"[No] matter what the personal belief of any one about what is desirable industrially and politically, any one who is interested in peaceful evolution instead of violent and bloody revolution will realize the central position held by a genuinely free educational system in the peaceful development of society and will bend every energy to defeat the enemies, now so numerous and so active, of schools that are free in inquiry, in teaching and learning; that are intellectually and morally free, the only genuine kind of free school, which are our boast." ~John Dewey in his essay "Education and New Social Ideals"Why does he assume that a revolution is coming? And of course, he posits that anyone who opposes his humanistic educational system must want a violent, bloody revolution. Dewey's educational system focuses not on the individual child, but the society at large ---> making children into the cogs of society. So, how is a government controlled, government regulated, government administrated educational system... "free in inquiry"? "Morally free" needs expanded... Are we thinking the 60's mentality? Yikes. Thoughts, anyone?
*Note: Many people I know were/have been in the public educational system. (My parents included) This post should not in anyway reflect on them... This post is designed to engage John Dewey and his education philosophy.
2 comments:
I need to think about it some more, but I think in a sense he's right. "Peaceful evolution" is made possible by the masses all being schooled by the government. People don't disagree as much, because they are all taught by the same government what to think. And the longer the public school system exists, we trust and accept whatever they say, dependent on them for education and allowing ourselves to be brainwashed. We don't care how accurate they're teachings are, or whether they are teaching the exact same things that we fought against in WW2... We are "peacefully evolving" under a common tutelage.
I find this completely scary! We are human beings, not robots to be programmed by a socialist, anti-God government. And a few men in power should not control the minds of the upcoming generations. It's utterly tragic, and more scary than the scariest horror film...
Thank you, Mr. Dewey???
Laura,
As someone who has read John Dewey extensively, don't be afraid. Considering the quote you posted, Dewey wrote this article in 1936. Violent Bloody Revolution is not the future it is his reality. He is born on the heels of the American Civil War, witnessed the Russian Revolution, World War I and by 1936, World War II is brewing. Revolution is not a future but a present. The world is repetitively remade by violence during the first half of the 20th Century.
In this quote, Dewey wants schools that are free in inquiry, in teaching and learning, are morally and intellectual free. Does this sound like our current educational system?
John Dewey has little to do with current public schooling. That educational system is so far from what Dewey advocated that he would not recognize our educational system as helpful to society.
I would also argue that he does not posit that opposition to him is agreement with violent revolution. He is positing that opposition to a free educational system will cause violent revolution.
He also firmly believed in educating the individual. Dewey is frequently misunderstood as advocating a child-centered approach to education that eschews a formalized curriculum.
John Dewey spent his life philosophizing about the role of education as it related to society.
He believed that society has a responsibility to provide a free (economically and intellectually) schooling system in which students are taught how to be members of society. How to think independently and act for the good of society.
He believed that without education, democracy would fail. You have to teach the next generation how to work in and with a democracy and this requires the recognition of community. Democracy was more than a political system. It was a way of life.
However he was opposed to the notion of a centralized curriculum because he also thought about how students should learn. He believed that individuals learn through experience not by listening and repeating. He believed that teachers should build experiences for students to have so that they could meaningfully construct knowledge and understanding. He introduces a powerful concept that is later named the "null curriculum". This is what we learn unintentionally in schools. How to stand in line. How to keep our feet inside our desks. These were not particularly good lessons as far as Dewey was concerned.
Dewey was also not anti-God. He did not believe that religion was a public issue. His morality stands in contrast to the 1960s.
Christians really seem to struggle with Dewey but I believe that that is because we tend to learn about him by way of quotes pulled out of thousands of pages of writing. While I've read a fraction of his work, it's a pretty good fraction at this point including some of his more defining books. He's no where near as scary as Christians tend to believe and I do not know of him commenting on private schools or home schooling primarily because he was interested in the relationship between the state and schools.
Reading your analysis makes me wonder where you get the idea that education focuses on society and making them cogs of society.
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