ECI 550

Shuhui Yao
09/13/2016 Assignment#1
What we knew in 1902?
What have we done since then?

Chapter 1:
1. According to John Dewey, whenever we have in mind the discussion of a new

movement in education, it is especially necessary to take the broader, or social view.

It reflects that Dewy claimed that education cannot be isolated from social view.

Based on the contexts in chapter 1, from Deweys opinion, the school can be seen as a

small-scale social community. Since the children can develop in such a real social

community-school, they can adapt to the real society as soon as possible.

2. Again, we cannot overlook the importance for educational purposes of the

close and intimate acquaintance got with nature at first hand, with real things and

materials, with the actual process of their manipulation, and the knowledge of their

social necessities and uses.

3. In critical moments we all realize that the only discipline that stands by us, the

only training that becomes intuition, is that got through life itself. That we learn from

experience, and from books or the saying s of others only as they are related to

experience, are not mere phrases.

As far as I have learnt, what John Dewey emphasized again and again is that

discipline should be connected with social life and experience. John Dewey also

mentioned the background at that time, the school has been set apart, so isolated from

ordinary conditions and motives of life. To be more detailed, I have learnt that the

United States was in a period of rapid industrialization at that time; however, the lack

of talents who can meet the requirements of developing industry challenged the

education. Instead of focusing on childrens interests and life experience, education at

that time teach students how to follow the teachers and textbooks. Thus, Dewey
hoped that the children can be released from meaningless textbooks and the education

should attach great importance to the connection of disciplines and social life.

Chapter 2:

4. According to John Dewey, now the change which is coming into our education

is the shifting of the center of gravity. For further explanation, he illustrated that it is a

change, a revolution, not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical

center shifted from the earth to the sun. In this case, the child becomes the sun about

which the appliances of education revolve; he is the center about which they are

organized.

In this chapter, Dewey attempted to explore the relationship between the school

and the childrens life in school. From his perspective, he considered that, compared

with the old and traditional school system, which placed emphases on the teacher, the

text-book instead of the immediate instincts and activities of the child himself, school

should focus on the development of the children. Children should be the center of

gravity in the school. I believe that, even today, this idea is still the truth for all of the

schools to keep in mind. Unfortunately, now, under the test-oriented education

system, a vast number of schools seem to focus on text scores rather than the

development of children. These schools have to change their center from the score to

the children themselves.

5. According to John Dewey, he proposed an idea that let us live with our

children. He related this idea with the statement that if we identify ourselves with the

real instincts and needs of childhood, and ask only after its fullest assertion and

growth, the discipline and information and culture of adult life shall all come in their

due season.
 My personal understanding of this idea is that teachers should treat the children

through the eyes of themselves. The reason why we need to identify ourselves with

the real instincts and needs of childhood is for better understanding the childrens.

Only the teachers know clearly about the childrens instincts and needs, appropriate

methods and strategies can be used to develop our children.

Chapter 3:

6. In this chapter, what leaves a deep impression on me is John Deweys claim

that, from the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his

inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free

way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily

life what he is learning at school. That is the isolation of the school-its isolation from

life.

Personally speaking, even today, this is a serious problem for a number of schools

to reflect. Numerous people reflect that what they have learnt in the school is isolated

from their work. In order to avoid the waste in education, the school have to make

efforts in bridging the gap between theories and practice.

7. According to John Dewey, there are two great things in breaking down

isolation, in getting connection - to have the child come to school with all the

experience he has got outside of school, and to leave it with something to be

immediately used in his everyday life.

Dewey still emphasized that the separation of in-school life and out-school life

should be eliminated. Without social experience outside of schools, students cannot

achieve social success only dependent on school theories and perspectives. According

to John Dewey, life in school have to help the children enhance their various abilities
based on their current life experience.

Chapter 4:

8. It is clear that the selection and grading of material in the course of study must

be done with reference to proper nutrition of the dominant directions of activity in an

given period, not with reference to chopped-up sections of a ready-made universe of

knowledge.

9. Hence the subject-matter for these years is selected from phases of life

entering into the childs own social surroundings, and, as far as may be, capable of

reproduction by him in something approaching social form-in play, games,

occupations, or miniature industrial arts, stories, pictorial imagination, and

conversation.

10. The aim, then, is not for the child to go to school as a place apart, but rather

in the school so to recapitulate typical phases of his experience outside of school, as to

enlarge, enrich, and gradually formulate it.

In this chapter, John Dewey talked about the psychology of elementary education.

Since it is a little bit hard for me to understand some of his ideas, I looked for some

information for better understanding. According the quotes above, I think Dewey tried

to demonstrate that the class and the subjects should involve childrens life experience

outside of the school. In other words, social context is worth being added into the

subjects. In addition, the school is not playing an isolated role in the society; on the

contrary, the school should play a leading role to enhance childrens knowledge and

enrich their life skills for childrens better adaptation of the society. Dewey also

suggested that it would be wise for schools to pay attention to the childrens social

surroundings. Learn more about the children from different aspects, more effective
strategies can be used to guide and develop our children; thus, the students would feel

like living in a real social community with practical experiences, which enlarge their

capacity to contribute to society.

Chapter 5:

11. The primary business of school is to train children in co-operative and

mutually helpful living; to foster in them the consciousness of mutual

interdependence; and to help them practically in making the adjustments that will

carry this spirit into overt deeds.

In my opinion, I think the first principle can actually describe what an ideal

school is doing. Even today, this principle also can be seen as one of the basic

principles that schools should keep in mind and take real and actual actions to

implement.

Chapter 8:

12. History must be presented, not as an accumulation of results or effects, a mere

statement of what happened, but as a forceful, acting thing. The motives-that is, the

motors-must stand out. To study history is not to amass information, but to use

information in constructing a vivid picture of how and why men did thus and so;

achieved their successes and came to their failures.

This quote reminds me of an old Chinese saying that history acts like a mirror,

which reflects prosperity and depression. Like Dewey said, the history can remind

each failure and also memorize each victory. Children have to consider, learn, and

understand history and gain motives and motors from history. Then, the experience

accumulated from history will lead them to a better future.

A Brief Conclusion:

After reading John Deweys The School and Society and the Child and the

Curriculum, I really appreciate Deweys attitudes towards the children, especially at

that time when most people pay more attention on teachers or text books rather than

the children themselves. It is of great importance to focus on the development of

children themselves. Another point I resonate is that theories cannot be separated from

practice and the schools have to make efforts to bridge the gap between them

effectively. This point of view is also emphasized in Chinese education. I still

remember an important sentence in our textbook is that practice is the sole criterion

for testing truth.