The work of Colonel Francis W. Parker, the man whom Dewey called "the father of progressive education," provides a starting point for reconstructing the loose ambiguities of progressive education into a coherent social and educational philosophy. Although progressives have claimed their approach is more humane and sensitive to children, we need something more and something else if we are going to counter the ruthless reductionism of the conservative movement for more rigidity, more testing, more punishment. The place to start is with Parker's notion of the common school as the most potent instrument of freedom, the means as well as the end of democratic living. Drawing on the commentary of Herbert Kleibard and John Dewey, this essay argues that Parker's great work can inspire us to reconstruct progressive education for a new century.