Dewey, Teetchum & Howe

John Dewey did for education what Einstein did for science. If you do much research into the theories and frameworks of education you are bound to sooner or later run into John Dewey's work. He redefined the terms people used to think about education and likely set the tone for the next century of educational reform. recently I had to consider what his views might be on an ongoing project of mine. As I described earlier on this blog, I have been working on creating a website for a specialized program at an area highschool. I have been struggling to determine what educational value this website can add to their experience that they don't get out of the classroom. Thankfully I have the writings of John Dewey to consult. He describes the purpose of schooling as two fold. First, we want to provide the students with knowledge and training they can use in their life, obviously. Second, educators try to socialize students so they can be prepared to deal with the expectations and demands of society as a whole. I had the oppurtunity to view the students for whom this website is intended at their school. What I took away is that like most teenagers, they prefer not to be exposed to society as a whole, but rather to select a small group of their peers with whom they spend most of their time. Now I am not certain that there is anything we can do to end this practice in general. Within this website though, I believe I can do something to improve the socialization process. John Dewey says that school, shouldn't be more demanding on students than the outside world. I feel that these artificial social barriers created by students do add unneeded complications. Worse still the Internet is used all too often as a device to limit our exposure to the outside world to those things with which we already agree. So I am trying to think of ways that this website will break down the cliques and allow students to experience the full social experience their school experience should allow. Once again I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress and welcome any recommendations in the comment area.