Historical Field of Education

​Both Bobbitt and Dewey’s articles spoke of what they believed education should look like.  Bobbitt sought to define curriculum objectives in terms of social shortcomings, whereas, Dewey viewed education as the social processes an individual must undertake, and the school as the social institution in which these experiences could be had.  Both of these articles were written in a very similar time, Bobbitt’s in 1918 and Dewey’s in 1929, however their ideas were different.  Even though they had differing views, one thing that stood out to me is the fact that both Bobbitt and Dewey spoke very confidently in their beliefs.  With multiple viewpoints on education, how do we know whose ideas are the ‘right’ ones to follow?  Early in my teaching career I believed that there was a single educational model which was superior to all other models, but now I realize that there is value to having multiple models for students to choose from, such as: public schools, Montessori schools, Outdoors schools, Waldorf schools, and more.  Although there are such choices, in order for a student to move on to a post-secondary school, a student must graduate from a high school which follows the government mandated curriculum.  This is where I feel the system needs to change.  Perhaps as Cochran-Smith and Lytle mention in their book ‘Inquiry as a Stance’, the issue needs to be addressed starting at the University level, because as it stands our current model of High School is a set of hoops that students need to jump through in order to get into post-secondary schools.  So my question is how can our education system offer a variety of educational choices, such as Independent Schools, yet still ensure that students are able to attend post-secondary schools?

Dewey, John.  "My Pedagogic Creed," Journal of the National Education Association, Vol. 18, No. 9, pp. 291-295, December 1929.

Bobbitt, Franklin. "Scientific Method in Curriculum-Making" Public Domain, Preferance and Chapter VI in Franklin Bobbitt, The Curriculum, Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1918.