Notes on Dewey, Marx, and Professor Morgan
Quotes I have found to be poignant in Dewey's Democracy and Education.
p5.
"Individuals do not even compose a social group because they all work for a common end. The parts of a machine work with a maximum of cooperativeness for a common result, but they do not form a community. If, however, they were all cognizant of the common end and all interested in it so that they regulated their specific activity in view of it, then they would form a community."
p6 (cooperative learning vs collaborative)
"It may fairly be said, therefore, that any social arrangement that remains vitally social, or vitally shared, is educative to those who participate in it. Only when it becomes cast in a mold and runs in a routine way does it lose its educative power."
p6 (on the need for collaborative learning)
"In final account, then, not only does social life demand teaching and learning for its own permanence, but the very process of living together educates."
Thought…
Society is defined by education, and not vice versa…especially if education is taken to mean both formal and informal modes of education. However, the goal of formal education is to help inform informal education when and where it happens.
Marx…The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
Me....The educators have only perpetuated the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.
I used to have a professor at UNI when I was there...David Morgan...what a swell guy. Anyway, he was a former member of the communist party, and offered the only marxism class in the philosophy department. I remember really vividly talking about Marx's theses on Freuebach...and David mentioning that whenever he got to the 11th one...chills would run down his spine.
I know what he means now.
The idea that teaching is not political, or is apolitical is naive and shameful. Everything is political. To not bring politics in it is as much as a political decision as to bring politics into it. Just like deciding to not decide is a decision as well.
So let's get on with it. Instead of a passive system of pedagogy, lets activate it.