Throughout
Dewey’s book Democracy and Education there
was one theme that stuck out to me, the integration of experiences and learning
in school. They go hand in hand; you need one to help further enrich the other.
When you integrate knowledge from life experiences and school, that’s when you
truly learn something. “When we experience something we act upon it, we do
something with it; then we suffer or undergo the consequences. We do something
to the thing and then it does something to us in return: such is the peculiar
combination” (Dewey, page 139). We see Paulo Freire’s ( author of Pedagogy of the oppressed) definition of experience
through his points “Divide and Rule” and “Unity of Liberation.” When the oppressed are “ruled” by the
oppressors, they don’t really have a mind of their own. They can’t incorporate
past experiences into what they are learning or their occupation because they
don’t have past experiences of their own (they’re consumed by the experiences
the oppressors give them). When they break free from this divide and rule
aspect, they become their own individual and begin to create their own
experiences.
At
a very young age you begin to observe actions or motions of those around you.
When you grow up, you then incorporate the actions and motions you once
observed throughout your life. “A child sees persons with whom he lives using
chairs, hats, tables, spades, saws, plows, horses, money in certain ways. If he
has any share at all in what they are doing, he is led thereby to use things in
the same way, or to use other things in a way which will fit in” (Dewey, page
32). These motions can be incorporated in the classroom. Pushing in your chair
would be an example. As a child you watch your family push in their chairs at
the dinner table. From experiencing this situation, you mimic it in the
classroom. According to Freire, you can also learn/mimic actions as an adult
through leadership classes. “As soon as they complete the course and return to
the community with resources to control the submerged and dominated
consciousness of their comrades, or they become strangers in their own
communities and their former leadership position is thus threatened” (Freire,
page 123). What these leaders learned in their leadership classes, they can use
to control their comrades back home. You can use the things you observe and
learn (your experiences) in the classroom and in real life. Reading is another
example of an experience you can incorporate in the classroom.
Before
a child even reaches kindergarten, they have been read to countless times. When
they first begin to read or have been learning how to read, reading may come
easier to them because they recognize a lot of sight words from listening to
their parents read to them. They are using this past experience and incorporating
it into their school learning. “The knowledge which comes first to persons, and
that remains most deeply ingrained, is knowledge of how to do; how to walk, talk, read, write, skate, ride a bicycle,
manage a machine, calculate, drive a horse, sell goods, manage people, and so
on indefinitely” (Dewey, page 154). One’s experiences are filled with how to do’s. Teachers can incorporate
them into lessons to further their students’ knowledge (for example, what we
talked about earlier in the paragraph; students recognizing sight words from
their parents reading to them). When students can use past experiences during a
lesson, they will retain more of the lesson. The more you incorporate past
experiences in class lessons, the more students will learn and take away from
school. It will help build them into the individual they are meant to be (when
uniting experiences with their learning). “But as he or she breaks this
‘adhesion’ and objectifies the reality from which he or she starts to emerge,
the person begins to integrate as a subject (an I) confronting an object
(reality). At this moment, sundering the false unity of the divided self, one
becomes a true individual” (Freire, page 154). You can’t create your own
experiences to incorporate in your learning or occupation until you become your
own person, step away from reality’s views and experiences and create your own.
“It is commonplace to say that
education should not cease when one leaves school. The point of the commonplace
is that the purpose of school education is to insure the continuance of
education by organizing the power that insure growth. The inclination to learn
from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in
the process of living is the finest product of schooling” (Dewey, page 51 in my
addition).
The things one learns from experiences and
school doesn’t have to end when you leave school. You can incorporate your past
experiences and school knowledge into your life after school as well, for
example in your job placement (occupation). “An occupation is a continuous
activity having a purpose. Education through
occupations consequently combines within itself more of the factors
conducive to learning than any other method. It calls instincts and habits into
play; it is a foe to passive receptivity” (Dewey, page 309). Our instincts and
habits (our past experiences and/or schooling) are brought into play in our
occupation. The habits I learned from my teachers growing up and through my
learning experience at college will show through my teaching styles when I
become a teacher. On the other hand Freire states, “If for a person to be in
the world of work is totally dependent, insecure, and permanently threatened-
if their work does not belong to them- the person cannot be fulfilled. Work
that is not free ceases to be a fulfilling pursuit and becomes an effective
means of dehumanization” (Freire, page 126). Workers who are dependent,
insecure and permanently threatened don’t have the chance to incorporate what
they have learned in the past to their occupation now, from this they aren’t
fulfilled. They aren’t getting as much out of work as they would incorporating
themselves into it. They are too busy being ruled by the oppressors, doing what
the oppressors want.
I
completely agree with Dewey’s main theme. When students incorporate their past
experiences in the classroom, it can be beneficial to their learning. When a
student can relate to what they learn, they usually remember it (they have it
ingrained in their memory) more and enjoy learning. When you integrate school
and life experiences, that’s when you truly learn something. From Freire’s
stand point, when the oppressed unite to gain liberation, that’s when they
truly start to learn. They become individuals, they get to create their own
experiences and use them when learning in their everyday lives (whether in
school, work, or in everyday life situations).
