Dewey,+School+and+Society

Dewey’s //The School and Society//

This was a lot to read, I know. It’s the price of a summer semester. Had this been a regular 16-week semester, we would have broken the text up and dealt with each section more specifically. Note that the first part of this page helps you as you read. The actual discussion guide for your initial response is listed at the bottom.

Here are some points to consider as you read (or following your reading of) the text:

Here are some key concepts that appear in this text. We won’t be able to address them all within the discussion, but it is important that you consider them as you work to understand Dewey’s ideas about school, society, and curriculum:
 * Ideas to “know” from this text**

· Occupations · Work (in schools) · Center of gravity (in relation to curriculum) · Fourfold interests of the child · Drawing out vs. pouring in ·  Imagination · Mind as a social achievement · Continuity within the curriculum · Correlation of curriculum · Reflective (vs. spontaneous) attention

Dewey was influenced by his times. Among the major influences, consider the possible role of the following in the formation of his ideas regarding school and society:
 * Things to consider**

· Herbartians · Industrialization · Charles Darwin’s work · Influence of child-study movement (Pestalozzi, etc.)

To fully understand what Dewey is saying, you need to be able to grasp what he identified as the ultimate aim of education. What was it?

Dewey tends to throw in “digs” toward others in the field that had a habit of either attaching him or falsely associating him with others (most often associating him with the more hard-core child-centered theorists). For example, in The School and Social Progress section he refers to knowledge being liquefied. This could very well be a response to the humanists of the time.

You will probably find a lot of great quotes as you read. I strongly encourage you to skim through the more terse text, highlight the quotes, and return to them to connect the dots. If you find quotes you particularly like (in this reading and elsewhere) feel free to include them on the following page"

Dewey Quotes

 * For your Discussion: **

This text offers a framework for Dewey’s image of curriculum – a framework we will see enacted in the Chicago Lab School as we read Tanner’s book later. While there is much to digest here, it is very important that you can identify the main points he makes. To that end, identify key elements regarding Dewey’s image of curriculum according to the following points:

· The aim of education The aim of education is to provide all students with experiences and opportunities to grow and challenge themselves as they become independent thinkers and doers in our society. In providing opportunities for this to transpire it is necessary for our educational system and leaders to work as one collaborative model in achieving success. Education is the backbone of our society and provides us with many open doors in learning from and competing against other countries such as Japan or England. In looking at Dewey's image of curriculum the aim of education is for the student to become an active learner. To be a participant in his/her own learning and to accept successes as well as failures but to know how to utilize both for alternative decisions in the future. If the aim is to be at point A and move to point Z it should be expected that there will dips and spikes and that "z" shouldn't be the stopping point, only the target.

· The relationship between school and society This is such a big topic. The relationship between school and society is one that has many hidden rules and agendas. As a school leader I would want my school and community to be a collaborative model in making decisions for the school and assisting our students. One that compliments each other and has a productive involvement with parents and business owners. Since I have been in education, which is over 20 years now, it is hard to not start believing that society and schools have very different viewpoints about their relationship. Schools feel unsupported, overburdened and unappreciated. Society believes that the schools are responsible for consistentcy in low performing test scores, high drop out rates, increased teenage pregnancies and most anything else that is a negative portrayal of failure. What a shame it is that schools and society are unable to recognize that we are one; that we are all responsible for our educational system. That if we worked as a team and advocated for appropriate policies and rulings we would have more Dewey schools.

·<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> The manner in which the nature of the student should influence the curriculum I believe that the student should be the influence of the curriculum in addition to other educators. In looking at curriculum coming from experiences our students have had limited exposure to different levels of experiences. Many of our students in Clayton County have never been to Stone Mountain or Six Flags or Turner Stadium. Their experiences will be limited but what they do have to offer should be a part of how we teach and present the curriculum. Engaging them in the lessons has to start somewhere and that is best accomplished by knowing what they know; being familiar with their families; and getting to know likes and dislikes. If a student knows his/her opinions and experiences are important they are more likely to participate and comprehend material being presented to them. Imagine how fun and exciting it would be to hear examples being used in the class that are ones you can relate too. The dialogue that this would potentially create is amazing and I think is part of what we are learning about Dewey.

·<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> The organization of the curriculum to honor the points above Organization of the curriculum is important. There are many concepts that build upon one another; that are linked by prior knowledge. Knowing this is important in understanding how children learn and process information. I believe that there are always exceptions to the rules but on an average it is important to have consistency in delivering new information to students. An example would be that students need to understand addition and subtraction before they multiply and divide. If I remember correctly though, in England students are not taught to associated a letter with a sound but are taught the sound and then the letter. This is opposite what we do in our schools but possibly follows what we do as parents when our children are young. We start with "da da" and "ma ma" as we begin to teach our children to make connections with their environment. This is what we should be doing as educators, making connections with what we want our students to accomplish; ways to make that happen; and input as to how to do this. Almost like a KWHL chart. We have the "K" represented as the student and what they already know. The "W" represents what society and schools want students to learn. The "H" represents the aim line, how will we teach our students and how will they learn. The "L" reprensents all three in what the student learned.

This response will take some thinking and writing before you submit your response. Try to make your response a coherent (ideally 2-3 paragraph) articulation of ideas after you’ve worked through them – not a spewing of what you think it might be.