Friere-Dewey Dialogue?
Last week we read and discussed Paolo Friere's "The Banking Concept of Education." Here is a small section of John Dewey's "My Pedagogic Creed" (part of next week's reading).
"I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be ]earned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative."
Imagine a conversation between Friere and Dewey. What points would they share; what would they dispute?
Have fun!
ProfC
"I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be ]earned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative."
Imagine a conversation between Friere and Dewey. What points would they share; what would they dispute?
Have fun!
ProfC
posted by wordperson at 3:10 PM
8 Comments:
"I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race." John Dewey states that at the beginning of his writing "My Pedagogic Creed". He believes that the educational process has two-sides, one is psychological and the other is sociological. He says that a child's education has to include both of those factors. A child needs a social life to grow and train. Also he talks about how a child's education needs to be existant in the life of his/her community. Education needs to involve experiences. Some of the things Dewey talks about does relate to what Friere says about the banking-concept of education. Dewey talks about how a child's education has to go beyond the classroom, which Friere says is whats wrong with the banking-concept of education."I beleive that under existing conditions far too much of the stimulus and control proceeds from the teacher, because of neglect of the idea of the school as a form of social life." Dewey says that and I agree completely. In schooling today, the teachers seem to have too much control and I feel it has an affect on the children and their learning if the whole time they are just sitting there listening to one teacher all day. There are other points Dewey makes that I agree with but I feel he took everything to a high level saying everything and anything dealing with education has to be part of a social life and meaning.
Dewey points out many different things about education, schooling ,subject matter of education, the nature method and the school and social process. Some of the important points he talks about In his theories of education is that “ the real education comes from within the child when put into an educational environment”. Being put in this environment forces them to somewhat figure out for themselves what everything they have done in the past means Wether it be language, emotions and ideas. It also shows when a child is put into a classroom or a learning situation it forces him to use his powers inside to adapt and learn, and he feels as though that is the way education is supposed to work. As Yankee said, he separates education into 2 parts psychological and sociologica.l Without one of these put to use in the classroom, bad things can occur in the learning process. “The psychological process being what the child knows, ans what he brings into the classroom”. It is the basis of the education .however, he claims it is not truly educative. It is the side of the child that doesn’t involve the teacher. Children need their psychological activities. The process can be haphazard and arbitrary”. (Dewey2). He brings up many points in schooling about bringing the outside in and making the school as more of a community. Showing kids that school is like real life. I feel this is a very understanding opinion. With schooling being this way it can help children be familiar with their surroundings and make them much more comfortable in their schools. This I feel can also help children to be more comfortable and have the want to learn. As Dewey said, it will help them with social aspects, and “show them the values of the home life(Dewey4). I agree with Yankee on teachers having too much control in the classroom kids start to not care and feel as though they will never be in control of their learning. Which is totally the opposite.
John Dewey’s “My Pedagogic Creed,” like most of our readings, is critical of the educational system. The first thing that struck me about the essay was that although it was published in 1897, many of the complaints Dewey voices with “contemporary” education are still unresolved more than a hundred years later. Why? It is not as though Dewey was some obscure educational theorist. He is standard reading for anyone even remotely associated with education.
Like Paulo Freire, Dewey repudiates the idea of a school as a place where “where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed” explaining that in this environment students are “thrown into a passive, receptive, or absorbing attitude.” But Dewey’s solutions for truly engaging a child seem to be much less radical than Freire’s. For instance, while condemning the use of abstract problems or “symbols” as being unable to truly capture interest, Dewey concedes that these symbols “have their place as tools for economizing effort.” And while he warns against placing too high a value on test scores, he also sees them as an tool to “reveal the place in which (the student) can be of the most service and where he can receive the most help.”
Dewey’s goal seems to be to create a school environment which students find applicable to their world (or the world as they know it). As Pacebaseball points out, “Being put in this environment forces them to somewhat figure out for themselves what everything they have done in the past means,” and clearly, Dewey’s desire is to concentrate on this connection between life and school, rather than ignore it.
John Dewy article “My pedagogic Creed is about education. It is about having children be more active in their education. “I believe that the only true education comes through the simulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself”. I can agree with it’s just like our daily life as adults we usually only learn from our experience. When someone becomes a new parent maybe they read up on parenting but even so this does not give them the answers they want. This only gives them ideas of what to expect.
The new parent will only learn her baby’s cry after she hears them from time to time. She will only understand when the baby is sick when she notices the baby’s behavior is different. At first new parents are insecure because all they know is what people have told them. They don’t understand what they are capable of until they are fully experience it hands on. Even though we are adults we still have to learn. I feel that hands on experience are the best it is the only way you know exactly what you are doing.
Just like everything else we have read in class, "My Pedagogic Creed" by John Dewey was just as critical of the educational system. Dewey says, "I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race." He believes that there are two sides to the educational process. One side being psychological and the other sociological. He says. "I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other." This means that education cannot occure with only one of these processes. The child learns from the individual and performs tasks appealing to themselves. Where as the social part deals with how the child learns in a social setting. I agree with the fact that teachers have to much control in the classroom. I feel that learing should involve all aspects of learning such as hands on activities, group work etc. These help children to learn different ways to learn something if one way isnt working. As shoutbamalama states, while condemning the use of abstract problems or “symbols” as being unable to truly capture interest, Dewey concedes that these symbols “have their place as tools for economizing effort.” I agree with this because Dewey says that these things should not be used or highly praised yet then he suggests the use of such tools/tests.
In John Dewey's writing "My Pedagogic Creed", he writes about how the education system should be used to help a child grow intellectually. Dewey points out that there are two sides to the educational process one being psychological and the other being sociological. These two sides have to work with each other, Dewey said “that the psychological and social sides are organically related and that the education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two”. Dewey made a point which seamed to make a lot of sense, how schools today fail by saying “it neglects the fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life”. When Dewey stated “ the real education comes from within the child when put into an educational environment” he was trying to show that it is the classroom where the child is just bringing out his own educational experiences. I think Dewey made his point but I don’t fully agree with him, I don’t believe that all education has to deal with social life.
After reading “My Pedagogic Creed” written by John Dewey I felt that he brought up some very interesting points. He feels that education needs to have both psychological and sociological aspects in order for a child to succeed. For he states “I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other." Before reading Dewey’s work I never really thought about psychological and sociological perspectives of education. However, after reviewing his ideas I have come to the conclusion that I agree with him because I feel that learning can not truly occur with only one of these methods in progress. For instance, I believe that growth can not occur without the use of personal experience. “Thus, I agree with Yankee22704 when he/she stated “In schooling today, the teachers seem to have too much control and I feel it has an affect on the children and their learning if the whole time they are just sitting there listening to one teacher…” In conclusion, John Dewey, Yankee22704 and I all agree that it would be best if a student played an active role in their own education.
John Dewey explains a ton of his thoughts on education. He talks about what education is, what the school is, the subject matter of education, the nature of method and the school and social progress. Dewey begins by saying that people start the process of education at birth. The process of education shapes peoples life from their habits to their ideas. he describes that education is not needed for future life but it happens to be a process of living. I agree with Dewey when he brings up the subgject matter of language. His belief on language really stood out to me because it was something I never really thought about before. Language truly is the device for communication and if we never had or learned language, history would be nonexistant, and sharing ideas would be impossible. Photo101 brought up an interesting concept about hands on experiences. With the babay and the parent the best way the parent ws going to learn about their baby was with hand on learning. I think hands on learning is a great way for people to get a full understanding of things, but it is not always the best way of learning as photo101 said. To grasp a concept full on i believe you need more than just one way of learning to undersatnd something fully.
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