Hilda Taba (7 December 1902 in Kooraste, Estonia – 6 July 1967 in San Francisco, California) was an architect, a curriculum theorist, a curriculum reformer, and a teacher educator. Taba was born in the small village of Kooraste, Estonia. Her mother's name was Liisa Leht, and her father was a schoolmaster whose name was Robert Taba. Hilda Taba began her education at the Kanepi Parish School. She then attended the Võru’s Girls’ Grammar School and earned her undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy at the University of Tartu. When Taba was given the opportunity to attend Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, she earned her master's degree. Following the completion of her degree at Bryn Mawr College, she attended Teachers College at Columbia University. She applied for a job at the University of Tartu but was turned down because she was female, so she became curriculum director at the Dalton School in New York City. In 1951, Taba accepted an invitation to become a professor at San Francisco State College, now known as San Francisco State University. Author Taba was a student of John Dewey; she wrote her first dissertation after studying with him and wrote a total of seven books. Her dissertation entitled Dynamics of Education: A Methodology of Progressive Educational Thought (1932) focused on educating for democracy. She discussed how children should learn how to relate to one another through democratic relationships. Two other key ideas in her dissertation included how learning should involve dynamic, interrelated, and interdependent processes and how educators are accountable for the delivery and the evaluation of the curriculum. She also believed educational curriculum should focus on teaching students to think rather than simply to regurgitate facts. After working with John Dewey, Benjamin Bloom, Ralph W. Tyler, Deborah Elkins, and Robert Havighurst, she wrote a book entitled Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice (1962). Taba wrote: One scarcely needs to emphasize the importance of critical thinking as a desirable ingredient in human beings in a democratic society. No matter what views people hold of the chief function of education, they at least agree that people need to learn to think. In a society in which changes come fast, individuals cannot depend on routinized behavior or tradition in making decisions, whether on practical everyday or professional matters, moral values, or political issues. In such a society, there is a natural concern that individuals be capable of intelligent