After last class and tonight’s discussion, I agree that Dewey does make many good points and his suggestions could definitely be helpful to us as teachers. His point “we can be aware of consequences only because of previous experiences” (pg. 68) especially stood out to me. Everything that we have done in our pasts somehow affects our futures. For me personally, (relating this back to the vocational discussion a little) in high school, choosing to take part in the broadcasting program led me to want to go further with it, and I majored in it in college and obtained a degree in the field. After finding out that the market is very, very competitive especially since the market often moves “newbie’s” to small Podunk towns, extremely hard for fresh out of college kids to get into and not a very friendly, family oriented career, I decided that it wasn’t for me. (guess at 17 you don’t always think these things out in the long run huh?) These two experiences with broadcasting helped me figure out that it wasn’t for me. However, my experience with going to high school and college was good so I decided to go back to school to become a teacher and having previously worked so much with writing and reading, English Education became my major. So, my point here is that all of my experiences have nonetheless lead me to what I am currently doing and have had an affect on me on the way, just as Dewey has stressed. I know what can come of my going back to school, the consequences, I will be able to obtain another degree. This can also point to his ends and means comment, that every means leads to more means and more ends, as well as his memory of the past, observation of the present, and purpose for the future reference.
As for his thoughts on how schools and teachers need to be aware of their students’ past experiences and provide them with useful experiences for the future, I somewhat question. I don’t question the idea because I think that it would indeed be wonderful, but I question how it can possibly be done for so many different students in today’s society. I think it is almost impossible due to the popular answer given in class; there are so many social surroundings. I like the statement Dewey makes about school should be a place that it is ok to fail, not fail in a negative sense, but discover that it is ok not to get everything correct every time. Students should be able to learn from their mistakes and school should be a safe haven that allows for this. Learning should be a continuous process and reconstructing of experiences, but I must admit, I am scared of not being able to do this for all students. Is it really a possible solution or is it something that can only fully take place in a perfect world?
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3 comments:
Excellent post.
I have some Deweyan answers here, but am curious to see what others think before I talk too much again.
I think that there are certain aspects that can be generalized in relating to students' experiences. In my SPED class we are using a demographic chart in order to accommodate different needs. I think this a rational way to understand some of the life experiences of students.
That is a good question. I honestly don't think we'll be able to reach every single one of our students for any number of reasons. However from my experiences as a football coach and teacher's assistant, we can reach the majority of them as long as we are open-minded and willing to listen and understand our students' experiences. Relational understanding as well as belief in our own ability is the key to reaching the kids. It's unfortunate that we will most likely not reach every kid but I think someone else will reach those we can't reach. I can take solace in that fact.
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