My Blog on Progressive Education...or not

[Jane Baker]

Hello all!
I created a blog to try to get at the meaning of Progressive Education. Any and all thoughts would be most appreciated! Help me not give up Blogging after three posts!
Jane

[Fred Bartels]

Progress toward what? :-)

[Laurie Bartels]

I started my teaching at a school founded in 1965 in Brooklyn Heights, NY, where the founding headmaster and many of the original faculty were running a phenomenal progressive school. Their philosophy fully informed my own ideas about what a school and teaching should be like. To this day, with great fondness I refer to the place as "an educational upstart".

For starters, the students do not receive grades. Anecdotal comments suffice. Back in the 1980s, this was an especially big deal, and I suspect it still is.

In 1938, even further back in time ;-), John Dewey, who was a major proponent of experiential education, wrote "Experience & Education". While many folks equate Dewey with being the father of progressive education, he altered his ideas somewhat after jumping into the swim.

As he wrote, "...think in terms of Education itself rather than in terms of some 'ism about education, even such an 'ism as 'progressivism.' For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an 'ism becomes so involved in reaction against other 'isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities."

Gee, aren't you glad you asked ;-)
Cheers, Laurie

[Jane Baker]

What a flippin idiot! I forgot to give the address. Hmmmm could this be why I have no comments? NAH!
it's janeblog.edublogs.org
Thanks y'all

[Jane Baker]

Gee Laurie, do you mind if I quote you quoting Dewey?

[Laurie Bartels]

Hi Jane,
Am heading over to read your blog :-) and sure, quote away. It would make Dewey proud (I imagine ;-)
Cheers, Laurie

[Josie Holford]

Hi Jane: I already posted this to your blog:
Here's a thought - a Hebrew proverb:
"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time."
I sometimes think the watchword of progressive educators is: "We're progressive, we don't change."
That's very unfair of course.
Trouble is - the word progressive has been drained of meaning over the decades. To say you are a progressive school gives everyone else the ability to define who you are because the meaning has become so fluid. And then there's the wonderful phrase "progressive tradition".
All but the very extreme traditional schools can be considered progressive by the standards of even a few years ago. And that tends to leave progressive educators high and dry in trying to define what they mean by the word and the practice. However, I do think there are defining characteristics and they have to do with a way of thinking and believing rather than a specific set of practices.

[Laurie Bartels]

Hi Josie,
I definitely agree with all of your comments, especially your last sentence.

Is anyone reading this discussion familiar with project based learning? In particular, this site: http://www.edvisions.coop/

The movie is worth watching as it provides a wonderful insight into a "progressive" form of education. Will be curious to hear what others think after viewing it.

Cheers on this snowy-turned hail day,
Laurie

[Josie Holford]

Sounds like you are enjoying a nice wintry mix. We've been having that too:sleet, hail. snow, patchy fog, freezing drizzle, rain, freezing rain, rain mixed with sleet, wind, sunny intervals and ice pellets. And now snow on snow. Makes any kind of progressing quite difficult.

- Yours in progressive weather chat, and thanks for the link. - J

[Jane Baker]

Hello Josie and Laurie and Fred,
Yes indeed the word progressive has lost a whole lot of it's meaning. It's sometimes hard to get past the connection with the auto insurance company...it sounds like the soup ProgressO...and as Fred pointed out, progressing towards what? It seems a new word is needed not a new definition? I'm off to view the video and will comment as soon as a little thought has formed in me little itty bitty brain.

[Josie Holford]

In terms of the "progressing towards what?" aspect: - clearly progressive educators were, and are, an idealistic bunch and that indicates direction based on trust and the expectation of growth and change.

However, a good starting point might be trusting that students can learn to use the tools of technology responsibly. i.e. if you give them pencils they won't necessarily use them to stab each other in the eye all the time. Or something like that.