American philosopher and educator Harry Samuel Broudy (born 1905) received world-wide recognition for his philosophical theories about education, education in a democracy, the aesthetics of education as a dimension of learning, and the presuppositions of competency-based and performance-based teacher education.

Harry Samuel Broudy (born on July 27, 1905) emigrated with his parents, Michael and Mollie (nee Wyzanski) Broudy, from Filipowa, Poland to the United States in 1912 and took up residence in Milford, Massachusetts. After his high school graduation, Broudy chose to enroll at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), rather than follow his father's wishes and enter into rabbinical studies.

Broudy soon discovered that his real interests lay with literature, philosophy, and psychology, not with chemical engineering. He left MIT and earned his B.A. from Boston University in 1929; he was valedictorian for his graduating class. Broudy worked as a reporter for the Milford Daily News after his graduation. In 1932, he enrolled...