While Responding to the article “John Dewey and the Challenge of Progressive Education,” While reading through this article, I realized that many different trends in the world have a relation to the global network. While looking further into this topic and the issue of education, schools were organized; for example, the teachers taught how they were supposed to—not wanting to change the way they teach students. Also, another one is getting all the students involved in any activity there was. Dewey thought changing it up could be great for the new teachers and students in today’s world. Dewey stated, “there is a difference in the world whether the acquisition of information is treated as an end in itself or made an integral portion of training of thought. The assumption that information that has been accumulated apart from use in the recognition and solution of a problem may, later on, be, at will, freely employed by thought is quite false. The skill at the ready command of intelligence is the skill acquired with the aid of intelligence”. (Dewey, pg. 76). Dewey then went on to say that you need to have use of “acquired knowledge.” Dewey insists that we acquire full intelligence only in contexts where fluid intelligence is required and used” (Dewey. pg. 76). While looking at this article, Dewey wanted to change the schools’ way by looking deeper into social and environmental factors. Dewey never fulfilled his plan, and he came up with methods including “imposed no fundamental change in schools.” He thought this because teachers used “active learning”; most taught how they did before.
“The problem we face is more profound than confronting Dewey and the progressive-era reformers. The problem is that narrow economic concerns drive shared noneconomic educational values to the margins in today’s global economy. Schooling as a public enterprise advancing common goals is getting shoved aside by a neo-liberal regime seeking to privatize public education and impose corporation-operated charter schools emphasizing rote learning and standardized testing and vocational over civic aims.” (Dewey, pg. 80) Dewey stated at the end that most educators today demand equal access to higher technology opportunities. Therefore, teachers don’t have access to computers and technology like the students do in today’s world. Now teachers have to start planning and teaching around the new technology in this world.
I am always curious about teaching surrounding the new technology that seems to be advancing way faster than I can keep up! I know of several teachers who retired following the beginning of online teaching in spring 2020. I do agree that in-person, active learning has a unique experience of its own, which I never would have realized until this past year; but disagree with how in this article teachers were taught how they are “supposed to” teach. This was a great read!