The "Idea" of a New Education System---Duff Rearick

I am proud to include Duff's reaction to Chapter 6 of Experience and Education.  I particularly like the Duff's insight into the i"idea" of progressive education and implementation.

Dewey Chapter 6 --- The Meaning of Purpose

Duff

“… a slave executes the purpose of another.”

Plato

               Plato’s words have and continue to haunt education, school and its purpose. Why does our education system exist?  Is it as Dewey suggests to perpetuate our democracy?  Is it as an industrialist might suggest to fill the roles of an existing work force?  Is it to grow thinkers?  What is its purpose?

               Dewey in Chapter 6 targets the purpose, the why.   He contends that without knowing the why, the purpose of an endeavor we are simply slaves to someone else’s thinking. We in a sense give up learning for control.  We give up thinking for ease or comfort.  We accept being told what to do. We become institutionalized.

What is that the purpose of learning, of our education system?  Do we have the patience, planning discipline and courage to wait upon transformative shifts?  I wonder? 

               Dewey believes that purpose begins with an impulse, an idea, a desire, and a recognition that something should be done.  This impulse over time becomes a passion.   

Dewey writes that for an impulse to become a purpose, a true why it must filter through the consequences, the context in which it occurs.  To Dewey ever purpose is unique. 

The purpose is a function of intelligence, of thinking an art that takes time.  It is at the inter-section of desire, consequence and thought that we find the why, our purpose.

 Ideas move from an impulse to a purpose flowing through the organization arriving at the teacher and child. It is at this point that experiences can be tailored to build upon experiences and in time meet the purpose, the desired outcome, assuming one is defined.  To Dewey not defining the desired destination is a critical error.

               Dewey’s thoughts are logical, make sense and are a bit abstract.  The question becomes the how of implementation and the time for transformation.  How do you implement such an idea, a purpose and how long does it take if you are truly looking for transformation of thought, language and system?  For the answer we look to history.  Has anyone ever followed Dewey’s formula?

               In 1750 according to his writings Thomas Jefferson began thinking about western expansion of the then non-existent United States.  He had an impulse, an idea.  The idea was there, a passion indeed some suggest a myopic focus grew.  He studied everything possible about what lay west of the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River.  Jefferson dwelled on this passion for 52 years.

               By 1802 Jefferson was President, the impulse had been processed through the consequences of not acting.   He hired as his secretary a young army officer he had known for years, Merriweather Lewis.  This young man, Lewis was of character and great courage.  He had the tools to implement Jefferson’s idea.

               As Jefferson and Lewis dialoged in a variety of ways the idea was tested.  They put their purpose through the ringer of consequence; the context within which they lived.  The hurdles were daunting, the unknowns substantial.

In time this purpose became a transcontinental journey for discovery. They defined an outcome, a destination, to go from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and to safely return.

               By 1803 Lewis was deep into planning the how of implementing this purpose.  Indeed it appears that was his sole function.  He was remarkably through. 

Interestingly, Jefferson did not control the process.  Instead he set parameters, outcomes and coached Lewis.  It was his coaching that stood the trials of the two-year journey when Lewis and Clark were on their own.  Lewis needed all the coaching he could get as the journey progressed.

After 2 years of planning in 1804 the trip began.  The plan was through.  As all plans go it needed to be adjusted before ever getting to the Missouri River, their start point.  The end result of the Journey of Discovery is now history   But, without the impulse in 1750, driven by amazing patience, selecting the right person, guiding by coaching, following an extensive plan and being flexible as unknowns appeared  the United States might still be clinging to the Atlantic Ocean.  Jefferson and Lewis transformed the world.

What does this history lesson have to do with Dewey?   Simply it took 56 years from impulse to transformation.  It took time, patience, a persistent drive and courage.

There is today a re-birth of a dormant idea, that of progressive education.  The idea shifts education to a learning process tailored to a child’s experience.  A learning process focused on experiences leading to experiences ending at a defined outcome.  Dewey wrote of this idea in 1938.  So, why have schools, the education system not transformed if his ideas are sound?

The answer is simple, the idea is clear it is the implementation that is complex.  In education we have an impulse an idea.  This leads to energy that drives us to act before we have clearly defined our contextual purpose.  We move forward without sufficient planning.  We move forward without the patience.  We wonder why nothing happens, why the system remains as it is.

Transformative ideas start with an impulse whether in the system or the classroom with the teacher.  These impulses become ideas and grow into a passionate purpose.  Idea people, teachers and leaders briefly transform learning for their children. Then an obstacle appears and the idea goes dormant.  This is when, just like Lewis and Clark as you traverse the unknown with flexibility, discipline and patience.

Dewey is right.  His ideas in 1938 ring true today. The question is do we have the courage to create the passion, to plan, the discipline and the patience to wait upon the transformation?