Paul Monroe

Paul Monroe had a significant impact on the development of education in China and made a dozen trips there in the 1920s and 1930s.

[3] He contributed much to educational interaction between China and the United States, and his impact on Chinese students at Columbia who later became leading educators in China, such as Guo Bingwen, Tao Xingzhi, Chen Heqin, Jiang Menglin, Wang Tso-Yan (Zhuoran) and Zhang Boling, was considerable.

As he said: “The essence of democracy is that all people, no matter whether intelligent or backward, should have the equal chance of full development.”[4] Paul Monroe was invited and went to China to research and promote education in September, 1921.

In December China Education Improvement Society was founded, he was elected as an honorary member of the council along with several other figures including John Dewey, and his student T'ao Hsing-chih was elected as secretary-general, and through the society the educationists promoted the forming of modern educational system in China.

[5] His contributions to the study of education also gave Dr. Monroe an international reputation, and his textbooks have helped to give the subject a position of great importance in the United States.