The Influence of Deweys Philosophies in Modern Americas Education - Research Paper Example

The Influence of Dewey’s Philosophies in Modern America’s Education The Influence of Dewey’s Philosophies in Modern America’s Education Education Philosopher John Dewey was successful in building a practical child psychology that overcame the prevalent notion of the human mind is a substance. Dewey defines this practicality as any procedure adequately complicated to include the structure or organization of minor procedures that satisfy a particular outcome in such a manner as to preserve itself. These practically organized living procedures emerge naturally from and with other elements of nature. This philosophy was honored broadly all around the world particularly following Dewey’s death. The United States recognized Dewey among the most renowned philosophers. Future generations made Dewey’s philosophy commonplace the education sector. While several other institutions adopted Dewey’s experiential syllabus, Philosophies assisted in diverging these institutions away from the citation and routine memorization and towards debate and problem solving. However, Dewey’s others philosophies about democracy, government, and social progress were considered impractical. The following paper discusses and analyzes the influence of John Dewey’s philosophies on education in modern America and the dismissal of his other ideas about evolutionary democracy, government, social development. Aspects of Dewey’s Educational Philosophy in Modern American Education Dewey had the most considerable impact on contemporary American education. One aspect of the Dewey’s philosophy of education existence in modern American education is centeredness. Even though this strategy to teaching does not stand out radically today, Dewey’s philosophy of education has always been in conflict with the existing system of teaching (Jackson, 2012). A child-based strategy to teaching puts the stress of education on the needs and well-being of the child. Second, Dewey also supported an interdisciplinary syllabus. This syllabus centered on linking many subjects and enabled students to enter and exit classrooms independently as they search for and pursue their interests and build their particular paths for gaining and applying knowledge. The teacher’s role in such a syllabus would be to act as an enabler more than an instructor. Dewey argued that the teacher’s role was to detect the interests of students, watch the directions they pursue naturally, and afterwards, act as an individual who assists in building problem-solving skills (Gregory & Granger, 2012). This role is still practical contemporary American education. Third, a teacher ought to convey context material information while students learn in groups. Conventionally, the classroom has been arranged with the teacher in front and students seated in rows. This model of classroom arrangements is practical in today’s education system and has been commonplace for decades. A teacher normally conveys information to a class, who then acquire and repeat it in a type of a written exam. In contrast, Dewey’s philosophy involves students learning in groups that were exploring various concepts under the teaching material. In Dewey’s education system, one would observe multiple dialogs a lot of cooperation (Dewey, 1899). Although one might also observe a written exam, there may also be student assignments, slideshows, or other distinguished methods of assessment. Fourth, the integration of Darwinian concepts of evolution into Dewey’s philosophy of education facilitated its acceptance by education systems across the globe. Proclaiming ultimate good as a positive change, and acclaiming change similar to revolution, was the premise of Dewey’s philosophy of teaching. As a result, Dewey strengthens the concepts of relativism and positivism. These concepts deny the very absolution preached by religion, especially Christianity (Dyehouse, 2014). These aspects remain concrete in contemporary education in the United States. The religious heritage that was once very influential in Progressive education is practiced occasionally today. This deteriorating function is occurring through the omission of evolutionary teaching by Dewey’s philosophy. In turn, modern learning institutions teach students ways to become only better citizens and potential employees. The completion of trends in teaching under higher learning levels such as University or College is the fifth aspect of Dewey’s philosophy on education still practiced today. Vanguard educators activated by the desires of the middle-class democratic breakthrough often prompt this completion. This aspect was particularly clear in Dewey’s opinions on child education that centered on notions. Rousseau, Pestalozzi and Froebel in Western Europe and associated campaigners in the United States first presented these ideas (Oliverio, 2012). It is important to view this aspect of Dewey’s philosophy in a historical context. Teachers today emphasize that young learners are not often among the suppressed. However, students do comprise of one of the weakest, most reliant, and defenseless parts of a population. As a result, leaders who practice direct control over every generation of children have to assist them and prevent any negative effects of the education system on their lives. The aspect of sacrificing or failing to prioritize the rights of parents as citizens over fulfilling the physical, academic, and cultural needs of their children is another applicable aspect of Dewey’s education philosophy. Dewey contended that it was also the role of the education system as well to address these sentiments and attitudes (Ayers & Schubert, 2012). The government cannot hold many adults accountable for the transgressions they endure. Leaders have to understand that parents too have been molded by the community surrounding them and are motivated by its requirements. It is through parents that the emerging generation experiences the insufficiencies of their social tradition and the vices of their environs. Young students are often oblivious to the far-off social origins of their hardships and miseries. Young students direct their bitterness and emotions towards members of their direct surroundings. As a result, parents have to deal with these emotions and misunderstood perceptions of the sources of their hardships. The current learning curriculum is a combination of two factors. First, treating a child as a person with freedoms and titles and second, acknowledging the gap between an obsolete and social class-blurred academic establishment. The previous generation passed down this establishment, which create the urgent needs for a new one. Many of Dewey’s philosophies involved this combination of concerns. Dewey argued that the academic system had to be fixed comprehensively due to the then ongoing considerable transformations in American progress (Jackson, 2012). During Dewey’s time, children partook in domestic, societal, and productive activities that continuously facilitated skills for independence, discipline, leadership, and freethinking. The new mechanized, developed, and atomized conditions of the Progressive era dissuaded and inhibited these valuable features. These features had broken the average Progressive period household and deteriorated the effect of religion. Eight, the modern educational system no longer randomly develops. Instead, the current education system designs and implements teaching approaches and classroom models systematically. In addition, the models and approaches are evidence-based and do not entail unusually varied and poorly fixed components. The education system Dewey sought to change with his philosophies was fashioned and planned by different generations (Dewey, 1899). As a result, these learning curricula cater to different needs and even inconsistent social securities. The medieval era passed down the pinnacle of the education system to the Progressive era. This period of American history initially dedicated these models and approaches of teaching to serve aristocratic purposes and train an elite class of relate careers such as law and medicine. This trend is no longer the case in the early twenty-first century. The contemporary education system does not borrow from previous generations. Dewey’s philosophies were against the inheritance of obsolete classroom models and teaching strategies in a socially transforming or already transformed society. A range of specialized schools emerges along with Dewey’s formal grading of education. In addition, ordinary teachers’ training institutions mold and release teachers demanded by growing public education sector in modern America. Training institutions still produce capable artisans required for industrial work. This trend was still prevalent during the Progressive era, and Dewey believed it was time to reshape it and make it suitable for a new generation (Hildreth, 2009). Similarly, academic materials such as grammar schools of the 20th century are still applicable in modern language classes or institutions. The contemporary education system made several additions to this trend to further this aspect of Dewey’s education philosophy. Ten, modern learning curricula regularly apply Dewey’s unifying pattern typically realized by implementing the ideologies and practices of democracy. This application is ongoing in the contemporary education system in the United States. This impact of this application is evident in the fact that and institutions today are accessible freely from kindergarten through college. In addition, students continue the academic process while a teacher assists and leads them. Teachers train students to behave supportively by sharing and watching out for each other (Dewey, 1899). This aspect of Dewey’s education philosophy is in line with the innovative and well-adjusted doctrines of equality that represent the entire modern education system in the United States. This way, this aspect overcomes the contradiction between the education system of the previous generation and modern standards of living. Influences of Dewey’s Progressive period radiated from the then learning institutions and inspired and encouraged the development of a democratic mandate of a free and equal society. Analysis of Dewey’s Influence on Modern Curriculums Dewey’s philosophy laid out a vision for a new educational system meant to take over the roles and make up for the losses endured by the collapse of previous institutions (Oliverio, 2012). These institutions relied on an agricultural economy, household activity, the church, and the small town. In comparison, contemporary society is built on a capitalist economy that comprises of diverse sectors ranging from the trade of goods and services to financial products and employment rates. As a result, it is only right to adopt a philosophy that calls for the integration of an education system that suits a new generation with new needs and standards of living. Dewey argued that the government should turn schools into a social center able to partake in the daily practices of the community. In the process, schools would compensate partially for the deterioration of strict and stable ways of “social discipline,” as well as the “loss of reverence and the effect of authority” (Dewey, 1899). In effect, and students acquire from the school essential things that are absent in their personal lives and crucial for the stable development while living in a democratic society. Kindergartens today emphasize the manual training, science, art, and natural studies as much as literacy and arithmetic skills. Dewey’s educational philosophy gave priority to the teaching of the former skills over the latter ones. The challenges he raised concerning this precedence is the natural guidance of learning more theoretical and intellectual branches of knowledge. Dewey said activities entailing the energetic part of the child’s character initially occur during primary education (Dewey, 1899). Consequently, Dewey opposed the early specialization training of children during the Progressive period and their discrimination in public learning institutions. External influences determined such practices and not the personal needs or tendencies of the developing children. The demands of the modern American capitalist foundation are prevalent in the modern education system. However, similar to the leaders of Dewey’s time, the business minded of these demands do not make up any teaching strategies or classroom models employed today. The current education system in the United States objects to the inclusion of children into employment in the form of manual labor. The business aspect of education extends beyond the goal of accumulating tuition in the form of profits (Dyehouse, 2014). Unlike the Progressive period, it is illegal to specialize children in any form of manual labor. Such activity is treated as a threat to uniformity and the cause of a new separation into a social class of masters and slaves. Dewey said the education system ought to offer every child the opportunity to develop naturally and harmoniously (Dewey, 1899). Rather than attempting to divide learning institutions into different types, the education system should work towards restructuring the current schools into institutions that will offer all students a sincere respect for practical work. Today, there are no longer commercial types of schools that presume students are meant to be workers and liberal ones that presume students are meant to succeed in their futures. Restructuring of schools should also aim towards teaching them into establishments at for all students the capacity to strengthen service. Early childhood levels of education widely effect Dewey’s education philosophy the most today. This philosophy is mostly evident in kindergarten and preschool education in contemporary America. Dewey stretched the strategy from kindergarten age to grade and high school teaching (Jackson, 2012). Every grade should be child focused and not externally influenced. It is the responsibility of the teacher to uncover the real interests of the student if the importance and value of his or her life are to be considered and accomplish a full development. Every teacher should meet the needs of his or her growing students. The commercial aspect of modern education is not the deprivation of the natural joy of childhood usually observed in young students’ daily lives. As a result, adopting Dewey’s philosophy proves effective and promising for America’s Education system. Perhaps the reason for the considerable influence and persistence of Dewey’s education philosophy is the lack of a matching and equivalence ideology about the reorganization of the country’s education system. This philosophy is still supreme in the field of educational theory because other Progressive philosophies about teaching did not match Dewey’s ideas in terms of inspiration and reformism. Dewey’s philosophy birthed numerous changes in the conventional syllabus, methods of teaching, and patterns of school development (Hildreth, 2009). However, Dewey was not successful in altering the foundation or fundamental features of the education system, and surely not the social division stratification of the then Progressive, American community. This stratification is still evident today but tolerant of Dewey’s ideology about the importance of a new curriculum. Schools today still demand to see the benefits of exams created by a school administration and the results’ abilities to change a faulty situation and guarantee a promising future for all students. According to Dewey, schools should not allow children to explore their surroundings. This aspect of Dewey’s philosophy is not functional today as learning institutions encourage the exploration of the immediate surrounding by young students. Progressive school campaigners frequently misused Dewey’s philosophies about teaching for a democratic community. As a result, modern critics falsely accuse Dewey of destroying today’s learning institutions which “progressive education” (Dewey, 1899). United States never adopted Dewey’s philosophies for rebuilding American democracy. The same time, Dewey always thought about American democracy as a practical experiment that was not yet “played out” (Dewey). Conclusion When considered the father of modern education, John Dewey changed the way America thought about education and teaching through new education philosophies. During the Progressive era, Dewey’s ideas about the required the country’s education system received a lot of criticism from the then partisan government. Irrespective of these criticisms, Dewey’s did not have any critical rivals. At the turn of the first century, different and even conflicting philosophies about education constantly emerge. However, Dewey’s philosophy is widely accepted and engraved in the contemporary American education system. Institutions that have applied Dewey’s education ideology is have recorded improvements in the quality of their education. Lastly, Dewey’s education ideology focused on progress from both individuals and the society. References Ayers, W. C., & Schubert, W. H. (2012). John Dewey Lives: A Dialogue. Schools: Studies In Education, 9(1), 7-26. Dewey, J. (1899). The School and Society. Democracy and Education, 9. New York: Sidney Hook. Dyehouse, J. J. (2014). Education After Dewey. Education & Culture, 30(1), 107-111. Gregory, M. G., & Granger, D. (2012). Introduction: John Dewey on Philosophy and Childhood. Education & Culture, 28(2), 1-25. Hildreth, R. W. (2009). Reconstructing Dewey on Power. Political Theory December, 37(6), 780-807. Jackson, J. J. (2012). Reconstructing Dewey: Dialectics and Democratic Education. Education & Culture, 28(1), 62-77. Oliverio, S. S. (2012). Accomplishing Modernity: Deweys Inquiry, Childhood and Philosophy. Education & Culture, 28(2), 54-69. Read More