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John Dewey educator Dewey believed that students should involve themselves in activities that stimulate their interest, and which create a desire to learn within them; these ideas later became known as the Progressive Education Theory. Some of the activities that Dewey embraced as productive exercises were folding, cutting, pricking, measuring, molding, modeling, pattern-making, heating and cooling, and the operations characteristic of such tools as the hammer, saw, file, etc. Outdoor exercises, gardening, cooking, sewing, printing, book-binding, weaving, painting, drawing, singing, dramatization, story-telling, reading and writing are all believed to be socially based activities that stimulate the students need to learn. Dewey emphasized that it is the teachers responsibility to ensure that the students learn the importance of such activities listed above and not just the manual skills and technical efficiency needed to complete a given task. He also felt that students who involved themselves in these activities should be responsible to define their own limitations because the results of a student involved in an activity that is too complex is not as important as the standards that the student begins to develop about his / her current abilities. Dewey thought that Americas public education system was not good enough.
The goals of the American education system were all related together to get a person ready for the real world. These goals, which Dewey thought were not good enough, ranged from school to school. Why should adolescents even go to school then, if they are not learning anything? They think that since one thing wont be useful then it all probably wont help them succeed in the real world. Dewey believes that adolescents just go to high school because that is what their parents did and their grandparents did.
This is a great statement because many students dont know that they are not required to go to high school. You can do what ever you want to do, whether it be getting a job or being a bum on the city streets. Most kids just keep on going to school because their parents tell them to. Dewey also suggests that the purpose of going to school is to pick things up, in an organized and predictable way, the faster the better. He also goes on to say that school is sensitively accommodating, as long as students are punctual, where they are supposed to be, and minimally dutiful about picking things up from the clutch of courses in which they enroll. Dewey is trying to say that the objectives of high school are teaching students how to go to class on time.
That is one thing that comes naturally with going to school but I dont think it is one of the main points that high schools are trying to get across, but merely a step towards setting a firm foundation to getting ready for the real world. Dewey believes that time management especially needs to have a strong emphasis put on it. That alone is what the real world revolves around. For example, you cant be late for a job, or not turn in work or you will get fired, that is just the way life is. Professors should teach students about themselves, so they will know how to manage themselves out in the real world.
They need to know how to have a healthy relationship with all of those around, whether it is a fellow student, co-workers, boss or manager, teacher, pupil or your friends. So why do so many kids end up not learning a lot in high school? It all goes back to how hard they tried. This brings about a good point; it is all up to the parents to keep their kids involved in school. That is why a lot of kids drop out of school or just dont care about school because their parents could care less. Parents are in charge of their kids and from personal experiences; they really can have control of what can and what cant be done.
Dewey's contributions to the development of the educational system and various ideas and thoughts on how to improve that system far outweigh those of other theorists. After all, Dewey was much more optimistic about the education system, probably that is why his theories sound more interesting and more promising.
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Research essay sample on Real World Education System
