John Dewey, educational reformer and philosopher, challenged the way children in the United States were taught, moving the focus from memorization to practical skills and active community participation. His Progressivism continues to influence students more than a half a century after his death.
John Dewey’s Background and Research
Born in Vermont in 1859, John Dewey attended the University of Vermont and Maryland’s John Hopkins University. A former high school teacher in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Dewey and his wife started the famous Laboratory School at the University of Chicago. Later, he joined the faculty at New York’s Columbia University. John Dewey wrote a variety of books and articles in the field of Philosophy and the Philosophy of Education.
He counted Jane Addams, the founder of American social work, among his friends. Dewey studied the educational systems of Japan, China, Mexico, Turkey and the Soviet Union. He was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other progressive organizations.
John Dewey’s Philosophy of Education or Progressivism
John Dewey’s philosophy of education was non-authoritarian and multi-faceted. He wanted to replace rote memorization with active participation, to utilize schools as forces for social and cultural change. Dewey believed that education should embody democracy and freedom. Dewey saw schools as active agents. Schools needed to assume a leadership role in social change by teaching students analytical skills to move society in a positive direction.
According to Informal Education Archives, Dewey’s first article of his pedagogic creed states, “I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.” In the Hyde Park area of Chicago, the Laboratory School taught practical skills to the children of new immigrants.
John Dewey’s philosophy was labeled “Progressivism.” From the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s, progressivism was the most widely upheld model of education in the United States. But it was not without its critics. Some complained it seemed hodge-podge, without a coherent body of knowledge, and that it placed individual happiness over intellectual development and placed Americans at a disadvantage internationally. The John Dewey Society has been in continuous existence since 1936. However, after World War II, Dewey’s ideas were challenged by Essentialist views of education.
John Dewey and the Modern Classroom
Dewey’s belief in the power of social interaction and democracy in the classroom still influences many contemporary educational approaches. Block education is used by many educators to provide time for group projects. Many educators see the Internet as a hopeful democratizing force. Terms such as “service-learning,” “community-based learning,” and a “curriculum of place” refer to programs that seek to involve students with their communities. According to Education Week, student activism is on the rise in high school campuses. John Dewey’s faith in the power of democracy in the classroom continues to inspire.
References
Dewey, J. My Pedagogic Creed
Dewey, J. Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone, 1938.
Gehring, J. “Students’ Voices Chime In to Improve Schools,” Education Week, Volume XIII, Number 36 (2004) p. 1, 12.
The John Dewey Society
Spartacus Educational: John Dewey
A version of this article was orginally published June 26, 2010 on Suite 101.com (Link)
