Education: Then and Now

This week we also read the article Experience and Education by John Dewey. In this article, Dewey discusses traditional versus progressive education and proposes his ideal form of education. He identifies the true problem with traditional education and the problems that arise when trying to implement a progressive type of education. Dewey also addresses common misconceptions of both types of education. Dewey explains how practical matters cannot be fit into neat black or white boxes but must deal with compromise, just like the education system.

I would like to direct your attention to the passage in which Dewey discusses a student's experience in the traditional educational system:

"It is a great mistake to suppose, even tacitly, that the traditional schoolroom was not a place in which pupils had experiences. Yet this is tacitly assumed when progressive education as a plan of learning by experience is placed in sharp opposition to the old. The proper line of attack is that the experiences, which were had, by pupils and teachers alike, were largely of a wrong kind."

In other words, students in the traditional educational system did have experiences, contrary to what anti traditional educationists would have you think, but they were the wrong kinds of experiences. The experiences from traditional education systems killed a student's desire to learn and have more learning experiences. This is significant because education is dependent on experience, especially good experiences. Thus, the main issue with traditional education was its dealing with experiences.

I agree with the argument that traditional education fostered the wrong experiences. It is, indeed, the learning experiences that the traditional education forced onto youth that played a huge factor in the students associating learning with boring, useless, and long experiences. I am hesitant, however, to say that all the experiences the traditional educational system offered were bad. In fact, even seemingly boring, useless, and long experiences can be beneficial in teaching the students discipline, focus, and determination. If these “negative” experiences were left out of the educational curriculae, students would not have anything against which to compare the “positive” experiences and they would not have a well-rounded education.