Boom to Bust coal camps outside Morgantown, West Virginia contained a lot of starving families at the onset of the 1930's. They were so nutritionally ravaged that President Hoover dispatched Russian war relief teams to address the emergency. Once fed, they grew hungry for more. And so it was that John Dewey, Eleanor Roosevelt and the PEA recruited Elsie Ripley Clapp not to "reform" a school but to literally form one that spoke to people who were so far gone, they no longer believed in a place known as the USA.
This was an assignment for Educators, not for hucksters or empty-headed consultants. Standard cliches applied. The pedal had to hit the metal. Everyone had to fish or cut bait. Commonsense was imperative so, shell-game Common Core Curriculum cultists would want nothing to do with a project like this where competence and not a dumbo data point was the bottom line.
There were many dark moments for Elsie and her teachers, but even these were illuminated by one, very big idea.
The foundation of democracy is faith in the capacities of human nature; faith in human intelligence and in the power of pooled and cooperative experience. It is not the belief that these things are complete but that if given a show, they will grow and be able to generate progressively the knowledge and wisdom needed to guide collective action.
Democracy and Educational Administration by John Dewey 1937
No comments:
Post a Comment