The John Dewey Society will be celebrating the Centennial of the
publication of John Dewey’s magisterial Democracy and Education in
Washington DC, at the historic Thurgood Marshall Center - in the same
rooms in which Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues developed the
legal strategies to end school segregation culminating with Brown v.
Board.
We want every one interested in advancing democratic education to
participate. The meeting will be free and open to the public, and will
take place immediately prior to the annual meeting of the John Dewey
Society and the American Educational Research Association. But space
is limited: reserve your spot today! (See below for how to reserve
your spot!)
Why Celebrate the Centennial of Democracy and Education?
Democracy and Education is the most important book on education in
American history, and is the bible of democratic education worldwide.
Democracy and Education has been translated into more languages than
any book in history - except the Holy Bible. It is cited more
frequently each year that all other classics of American educational
studies - those by G. Stanley Hall, Alfred Binet, Edward Thorndike and
others - combined!
Democracy and Education has inspired innovations and experiments in
democratic education - in public schools and private experimental
schools - in the United States and throughout the world - for one
hundred years.
Democracy and Education is more relevant today than ever. We need to
come together to celebrate its centennial, and to renew our commitment
to democratic education. Please join us!
Democracy and Education Today
Despite the efforts of thousands of dedicated educators and parents,
schools in the United States today are suffering under the domination
of top-down standardized education: compulsory curriculum standards,
pre-determined learning objectives, and high stakes standardized
tests.
This standardization regime is sold as ‘preparing all learners for the
global economy.’ In fact, it traps young people in a rat race for high
test scores and endless competition for slots in colleges with the
highest rejection rates and the best ‘payoffs.’ Children from elite
families win; the rest struggle to survive.
The standardization regime compels teachers to abandon their hard-won
practical knowledge, ignore the strengths of individual learners, and
teach for the tests; It compels learners to give up their own passions
and goals to conform to a system where their own interests and aims
count for nothing.
Instead of ‘no child left behind,’ this regime should be called ‘no
child left alive,’ as it has a deadening effect hostile to individual
passions and group aspirations. Instead of moving ahead - growing -
young people are all too often trapped in isolation, boredom,
frustration, and rigged competition.
The message of Democracy and Education - its challenge to the
standardization regime - needs to be re-stated, critically digested,
re-interpreted for today’s educational situation, and disseminated for
today’s teachers, parents and young people. It’s core message is
clear:
• that education of young people is not preparation for adult life but
life itself,
• that the only aims worth pursuing in education are the aims of the
learners themselves, as individuals and as members of groups,
• that teaching consists primarily in structuring learning
environments that engage learners in pursuing their aims - alone or in
cooperative groups,
• that school lessons, however necessary to convey abstract and
general relations, are a peripheral, and often dangerously overused
component of schooling,
• that democracy is built through cooperation and communication across
racial, ethnic, gender, class, religious, political and philosophical
differences as learners work together to achieve practical aims.
Why Participate in the Centennial Event?
Through presentations and workshops, the Democracy and Education
Centennial in Washington on April 7-8 2016 will offer you a chance to
renew your appreciation of this great work, to think through its
message for today, and to renew your commitment to democratic
education. We will soon be finalizing our selection of speakers and
workshop presenters, and you will hear exciting information about them
in the months ahead. Meanwhile, all of your suggestions are welcome.
Please mark your calendar and join us in Washington on April 7-8, 2016.
To reserve a spot, simply send an email to Kyle Greenwalt, JDS
Secretary-Treasurer, at greenwlt@msu.edu and put the term ‘reserve’
(without the quotes) in the subject line.
(Please, two maximum per one request email. You can reserve for
yourself and a colleague in one email by providing the name and email
address of yourself and your colleague. But if you want to assure more
reservations, please promote the meeting to others and make sure that
they send emails to reserve their spaces.)
Requesting a space indicates that you have placed the centennial event
on your calendar and plan to attend. We want to assure a lively and
enthusiastic participation, but space is limited.
Thanks very much,
Leonard J. Waks
President, John Dewey Society
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