Clear & Unclear Windows…
After reading John Dewey’s My Pedagogic Creed…
It is clear to me that John Dewey’s ideologies are something every educator should be familiar with. It is clear that John Dewey had a hopeful and optimistic view of education. I think that when we are new teachers we should think about what our ‘idealistic’ view of education is and try to live by it. I also think that it is important to put our beliefs and dreams about education into writing, as John Dewey has done. We can revisit our own Pedagogic Creeds and reflect on changes we might make or ways in which we can improve our practices in order to meet our goals.
It is unclear to me if we should practice what John Dewey has written about incorporating home life into school: “the school life should grow gradually out of the home life; that it should take up and continue the activities with which the child is already familiar in the home” (Dewey, 1987). I think that nine times out of ten this may be appropriate, but there is the one time when it is inappropriate. We cannot always be sure that our students have a happy and healthy home life. If we are incorporating activities from home, we must be sure that they are beneficial to the student and his classmates of course. I feel that most students that I have had the pleasure of working with have had wonderful home lives. I think that it is very beneficial for these students to have parents and teachers working on similar goals and communicating often. There are a few students who benefit greatly from the school day, but whose parents are not communicative and do not cooperate with homework or goals. I would change Dewey’s phrase to say something more like: The school life should communicate and collaborate with the home life.
References
Dewey, J., (1987) My Pedagogic Creed. School Journal, 54, 77-80.
