Week 1A Blog
Reflection on My Pedagogic Creed by John Dewey
I found this creed to be fascinating. Dewey seemed very
forthright and far-reaching in his thoughts about the ‘perfect’ educational
setting. Being that the creed was published in 1897, It took me a few moments
to orient myself on the meaning of the terminology he used. He spoke of race,
which at the time would not indicate genetic groups rather it would encompass
the ‘human race’. Dewey spoke of social situations and status, and, as he was
an American, it seems unlikely he was speaking solely about nobility class structures,
but, I believe, would also be including economic classes, and the ability of
one born in any of the ‘social situations’ to rise, or sink, according to their
educational efforts. I think the greatest takeaway, for me, was the idea present
in Article Two, where Dewey says (Dewey, 1897), “I believe that…school life
should grow gradually out of home life”, that “[The school should] deepen and
extend [the students] sense of the values bound up in his home life.” This
indicates that even though there is great emphasis placed on social reform throughout
the creed, it is to be taken as a way to guide the student through critical
thought and provide the student with the tools and resources to build upon the
values being taught in the home. The school being used as a support for the
things taught at home.
Dewey, John (1897,
January). My pedagogic creed. School Journal, 54, pp. 77-80. Retrieved from http://dewey.pragmatism.org/creed.htm
I also found the creed to be fascinating and far-reaching. Dewey's creed focuses more explicitly on the education of the child, but I was impressed with how relevant the creed was to the education of all people. The emphasis on school being an extension of the home is interesting as I don't know if teachers generally think about education in this way now, though I appreciate how you relate it to teaching students to think critically. Although he uses terminology with different applications than their current use, I do think his relevance to the state of education today was impressive. I also believe that he was talking about the education of students from different economic classes, which we all know is an important topic within education today and throughout history.
ReplyDelete-Shanna Sanders
When I first read the article date I was surprised. I was more surprised by the beliefs Dewey presented throughout the article. His thoughts on education are relevant to our current educational structure.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the article, I also found myself thinking of the social statuses of people during this time and even today. The thought that school should be building upon what is being taught at home made an impact on me. When I read this, I thought how fortunate some children/students are and how unfortunate others are. I can imagine this is even more present in our current state as many children are doing e-learning from home. If home is where they learn the foundations and school builds upon these teachings, what is the impact on the child if they are not learning the foundations at home?
Hi Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that John Dewey's pedagogic creed is fascinating and timeless. Ideas he mentioned can be relevant in our current societies. Understanding students' conditions, values at home and based on that personalizing their learning is vital. Before I read Dewey's works, I'd known that at some schools teacher's practice visiting students' homes and spend time there with thier families. This way they learn more about child's family, traditions, values, thier learning conditions at home. Now I can make connections to what Dewey said two centuries ago. However, this is not easily possible when classes have 30-40 students.
This is Dilnoza.
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