unconsciously social situations mental powers
barren social institution present life
evil passive continual and sympathetic observation sentimentalism God
-Vocabulary words taken from My Pedagogic Creed by John Dewey
School Journal vol. 54 (January 1897), pp. 77-80
Listed above are a couple of professional vocabulary words (at the time) that jumped out at me from Deweys Pedagogic Creed. I deemed these words as preternatural due to their odd nature. When I think about the topics of education, school, and subject-matter, the above terms are not prevalent. As I was reading this creed, the vocabulary was giving me a sense of who Dewey was, and to be honest, I was not really into his vision. When I see school and education, I do not see it as unconscious and socially centered, as Dewey seems to stress. Where I really thought Dewey went over the deep end was in his last lament:
"I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God."
The moment he brought God into education purposes, the teacher, school, and social progresses, his credibility was lost in my eyes. Who is his Dewey character? There's Something Different About Dewey.
When I made my way to the article revering John Dewey, my spirit was lost for this man. As I was reading the article, this predisposition made me feel a certain way in reading this homage. And although I tried to remain open-minded, I came up with one positive and one negative response to this article. First, the positive item is that it is clear that Dewey was all about student-centered learning and this idea that students are sense-makers. This term "sense-makers" I've heard in Charles EDUC 511 class several times. It was actually today when we were talking about the four different knowledge in Bloom's Taxonomy, that students being sense makers is at the center of everything. So Dewey relates to this idea, and it's quite coincidental that all these thoughts formed today. On the other hand, this article claims to be about advances in educational technology because of Dewey's influence, but not one single piece of technology was referenced nor were there any explicit examples of technological instruction. Why the heck is this article called as such? Do we have to jump to our own inclusion that technology helps students because self, sense-learners? The articles title does not match it's purpose, and that was an homage to Dewey and his idea about guided inquiry and student centered learning.
Anthony, what a awesome post to read! I thought the same thing as you when Dewey brought God into his argument. I did not talk about it in my own post, but he also lost some credibility in my eyes when he brought up God. How can he bring the concept of God into the public school system? I was that it had to do with the time he wrote this essay and the population that was going to read it. Dewey grew up in a pretty turbulent time in the United States. During the Industrial Revolution, many people were quite religious and their religion was their number 1 identity. I think by attributing different aspects of a teacher to God, he was able to reach a larger population with his writings. From your post, I am assuming you would want God out of his essay for present day discussion, but if we do that, what comparisons are then made for teachers?
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping the perspective! Now I can totally see what his impetus was.
DeleteWhile I don't completely disagree with either of you, I do believe that religion is important in schools whether public or private. Religion is a part of every students identity. A student may identify as catholic where as other students may identify as agnostic. I believe that because religion can be or not be such a strong part of a student's identity that it is important to bring it into the classroom. Students need to be aware of different religions and what affects they have on peers because like it or not it is always there. Students will take time off for religious reasons or act differently do to their beliefs. So the best way to deal with these behaviors is to acknowledge them.
DeleteAnthony, thanks for your post! I realize that Dewey's espousal of Christian values may be confusing and difficult to rectify in the context of secularism and the public school system. I know it may be a stretch, but maybe look at his words in this way: a teacher’s true purpose is to usher a student forward into a higher order of thought or truth. What is a prophet? A prophet is a person who delivers newfound knowledge (truth) to people. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God or Heaven is the highest order of truth (knowledge). This is a complicated issue, but I think Dewey is so amazing. It’s hard for me to explain well. I hope you don’t dismiss him because of this particular issue though.
ReplyDeleteAh, I never thought of it that way! I was so narrow minded into thinking that his God references were way too spiritual. Thanks!
DeleteI really enjoyed your post! As a person who really enjoyed Dewey's creed it was nice to have the other perspective. I totally understand why the God comments might turn someone off, but I saw it more as Dewey explaining to us the gravity of our profession. To me, Dewey sees education as a social and community driven process, so as teachers we're basically the main cog in the education machine because we're teaching our students how to be part of the community. Like Grace and Stephen said, I think he included God as more of a sign of the times, but his true meaning was that we hold one of the most important jobs within a community. I won't lie, it was a bit of an ego trip! :-)
ReplyDeleteAnthony, you make a more than fair criticism of the second article and the attempt by the authors to posit that Dewey was a kind of intellectual father to a movement that literally happened decades after his passing. It's an odd argument in some respects, but I took it to mean that Dewey's vision of what teaching and learning should be was very harmonious with the vision held by many to be represented by some of collaborative technologies that have emerged in recent years. In a sense, the argument might go, some of these new technologies have made it more possible for teachers to be able to teach in ways that mesh with Dewey's vision of what teachers should seek to do. Between this intellectual jump, and Dewey's references to God (keep in mind that the figurative and literal separation of "church and state" with regard to education was slow to come, and was still very much underway when Dewey spoke), you were givcen quite a wild ride. Thanks for hanging with it...
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