My Thoughts on Dewey
Greetings,
Pardon the lack of my posting on the edublog, summer was busy with work and such. Anyways, I plan on continuing what I started in the Spring with posting my thoughts on the readings assigned or classes, if I deem it appropriate and interesting. I also plan on posting the homework that I finish for this class, as I believe it would be interesting for prospective employers and my own nostalgic purposes.
For today we were expected to read the first five articles of John Dewey’s My Pedagogic Creed. From my own understanding of it, I believe that Dewey considers students to have two distinct, yet infinitely intertwined. Namely this is the Psychological and Social aspects of the student. At birth, assuming I understand Dewey’s beliefs; each student is born a blank slate, and is constantly being saturated by the student’s existence, at school or otherwise. It is the school’s job to provide education and direction to the student’s psychological side, which is dominated by facts and dates, and the sociological side, which is dominated by how well the student is socially adjusted. In doing this, the school, Dewey claims, should teach the student how to learn, how to adapt to new world issues or technologies. He concludes this section with the statement of his belief that we, as teachers, are responsible for the formation of socially adjusted, well-formed citizens at the end of their schooling.
I find this to be very difficult to analyze in terms of it being ‘right or wrong’, as I tend to like to do. I would agree with Dewey’s belief that we, as teachers, are supposed to aid in the formation of the students’ ability to conform to societal norms and to react and triumph over changes that inevitably arise during the student’s lifetime. I disagree with Dewey’s implied belief that this is the only reason a school exists. I would also claim that in addition to being socially normal and adaptable to new situations, the student must be knowledgeable, both of how trends tend to work and how to analyze situations as to choose the best choice presented. This sort of attention to analytical knowledge puts me on edge when I am reading Dewey’s work.
Work Cited:
Dewey, John. My Pedagogic Creed. School Journal. Vol. 54. January 1897. http://dewey.pragmatism.org/creed.htm
