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Robert J. Havighurst
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Robert James Havighurst (June 5, 1900 in De Pere, Wisconsin – January 31, 1991 in
Richmond, Indiana) was a professor, physicist, educator, and aging expert. Both his father,
Freeman Alfred Havighurst, and mother, Winifred Weter Havighurst, had been educators at
Lawrence University. Havighurst worked and published well into his 80s. According to his
family, Havighurst died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of ninety.

Contents
[hide]
• 1 Education
• 2 Career
• 3 Educational Work and Civil Rights
• 4 Major Published Works
• 5 Havighurst Quotes
• 6 References

[edit] Education
He attended public schools in Wisconsin and Illinois. He obtained many degrees and
education achievements: 1918-21 B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, 1922 M.A. Ohio
State University, 1924 Ph.D., Chemistry Ohio State University, 1953-54 Fulbright Scholar,
University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1961 Fulbright Scholar University of Buenos Aires,
1962 Honorary Degree Sc. Adelphi University, 1963 Hon. L.L.D. Ohio Wesleyan University.
2006
[edit] Career
He published a number of papers in journal of physics and chemistry about the structure of
the atom in 1924.[1] He went to Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow, studying atomic
structure and publishing papers in journals of physics and chemistry.
He decided to change careers in 1928, so he went into the field of experimental education. He
became an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1940, he became
an education professor at the University of Chicago in the University's Committee on Human
Development. He worked in the field of aging. Again, in the same year he was interested in
international and comparative aspects of education. He wrote several books and published
many papers. His most famous book called "Human Development and Education".
He was inducted in the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame.[2]
Intellectual Contributions
Havighurst's educational research did much to advance education in the United States.
Educational theory before Havighurst was underdeveloped. Children learned by rote and little
concern was given to how children developed. From 1948 to 1953 he developed his highly
influential theory of human development and education. The crown jewel of his research was
on developmental task. Havighurst tried to define the developmental stages on many levels.
Havighurst identified Six Major Stages in human life covering birth to old age.
• Infancy & early childhood (Birth till 6 years old)
• Middle childhood (6–13 years old)
• Adolescence (13–18 years old)
• Early Adulthood (19–30 years old)
• Middle Age (30-60years old)
• Later maturity (60 years old and over)
From there, Havighurst recognized that each human has three sources for developmental
tasks. They are:
• Tasks that arise from physical maturation: Learning to walk, talk, control of bowel
and urine, behaving in an acceptable manner to opposite sex, adjusting to menopause.
• Tasks that arise from personal values: Choosing an occupation, figuring out ones
philosophical outlook.
• Tasks that have their source in the pressures of society: Learning to read, learning to
be responsible citizen.
The developmental tasks model that Havighurst developed was age dependent and all served
pragmatic functions depending on their age.
Developmental Tasks
(Ages 0–6)
• Learning to walk. * Learning to crawl. * Learning to take solid food. * Learning to
talk. * Learning to control the elimination of body wastes. * Learning sex differences
and sexual modesty. * Getting ready to read. * Forming concepts and learning
language to describe social and physical reality.
(Ages 6–18)
• Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games. * Learning to get along with
age mates. * Building wholesome attitudes toward oneself as a growing organism. *
Learning on appropriate masculine or feminine social role. * Developing concepts
necessary for everyday living. * Developing conscience, morality and a scale of
values. * Achieving personal independence. * Developing attitudes toward social
groups and institutions.
(Ages 18–30)
• Achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both sexes. * Achieving
a masculine or feminine social role. * Accepting one’s physique and using the body
 effectively. * Achieving emotional independence of parents and other adults. *
Preparing for marriage and family life. * Acquiring a set of values and an ethical
system as a guide to behavior. * Desiring and achieving socially responsible
behavior.* Selecting an occupation.
(Ages 30–40)
• Selecting a mate. * Learning to live with a partner. * Starting family. * Rearing
children. * Managing home. * Getting started in occupation. * Taking on civic
responsibility. * Finding a congenial social group.
(Ages 40–60)
• Assisting teenage children to become responsible and happy adults. * Achieving adult
social and civic responsibility. * Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance
in one’s occupational career. * Developing adult leisure time activities. * Relating
oneself to one’s spouse as a person. * To accept and adjust to the physiological
changes of middle age. * Adjusting to aging parents.
(60 and over)
• Adjusting to decreasing physical strength and health. Adjusting to retirement and
reduced income. * Adjusting to death of a spouse. * Establishing an explicit affiliation
with one’s age group. * Adopting and adapting social roles in a flexible way. *
Establishing satisfactory physical living arrangements.
[edit] Educational Work and Civil Rights
From 1967 through 1971, Havighurst directed the National Study of Indian Education, which
was funded by the U.S. Office of Education. He involved Native Americans in planning the
study as well as helping in field work and data analysis. The conclusions indicated that
education for Native American youth across the United States varied widely according to
numerous factors such as funding, location, curriculum, faculty, degree of isolation, and
cultural differences. Recommendations included finding ways for Native Americans to have
an increased voice in their education and the establishment of a National Commission on
Indian Education.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Havighurst focused his attention on the problems of urban
education. He conducted a study of public high schools in the forty-five largest cities in the
United States. The study examined: educational goals, school structure and organization, staff
characteristics, curriculum, student activities, student activism, and school-community
relations. Havighurst concluded that there was more and deeper segregation and separation of
high school students of different socioeconomic and ethnic groups in 1969 to 1970 than there
was ten or twenty years before. In 1977, at age seventy-seven, he coedited a book in which he
developed a series of policies and practices for the improvement of big city schools based on
his research.
[edit] Major Published Works
• WHO SHALL BE EDUCATED?: THE CHALLENGE OF UNEQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES. New York: Harper, 1944; Havighurst, Robert J.; and Davis,
Allison.
• FATHER OF THE MAN: HOW YOUR CHILD GETS HIS PERSONALITY. New
York: Houghton, 1947; Havighurst, Robert J.; and Neugarten, Bernice L.
• AMERICAN INDIAN AND WHITE CHILDREN: A SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL
INVESTIGATION. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955; Havighurst, Robert
J.; Stivers, Eugene; and DeHaan, Robert F.
 • A SURVEY OF THE EDUCATION OF *GIFTED CHILDREN. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1955; Gross, Irma; Havighurst, Robert J.; and others (Eds.).
• POTENTIALITIES OF WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE YEARS. E. Lansing: Michigan
State University Press, 1957; Havighurst, Robert J.; and DeHann, Robert F.
• EDUCATING GIFTED CHILDREN. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957;
Havighurst, Robert J.; and others.
• GROWING UP IN RIVER CITY. New York: Wiley, 1962; Havighurst, Robert J.;
Neugarten, Bernice L.; and Falk, Jacqueline M.
• SOCIETY AND EDUCATION: A BOOK OF READINGS. New York: Allyn &
Bacon, 1967; Havighurst, Robert J., (Editor).
• COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION. New York: Little and
Brown, 1968; Havighurst, Robert J.; and others.
• ADJUSTMENT TO RETIREMENT: A CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY. Van Gorcum,
1969.
• DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS AND EDUCATION. McKay, 1972.
• TO LIVE ON THIS EARTH: AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION. New York:
Doubleday, 1972.
• OPTOMETRY: EDUCATION FOR THE PROFESSION. National Commission on
Accrediting, 1973.
[edit] Havighurst Quotes
"Family life is the source of the greatest human happiness. This happiness is the simplest and
least costly kind, and it cannot be purchased with money. But it can be increased if we do two
things: if we recognize and uphold the essential values of family life and if we get and keep
control of the process of social change so as to make it give us what is needed to make family
life perform its essential functions."
"The modern world needs people with a complex identity who are intellectually autonomous
and prepared to cope with uncertainty; who are able to tolerate ambiguity and not be driven
by fear into a rigid, single-solution approach to problems, who are rational, foresightful and
who look for facts; who can draw inferences and can control their behavior in the light of
foreseen consequences, who are altruistic and enjoy doing for others, and who understand
social forces and trends."
"A successful mother sets her children free and becomes free herself in the process."
"The two basic principle processes of education are knowing and valuing."
"The art of friendship has been little cultivated in our society."
"A developmental task is a task which is learned at a specific point and which makes
achievement of succeeding tasks possible. When the timing is right, the ability to learn a
particular task will be possible. This is referred to as a 'teachable moment.' It is important to
keep in mind that unless the time is right, learning will not occur. Hence, it is important to
repeat important points whenever possible so that when a student's teachable moment occurs,
s/he can benefit from the knowledge."
[edit] References
1. ^ Biography at FreudingSlip, Retrieved March 4, 2007
2. ^ Biography at the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame;
Retrieved March 4, 2007
 • Robert J. Havighurst (1971) Developmental Tasks and Education, Third Edition. New
York. Longman.
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Havighurst"
Categories: People from Brown County, Wisconsin | People from Richmond, Indiana | 1900
births | 1991 deaths | University of Chicago faculty | Ohio Wesleyan University alumni | Ohio
State University alumni | Harvard University staff | University of Canterbury | University of
Buenos Aires | University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty | Writers from Chicago, Illinois |
Writers from Ohio | Writers from Wisconsin
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