I was very intrigued by what Dewey had to say. To me it felt like he was part of the MAC program in a sense. For one, Dewey was constantly bringing up the community in relation to the student in his My Pedagogic Creed. Dewey thought of school as part of the student's life in the community. He also thought that the student should in some ways be guided by the community. All of this talk of community fits in with what we have been learning in 649 about the framework of sustainability. This idea of the relating the student to the community also brings up the thought that education does not happen solely in school.
Dewey also wrote about how school life grows from home life. This relates to what we have been learning about in other classes in the sense that a student's parents involvement in their academic life is important. From what I gathered from Dewey, the home life of a student is basically the starting point of a child's educational process. Of course with time the educational system takes the bulk of a child's educational process, but it begins with the family and the importance of it is kept alive by the family. I say this because in our other classes we have learned of the importance of parent engagement in a student's academic career. If a parent is at home helping and encouraging their child's academic career the child will be better for it in most cases.
One final thing that stood out to me while I was reading Dewey was how he said that "school must represent present life." To me this brings up the thought that teachers have to find a way to present curriculum to students that will make it personally engaging. As a history teacher I can talk all day about a war, but I if do not show students how it is affecting them in the here and now it will most likely go over their head because it is not interesting.
Carl, first of all I just wanted to again compliment you on your blog name, "Macingmywaydowntown." No doubt the best blog name I have seen among the MACers. Anyway, I really enjoyed this post about Dewey, who I also have a lot of respect for. I found it interesting how you stated that it felt like he was a part of the MAC program. I sort of know what you mean because his ideas seem to directly relate to what we are talking about in our classes. However, to me, this begs the question: to what extent do current educators and policymakers agree with the ideas of Dewey? To me, his ideas still seem kind of radical compared to how a lot of schools teach, and that's kind of a scary thing to me. Anyways, great post and I'm glad reading Dewey will help inform your history teaching.
ReplyDeleteMr. Dixon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insightful post! I I completely agree with Mr. Sandy about the cleverness of your blog name. I feel as though you connected with Dewey on a number of levels. He certainly was radical for his time, and continues to be even to this day. I wonder how he would feel about the current state of education. I really liked that you connected your post to his ideas about how school must build off of home life. I feel as though far too much of our education system likes to separate school life from home life. I feel like that leaves many students at a disadvantage. There are many students who simply don't get that much in the way of home education, and who get through high school without many of the skills that other students do. What can we do to help to level the playing field?
Brotanks and snapbacks,
Elliot
Dewey's discussion on how "school must represent present life" also interested me. I believe that implementing culturally relevant information in the classroom is very important in being able to connect and relate to your students. I think it is almost necessary in order to engage with students effectively. It is interesting to me that Dewey developed this mentality well before topics such as sustainability and culturally diverse content was stressed within education. I look forward to seeing how much more of Dewey's philosophy becomes relevant as I advance into teaching.
ReplyDeleteBecky