Educational Philosophy

"Education is life itself". -John Dewey

John Dewey is the philosopher that I would align my own views with. John Dewey was born in 1859 and died in 1952. During his time he was looked at as one of the greatest educational thinkers of the 20th century. He was born in Burlington, Vermont and stayed there until he graduated from the University of Vermont then he received his PH.D from John Hopkins University. Dewey started his career at the University of Michigan where he taught for just about ten years. From Michigan he became a chairman in the department of Philosophy for the University of Chicago. He was then elected president of the American Psychological Association and the American Philosophical Association. Dewey taught for over twenty years at the University of Chicago. Dewey supported many social issues a few of them being Woman's suffrage, Progressive education, Educators rights, Humanistic Movements and world peace. He wrote many articles and such on these matters. Some of the writings in education that Dewey wrote were called Education and Democracy,The Child and Curriculum, Schools of To- Morrow, Art and Education. Some of the shorter articles are The teacher and Society, Education and social order. Dewey helped moved forward the "progressive education movement" and developed the " Experimental education programs", such as "Outward Bound"

(Outward Bound is a non-profit educational organization that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through active learning expeditions that inspire character development, self-discovery and service both in and out of the classroom. Outward Bound delivers wilderness-based programs to participants across the country and focuses its outreach on underserved youth. Customized courses provide curricula developed for struggling teens, groups with specific health, social or educational needs and business and professional organizations. Expeditionary Learning Schools Outward Bound offers a whole school reform model to more than 150 elementary and secondary schools throughout the country./www.outwardbound.org

Dewey's Philosophy on Education:
John Dewey believed that learning was active and schooling unnecessarily long and restrictive. Children come to school to do tings and live in a community which will give them real life guided experiences that would help them learn how to adapted and become contributing memebers of society. Real-life taks or challenges is how children should learn.

If we look back to chapters 14 nd 16 both of these school settings are putting their students in real life settings and guiding them in the right direction . I believe that John Dewey was the reason why schools such as The Met or Summerhill could run the way they do. I feel that THe Met school would be more up Dewey's ally though. Becuase he also beleive that education needed some sort of guidence.


I align my view with Dewey because I agree with him that learning should be active and the school days are too long and boring. I think that if their were more hands-on activities in school then the days would not feel so long. I think six hours is good but it's the dragged out lessons that kids are tuning out before they even begin. I feel that the education system is out of date and all the testing is stressing kids out. If they had a more relaxed setting with more activities they might want to come to school. They should feel that they are part of the classroom, not just little robots repeating the information that is given to them. I would like to of met him.

http://dewey.pragmatism.org/

http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/