Evidently these posts were seeded in part by psychologist Christoper
Green's (2005a) comment in a TIPS (Teaching in the Psychological
Sciences) post "Re: Piaget & Dewey: Down for the Count?" of 09 Sep
2005. Green wrote [bracketed by lines "GGGGGG. . . .d":
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Hake . . .[2005a] . . . wrote: "(2) Would anyone, care to comment on
Kieran Egan's (2004) opinion that both Dewey and Piaget:
(a) were 'wrong from the start', and
(b) heavily influenced by Herbert Spencer?"
I haven't read [Egan (2004)], so I don't know Egan's reasons for
saying so, but knowing what I currently do about Dewey [I just
finished making a documentary about the founding of the Chicago
functionalist school . . .[see "Prehistory of Functionalism DVD"
(Green 2005b)]. . ., my impression is that the progressivist
character of Dewey's approach to evolution came from his prior
Hegelian training at the hands of his Johns Hopkins PhD supervisor,
and later Michigan boss, George Sylvester Morris (There was an
excellent article about this in "History of Psychology" . . . [for
the reference see Green's 10-million hit "Classics in the History of
Psychology" <http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/>] . . . by Andrew Backe .
. .[2001]. . . a few years ago.). Moreover, I think one could argue
that Dewey's *social* progressivism (not to be confused with his
evolutionary progressivism) was a response *against* Spencer's . . .
[see Spencer (1860)] . . . rather dark vision of the implications of
evolutionary theory for social change, attempting to show that one
could accept evolution and not immediately draw Malthusian
conclusions from it.
Hake . . .[2005a] . . . wrote: "(3) If Dewey was and still is WRONG,
why is Dewey-like pedagogy so seemingly successful in introductory
physics education? . . .[I should have referenced Ansbacher (2002)
and Hake (2002)]"
Again, I haven't read the paper, but there is an enormous political
backlash underway right now against Dewey's educational theory by
neoconservatives (who recently listed "School and Society" among the
100 most dangerous books of the 20th century . . .[Green was probably
thinking of the HUMAN EVENTS Article: Ten Most Harmful Books of the
19th and 20th Centuries at
<http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591> that rated
Dewey's (1916) "Democracy and Education" as the fifth most harmful
book of the 19th and 20th centuries ]. . . So beware of the political
sources behind proclamations of this sort. What Dewey actually did,
in historical context, was to argue that centering school on tasks
like learning dead languages and rote memorization of arcane
grammatical rules were not the best things school could be doing in a
time when America -- Chicago in particular -- were in the midst of
ethnic and labor strife that was threatening to bring down the
country (recall, Grover Cleveland sent in HALF of the standing US
army to bring and end to the Pulman train boycott in Chicago in
1894). Instead, he argued, the school system should, first and
foremost, teach kids how to get along with each other by
cooperatively engaging in concrete, hands-on projects in which they
could jointly succeed
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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(a) Celinda Scott requested HUMAN EVENTS to send a copy of
that article to the Dewey-L list. The copy appears in Scott (2005a)
but the typography of the copy transmitted by HUMAN EVENTS to Dewey-L
is as eccentric as the HUMAN EVENTS article itself. I have therefore
placed a more readable copy of the article in the APPENDIX.
(b) Tim Collins (2005) in his Dewey-L post "Re: HUMAN EVENTS Article:
Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20 Centuries," wrote
[bracketed by lines "CCCCC. . .":
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Conservative intellectuals in the 21st century have anchored their
minds in an abyss of non-existent absolutes and claim to be fastened
to solid ground.
Pragmatists are anchored in experience - divergent, fuzzy,
multi-faceted and disputed though it may be.
While we have much to disagree about, there is no reason not to howl
in protest when snake oil salesmen are in town.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Are the 15 "conservative scholars and public policy leaders" who
rated Dewey's "Democracy and Education" as the fifth most harmful
book of the 19th and 20th centuries really "snake oil salesmen"?
In the APPENDIX under "The Judges," I have given Google generated
URL's for each of the fifteen that may yield some insight into their
orientations.
REFERENCES
Ansbacher, T. 2000. "An interview with John Dewey on science
education." The Physics Teacher 38(4): 224-227; freely online at
<http://www.scienceservs.com/id13.html> as a 1.3 MB pdf. A thoughtful
and well-researched treatment showing the consonance of Dewey's
educational ideas (as quoted straight from Dewey's own writings, not
from the accounts of sometimes confused Dewey interpreters) with the
thinking of most current science-education researchers. Ansbacher's
valuable web site is <http://www.scienceservs.com>.
Backe, A. 2001. "John Dewey and early Chicago functionalism," History
of Psychology 4: 323-340.
Egan, K. 1998. "The Educated Mind: How Cognitive Tools Shape Our
Understanding." University of Chicago Press. For Egan's homepage
presentation of the introduction and reviews see
<http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kegan/EdMind.html>. On the book cover Howard
Gardner wrote; "Kieran Egan has one of the most original,
penetrating, and capacious minds in education today. This book
provides the best introduction to his important body of work."
Egan, K. 2004. "Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our
progressivist inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean
Piaget." Yale University Press. For Egan's homepage presentation of
the introduction and reviews see
<http://www.educ.sfu.ca/kegan/wrongindex.html>. See also Egan (1998).
Green, C. 2005b. "Prehistory of Functionalism DVD," TIPS post of 13
Sep 2005 06:01:36-0700; online at
<http://www.mail-archive.com/tips%40acsun.frostburg.edu/msg14515.html>.
Green wrote: "The recent convention of the APA saw the launch of my
new video documentary, 'Toward A School of Their Own: The Prehistory
of the Functionalist School of Psychology.' It tracks the development
of American functionalism from the publication of Darwin's 'Origin of
Species,' through the discussions of the Cambridge (MA) 'Metaphysical
Club' and William James early writings, on to the rise and fall of G.
Stanley Hall's department at Johns Hopkins, and culminating with the
founding of the 'Chicago School' by John Dewey and James Rowland
Angell in the 1890s. It runs just over one hour in length."
Hake, R.R. 2002. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort,"
Ecology and Society 5(2): 28; online at
<http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol5/iss2/art28/>. Ecology and Society
(formerly Conservation Ecology) is a free online "peer-reviewed
journal of integrative science and fundamental policy research" with
about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.
Hake, R.R. 2005a. "Piaget & Dewey: Down for the Count?" online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509&L=pod&O=D&P=7030>. Post
of 8 Sep 2005 17:33:4-0700 to AERA-D, AERA-G, AERA-GSL, AERA-H,
AERA-I, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, AP-Physics, ASSESS, Biolab, Biopi-L,
Chemed-L, Dewey-L,
Dr-Ed, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Phys-L, Physhare, PhysLrnR, POD,
STLHE-L, TeachingEdPsych, and TIPS. See also Hake (2005b).
HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public
policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful
Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a
number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books
nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No.
1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc.
Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing.