Bird Droppings June 3, 2011
Understanding Education and Learning Part 1

Aldus Huxley published a book in 1932, Content and Pretexts, that did not provide the income he had intended but did provide me with a point to start this days writing. In his book Huxley stated that:

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”

As I read this simple line by Huxley I could not help but recall my readings on John Dewey and his direct influence on educators and education past, present and future. Dewey saw education as the basis for society.

“I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This process begins unconsciously almost at birth and is continuing shaping the individuals powers saturating his consciousness forming his habits training his ideas, and arousing his feelings and emotions.” John Dewey, 1897, Pedagogic Creed

It was John Dewey’s background in psychology and philosophy that provided a firm footing for his thinking in education. Dewey was also considered one of, if not, the founder of the philosophical school of pragmatism along with James and Pierce. However as his views developed it was his belief in democracy and the individual that formed a solid framework for his educational views. For Dewey it is what an individual person brings with them, all the experiences from birth and he believed they directly influence one’s current and future experiences. The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education. All experiences good and bad, argued Dewey, impact on one’s future, for better or worse.

“For I am so confident of the potentialities of education when it is treated as intelligently directed development of the possibilities inherent in ordinary experience that I do not feel it necessary to criticize here the other route nor to advance arguments in favor of taking the route of experience.” John Dewey, 1938

For John Dewey all of the cumulative experiences of the individual either shut down or open up one’s access to possible future experiences. Dewey became the background and starting point for many of education’s thinkers and theorists. I envisioned as I developed this dropping today a river flowing and forming a delta as it approaches the sea of mankind. With numerous streams, creeks and springs all emanating from and branching out from the main river often intertwining and intermingling and yet all still flowing often many times almost in their own direction. I will be looking at three directions or streams in terms of education over the next few days. Constructivism which is often credited to in conception in Jean Piaget’s thinking, Art and Aesthetic Education which is centered in the views and thinking of Elliot Eisner and Thomas Barone, and the Foxfire Teaching Approach which began with Elliot Wigginton. Each of these educators, psychologists and thinkers were directly or indirectly influenced by John Dewey.
One of Dewey’s main contributions was his resolve and dedication to the individual that put him in direct contrast to the traditional educational thinking of the industrial revolution’s philosophy of education, simply turning out students from an assembly line curriculum. Dewey is also acknowledged to be the preeminent educational theorist of the twentieth century and leader of what was to become progressivism in the United States. For Dewey it was the interactions in education that provided the learning experiences.

“According to Dewey, a democracy is made up of people who participate in full and free interaction between various communities of people. These frequent changes in social habit involve readjustment, reorganization, and ultimately progress through the new situations produced as a result of wider relationships and intercourse.”
Charles Finnell-Gudwien, 2005,. A Democratic view of “No Child Left Behind” Education and Culture

The individual’s previous experiences were the key to Dewey’s thoughts and to the educational premises of progressivism.

”Dewey thought that modern industrial society had submerged individuality and sociality. Because of the confusion of modern society, he argued, the school should be an institution where the individual and social capabilities of children can be nurtured. The way to achieve this is through democratic living.” H. A. Ozman, 2005

Dewey was adamant about society and that we needed democratic interaction in the pursuit of education. Looking at this idea of a need for community within society Henry and Susan Giroux write extensively.

“Without a collective investment in the alleviation of the pain and suffering of its individual members, the individuals who make up society are made to understand that their burden is theirs alone to endure or not.” Henry and Susan Giroux, 2004

In a community strength is in the community, in the interactions and implications of said community. I mentioned the community of the Amish culture and how much could be accomplished as I wrote about barn raisings a few days back. Within a school this can become a powerful tool as well. This could be applied in any learning setting and jumping ahead in the Foxfire Approach towards teaching, community and interactions within are crucial to learning.

“From the beginning, learner choice, design, and revision infuses the work teachers and learners do together.” Core practice one from The Foxfire Approach to Teaching

Dewey’s Progressivism is about learning through and of experience. It is about learning by doing. It is an environment where each person has input and interaction. It is democratic.

“Finally we discover that Dewey and Freire share, as their ultimate object of hope, a similar vision of democracy. Both see democracy not so much as a particular constitutional arrangement but, as a way of life. It is a way of living that celebrates certain virtues, like cooperativeness, respectful dialogue with others, and critical self-reflection.” M. Fishman and M. Lucille, 2005, Looking to Dewey and Freire for hope in dark times, Educational Practice and Theory

Progressivism while desiring community and societal interaction, it is still of the utmost of the individual. Essentially the individual needs the community in order to define self. Noted

“Jung understood that self study occurs in a social context: as nobody can become aware of his individuality unless he is closely and responsibly related to his fellow beings, he is not withdrawing to an egoistic desert when he tries to find himself. He can only discover himself when he is deeply and unconditionally related to some, and generally related to a great many, with whom he has a chance to compare, and from whom he is able to discriminate himself“ William Pinar, 1994

We require others to get our bearings and to establish focal points of who we are. It takes the input of other people for community and democracy to truly work and to develop. The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education. It was this insistence on individuality and democracy that led John Dewey to develop further in his Pedagogic Creed, stating his believes on education.

“I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass.” John Dewey 1894

The concept of the individual child took psychology and education in new directions in its relationship to children. How children were viewed became the basis for several educators to develop their theories and ideas. Child psychology and child centered educational ideas flowed from these thinkers. Dewey reminded us that the goal of education is more education.

“To be well educated then is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure the learning never ends.” Alfie Kohn, 2004

Kohn refers to Dewey and to his idea of providing for a lifetime of learning. In his book What does it Mean to be well educated?, Kohn points out, “many classroom teachers asked to specify their long term goals for students, instantly responded with the phrase Life long learners.” So I am sitting here pondering another day and wondering d we really wish to make life long learners or simply to accomplish the task given by the school board in terms of the subject taught. So today I end with this to ponder and will continue further tomorrow but for now please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird