Duff's reaction to Chapter 4 of Experience and Education

Dewey - Chapter 4 Social Control

Duff

A football field is 120 yards long and 53.33 yards wide.  The white lines on the perimeter control the game, you cannot play outside the lines.  The lines insure a fair and reasonable outcome.  You see football, like education is a game of rules.  Football, like education is a game of organized chaos played within the boundaries, within the rules.  The question Dewey addresses is not a need to dismantle rather it is a question of who is in control.  It is a question of how much freedom to innovate, to create should exist within the boundary.  

In football you have players (the learners), those pesky people who succeed or fail.  Players have little control over the game until the whistle blows.  Teachers, coaches (learning facilitators) are juxtaposed in their role.  The coaches have great influence until the whistle blows.  One question is;  ‘Once the door to the classroom closes and the learning begins who is or should be in control of the experience’.  Should there even be a classroom?  How would we play the game without boundaries insuring success for every child? 

On a football team offensive lineman are often the most intelligent, most creative and most deviant players on the field.  They are our children, our learners.  

Each week after the chaos ends a lineman is judged, rated based upon how he performed on every play.  His performance is measured; it is closely monitored.  The more successful he is the less control.  He is given freedom to innovate in his upcoming experience, the next game.  The weaker the learner's performance the more restraint he is under.  Experience builds upon experience as the lineman grows and performs. But, there is social control.

The coach is the gatekeeper of control, the teacher (the learning facilitator). The coach grades performance and decides upon the next experience.  It is his job to know his players.  He must know their personal needs, skill level, confidence, intelligence and motivation.  Thus data, a system of social control is critical to the coach putting the player in a position for success.  

A coach designs tasks, blocking assignments and suggests experiences that might lead to success in the next game.  But, when the whistle blows he is not on the field.  He guides but has little to no control.   

Success or failure, when the game begins is solely based upon preparation, the coach and players ability to link a continuity of experiences designed to hopefully guarantee success.   You cannot have a slow person blocking a fast person or a midget blocking a 300-pound defensive tackle.  Somehow adjustments, planning and preparation must be aligned to insure a positive outcome before the whistle blows. 

Linemen prepare, coaches coach and when the whistle blows the game is played in a box.  There is an anticipated outcome.  Habit, history, integrity and a referee influence the game.  There are rules that must be followed.  Progress must be measured and a score is kept.  Penalties are assessed.  All of this is designed to insure a reasonable end, to control the experience.  The referee’s job is to manage the chaos, to influence a fair outcome but not to dictate it.

In the end, the team that can link successful experience with successful experience wins.  Yet it must be realized that win or lose both teams learn, the players (leaners) learn, the coaches (learning facilitators / teachers) learn and referees (administrators) learn from the experience - good and bad.  The challenge, the gift is to build upon the learning. 

What does this football metaphor have to do with Dewey, Chapter 4 Social Control?  Dewey boils the question down to command and control.  Who or what is in charge of the system?  What does accountability look like?  What is the child’s (learners) role?  What is the government’s role?  What is the curriculum specialist’s role?  What is the teacher’s role?  How much social control does a learning facilitator (teacher / coach) need in framing experiences?  How much trust, freedom does the learning facilitator have? What is the end goal, how do you rate success and failure?  

The questions go on and on.  But, for the customizers, the freedom seekers, the progressives even Dewey believed there must be some form of social control, some system.  And for the traditionalists it is clear that the system we have does not suit Dewey’s idea of Experience and Education. The current state of affairs stifles learning; it does not build upon opportunity.  It is a system of command and control in the wrong place. 

How do you meld the two, progressive and traditionalist, striving to get past the either / or, to change thinking and in so doing develop the - And.   There in lies the challenge.