Hi everyone,
I am attaching an additional article to go along with the readings and will also send it by email:
http://aands.virginia.edu/x6397.xml
Some questions to consider:
1. Dewey discusses nature, social efficiency, and culture as aims of education. Each of these aims holds relevance for education, however do you feel that a particular one of these aims is most applicable to today's classroom?
2. In the Social Efficiency section Dewey asserts that one of the "most educative experiences of life" is for an individual to be able to earn a living for themselves and their family, and also points out one's ability to do this (or lack thereof) affects everyone around them. Taking this into consideration, do you think schools should put more emphasis on giving students real and usable skills that will enable them to earn a successful living once their formal education is over? Do schools also have a tendency to push certain individuals towards a particular path regardless of their innate abilities because of their perceived demographic?
3. In the attached article psychologist Angeline Lillard studied Montessori schools and found that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds did much better in these schools as compared to traditional schools. What factors might Dewey suggest play a part in this?
4. Can you recall an incident similar to the case study of the high school student intent on publishing a potentially harmful story in his school's literary magazine? Where do your rights of free speech end as a student?
5. Do you agree with John Stuart Mill (Strike Ch 3) that those "not legally competent" should not have the same rights and freedoms as adults and at times "must be protected against their own actions"? Where can you draw the line on this as it is evident that those at every age have vastly varying degrees of maturity?
Looking forward to discussing this on Wednesday!
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3 comments:
These are great questions! I'm looking forward to reading the article.
Thinking back on our discussion Wednesday, it makes total sense that students not be given total freedom of speech within a school setting. Not only do they not have the maturity, but it would make for total chaos. Can you imagine a school where students could wear whatever they wanted, say whatever they felt to teachers and fellow students, and do whatever they wanted in the classroom, all in the name of "freedom of expression?" In a high school like that, there'd be girls in bikinis, students cussing out their teachers, and people makin' babies in the lunch room. Bad idea. Teenagers don't deserve total freedom. Their brains aren't done developing.
Looking back on my notes that I took for this particular discussion I found something that I wrote down to be completely interesting: "Experience becomes experience if you can frame it as a story; the story is a reconstruction of the experience." After reading this I completely agree with what Dewey means here. As I think about all the experiences that I have encountered, I only really remember the ones that I can place into a story and usually have told others. With those experiences that I have yet to tell others, when I think about the experience I think of it as a story. Everyone has experiences but to me an experience is one that you can remember and relay the details about. These specific experiences are ones that you learn lessons from. I found that this Dewey piece is more applicable to what we are going to be doing not only for a career but in everyday life. Although Rousseau at times was wrong in his acquisitions, he is a good parallel to Dewey.
On to Strike! I agree with Julie in that students should not be given full freedom of speech in an educational setting. A lot of times people do things intentionally to hurt other people and I think that this is what the child was doing in the first case study. I understand that the teacher wants to encourage expression but there has to be boundaries set so students can work around those boundaries but yet write what they want. One thing that I found quite interesting was on page 41 when Mill's states: "to censor an idea is to deny people the opportunity to consider it, to test their own views against it, and thus, to learn." I agree with this statement but there is a difference between publishing the idea and talking about it. I think that if the child was given the opportunity to share his thoughts about why he wrote it, it may change his decision to want to publish the piece. The last thing that I would like to add can be found on page 47: "Competence is a prerequisite of responsible choice." I also agree with this because if you are not competent then the chances of you making the right decision no matter the situation is very small. You must have competence in order to be the best you can be.
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