I'm taking a Foundations of Education class this term so I thought I'd tackel this.

> Then came John Dewey and the Progressive Education movement, in the 1930's I believe. I consider the Dewey Decimal System to be an excellent tool; I couldn't find my way around the library without it. But I can't say I agree with his views on education. Now we've got "Whole Language" and "New Math". These supposedly new and improved learning techniques just don't hold a candle to time-honored methods. If Whole Language works, then why are our high schools graduating illiterate seniors?

Whole language means learning to form paragraphs rather than the deffinition of the titles of kennings and adjectives. I'm a college students, an English Lit major, I get A's and B's on my papers, but I have trouble with Ad-Lips because I'm not always sure what an adverb is. The basic fact is I don't need to know what an adverb is I just have to know how to use the words.

Wrong Dewey, John Dewey didn't create the Dewey decimal system.

And as for the supperiority of the three 'R's. Diffrent peopel learn in diffrent ways. When ever I've been in a 'traditional, shut up and memorize this list of random facts for the test' kind of class room I bomb. I do much better Progessive classes. The problem is most peopel didn't understand Progressive education. It isn't a rejection of standard education, but the way it is taught. Dewey said that mearly rebelling aginst the old system won't work. I suggest you read some of his stuff. "Experience and Education" is a little dull but he present is argument well. Traditional education is in preperation of life, of experience, Progressice education is education through life and experience.

Here is a quote from my Foundations of Education text book

"He [Dewey] rejected the old, rigid, subject-centered curriculum in favor of the child-centered curriculum in which learning came through experience, not rote memorization. Problem-solving method was the preferred approach, and motivation was at the center of the learning process. The goal of education was to promote individual growth and to prepare the child for full participation in our democratic society
Dewey maintained that the child should be viewed as a total organism and that education is most effective when it considers not only the intellectual but also the social, emotional, and physical needs of the child. He thought that education was a lifelong process and that the school should be an integral part of community life"

And since I'm on a roll

The Progressive Education Association's 7 guiding principles

1. The child should be given the freedom to develop naturally

2. Intrest provides the motivation for all work.

3. The teacher should be a guide in the learning process, not the task-master.

4. The scientific study of pupil development should be promoted by the refocusing of information to be included on school records.

5. Greater attention should be given to everything that affects the child's physical development.

6. The school and home should cooperate to meet the natural interests and activites of the child.

7. The Progressive School should be a leader in educational movements.

And one more note

"During the 1930's (1932-1940) the PEA conducted a study of almost 3,000 students from progressive and nonprogressive high schools regarding the schools' effectiveness in preparing graduates for college. The results of the study, The Eight Year Study, showed that students from the progressive high school not only achived higher than students from traditional high schools, but also were beter adjusted socially"


And the Progressive education system has been all but stripped out already, the Cold War did that.

again from my text bool

"In the end it was not its critics that killed progressuve education. It died because it was no longer relevent to the time. The great debate about American education continued until 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first space satellite. Then, in a nation suddenly concerned with intelligence and the need for increased science and mathematices skills, progressive education seemed out of step. By the time it disappeared in the mid-1950's it had strayed far from the "humane, pragmatic, open-minded" approach proposed by Dewey."

And on another note, the 'new math' came out of the reforms that came from the end of Progressiveism.

> There are SO many factors that have contributed to the decline of public education in the USA. Financial problems are only a fraction of the cause. I firmly believe that schools are never going to improve, no matter how much money gets pumped into the system, until a change is made in the way it operates. We need to get back to using learning techniques that work. Harumph.

Essentialism is part of what replaced Progressivism. It was your back to basics, no frills. You can see it being practiced today when school boards cut music and art from the curriculum.

> Gri"we plan to home-school"shny

Speed'plans to be on the PTA'ball