“I don’t care if it’s not ‘kid-friendly,’” I said to myself. “I’ve got to see it.” So on the last day of the exhibit, my wife and I packed up our 3- and 5-year-old daughters for a trip downtown to the Corcoran Museum’s blockbuster show: Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939.

No, it was not a fiasco. I gave up trying to explain it to the little one (“See the car? See the funny man with four noses?”) and she still made it to the 1930s before the meltdown.

But what to tell her sister? “This is the art and architecture of your great-grandmother’s generation -- and it’s called, um, ‘modern.’”

I’m no expert, but I learned that Modernists believed art could create a dynamic, expansive environment, a Utopia even, for the new 20th century man. It didn’t work out that way, of course: The 20th century, with its two world wars and the Holocaust, signaled, if anything, the triumph of the old man -- his penchant for conformity, his weakness for authoritarianism and totalitarianism, his unimaginable cruelty.

Interesting, though, that while the Modernists were making their pronouncements and their art, another progressive thinker was espousing a vision of education that was every bit as revolutionary as the paintings of Picasso and the swirling edifices of Le Corbusier. John Dewey -- with his emphasis on reasoning over rote learning -- seems to have emerged from the 20th century more relevant, and necessary, than them all. For proof, just read the experts in September’s ASBJ story on 21st century skills. Listen to them talk about the need for problem solving and collaboration, for critical thinking and authentic learning. Sounds a lot like John Dewey to me.

Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor