992. Obituary  Section
located in the back of the volume. (CurBio 92N)
http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/netacgi/np�=/a/acp/db/bgm/name-search.html&r=8&f=G
McNeil, John D., (1990). Curiculum: A Comprehensive Introduction (4th ed.).  HarperCollins.
Null, J.W. (1999). Efficiency jettisoned: Unacknowledged changes in the Curriculum thought of
John Franklin Bobbitt. 
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/jcs/99fall/3fall99.html