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| Not this guy. Malcom in the Middle anyone? (borrowed from USAtoday.com) |
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| This Guy (borrowed from http://dewey.pragmatism.org/) |
The line that drew me in hook, line and sinker was, "Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living." After reading this sentence, I immediately pointed at my screen and yelled, "YES! THIS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" (Well not really, that might disturb my neighbors, but I hope you get the idea.) To me, this phrase emphasized the importance of skills, not factual knowledge. We're teaching our students skills that work for the community as a whole, not the individual. I thought this tied in well to teaching students skills and dispositions, something close to what Ritchhart spoke about in his Intellectual Character piece. Since Dewey does place a heavy emphasis on learning skills rather than facts, he immediately won me over. I'm hoping my classmates may want to start a fan club with me. We could get jackets.
While reading the piece I couldn't believe it's taken almost 100 years for this theory to take hold, and I feel that it still isn't widely practiced in schools yet. This is something that I will want to look into further as I continue my teaching adventure.
I had the same thought of "He wrote this over 100 years ago, why haven't we been listening." On a serious note, I think what he was saying wasn't that factual knowledge shouldn't be emphasized but rather factual knowledge should be applied to the benefit of the community. So yeah, I agree he was on to something and I would definitely get a jacket.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was awesome how you managed to tie Dewey into what we've been reading in 511. I didn't even think about connecting the reading to Intellectual Character, so I'm glad you pointed this out! Additionally, I think Dewey's pedagogic creed can be compared to "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing," (Anderson & Krathwohl) because, like you said, he emphasizes that skills are very important. So, while factual knowledge is an important part of education, conceptual procedural, and metacognitive knowledge are also key components.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in reference to your last point about how long it has taken for Dewey's theory to take hold, can you imagine the shape our educational system would be in without him? It's better late than never, I suppose.
I didn't have as much time to talk about it as I might have wished, Holly, but there've been many attempts to instantiate Dewey's ideas, even at the district/city level. Of course, many of the attempts wouldn't have pleased our friend Professor Dewey all that much, as many of his professed adherents placed far more emphasis on the "child-centered" aspect of Dewey's philosophy than Dewey himself did. For Dewey, a robust connection with the work done by adults, and with the broader community and with democracy itself was crucial. There were many interesting experiments with community/school linkages, and with kids doing work that connected with issues and problems of the community, but there was always lots of pushback, and building robust connections with the larger community takes work. Indeed, as my mentor used to say, "learning by doing is easier said the done." All of this by way of saying that making small steps in the direction of the kinds of ideas for which Dewey was advocating is engaging in powerful and important work...it's great to see that you see some things here that are worth trying to incorporate into your teaching work, Holly.
ReplyDeleteIt seems we all were really resonating with what Dewey had to say, and its surprising that he isn't more widely discussed for his ideas. I really liked the passages from his creed that you mentioned, although I would take it a step further and say he wasn't even only limiting it to skills students should learn, but even more broadly just how to interact with the communities and the world around them, and that education should be a hub where students can find their potential and build character, on an intellectual, social, and emotional level.
ReplyDeleteHolly, I must say I thoroughly appreciate the humor incorporated in your blog! I think it fits with the irony of the fact that our society is just now beginning to seriously explore these transformative ideas today, yet Dewey had this figured out over a century ago. I was further impressed by the fact that you connected Dewey's ideas to Ritchhart's ideas. I definitely agree with you that there is a connection there that I believe will become even more apparent as we read further into Richhart, as well as begin to put some of these ideas into practice in the classroom. Thank you for helping me see this connection!
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am soooo up for starting a fan club. May I suggest the following phrase be added to our jackets: "Dewey or Dewey not? - Yes! And it is about time we did!"