Our Class Discussion Over "Dewey on Education"

Today’s discussion over "Dewey on Education" really helped me to understand Dewey’s main idea. Although his essay did support relating classroom lessons to everyday life, I failed to take notice of Dewey’s thoughts on moral values and how morals are instilled upon a child. Dewey stated that moral values first come from the home and should be continued in school. Some of the students in class questioned whether all homes provide a child with good moral values. We discussed that while every home may not instill all important values, the community in which the child lives would also influence the child. We also concluded that all people have an idea of what is right or wrong, although each person may have different ideas of what is right and wrong. We looked deeper into Dewey’s thoughts on the purpose of schools and how it relates to moral values. Dewey believed that schools should "simplify existing social life" (23) by taking a small part of social life and simplifying it. Our example in class was the debate over saying the pledge of allegiance in the classroom. Through Dewey’s belief, students should discuss the issue in class in order to better understand society. During the time in which Dewey wrote about his thoughts on education, women began entering schools, along with many immigrants. While some educators believed that they needed to completely ‘reteach’ these students, Dewey felt that teachers should help build upon these students’ previous experiences. I strongly agree with all of Dewey’s ideas regarding education and will definitely remember them as I write my philosophy of education.