More on John Dewey...

I personally found the ideas of John Dewey to be interesting and to make a lot of sense. Future teachers could definitely gain something from Dewey’s ideas. He makes it clear that some of the ways of the past clearly aren’t working and instead of quick fixing the problems with ways of the past, we must learn from those older experiences and make a change; “every experience lives on in further experiences” (27). Like we mentioned in class, it is very difficult for teachers to do this so my question is how do we as teachers teach ourselves to change our ways or habits of doing things?

Old habits are hard to break and can you really teach an old dog new tricks? Maybe it is up to the future teachers to implement the ideas of Dewey, although they have been around for quite sometime haven’t they? Why haven’t we implemented more experimental learning in our classrooms? As a teacher, looking back on one’s own experiences could surely help your newer students; I think that making an effort to change what is not working is the big problem. Teachers often get into a rut of just teaching the same old thing from year to year, not even realizing what may or may not be working for his or her students. As Dewey states, “it is the business of the educator to see in what direction an experience is heading” (38). Teachers not only have the responsibility of teaching using experience, but deciphering what experiences are worth while as well.

If we as teachers can begin and continue to teach from experience, I think that our students would get more out of their education-and I think Dewey would agree, saying “the principle of continuity of experience means that every experience both takes up something and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after” (35).