The purpose of this paper is to re-examine M.J Adler's critique on progressive education, and his understanding of J. Dewey.  It had been widely accepted that Adler was one of the vociferous critics of Dewey and his educational ideas. However, when "The Paideia Proposal", which Adler dedicated to Dewey, was published in l982, educational researchers started to argue over the meaning of Adler' s dedication. For instance, not only "Harvard educational review", but also  the Midwest Philosophy of Education Society held a symposium on the understanding and evaluation of "The Paideia Proposal" in 1983. As N. Noddings wrote  an article on the same issue in 2004, this is still a controversial topic in the study of education. 
　The first section of this paper overviews the actual relationship between Adler and Dewey from their meeting at Columbia University through the days of Adler's professorship at the University of Chicago. The second section summarizes Adler's, critique on progressive education. The third section focuses on Adler's understanding of Dewey and the formation of Adler's ideas on leaming which resulted in "The Paideia Proposal". The fourth section takes up Dewey and B.H. Bode's criticism on the child-centered curricula, and examines the situation of progressive education in the late l930s. 
 Based on the four sections above, this paper re-thinks of the straight forward  and narrow dichotomy which places Adler at the opposite pole from Dewey in describing history of American education.

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