Discussion Outline for Progressivism
1. Do you agree that since we have all had a different set of life experiences, that our conceptions of reality differ to some extent? Or do we share enough life experiences because of a common culture that we tend to view reality in the same way? Consider this: Does the phenomenon of “faith healing” have any basis in reality?
2. Do you agree with pragmatists that there are no absolute truths—that all truth is relative to the perceiver and the circumstances of a given time and place? If not, can you cite an example of an absolute, eternal “truth”?
3. Do you agree with the “situational ethics” of the pragmatist? Do you feel that human experience ultimately determines what is right or wrong? For example, human experience has shown that incest often leads to birth defects in the offspring of such unions. Is this why society condemns incest?
4. Do you agree with pragmatists that beauty is determined by whatever a consensus of the public says it is?
5. Do you agree with Dewey that education in its broadest sense is life and that education is its own end or purpose? Do we then learn just for the sake of knowing and growing intellectually? Do you feel that education must be a lifelong process in order to keep up with the constant change in our society?
6. Are sequence and continuity of content important in the subject matter area you will be certified in? Or does it make sense for students to study a body of content only when they feel a keen interest in it or a genuine need to know it? In an age of computers, would this be practical?
7. Do you agree with progressives that no knowledge or content is “essential” for all students? Do you agree that knowledge is expanding so rapidly that no one can master more than a small fraction of it? Do you agree that any knowledge learned is likely to be quickly outmoded in today’s fast-changing society?
8. What do you think about the progressive’s “socialization” goals for the school?
9. What do you think of the progressive concept of the teacher as a “resource person”? Does this have any potential for abuse? What, for example?
10. Do you feel that students can learn much by interacting with other students? Or would this be a “pooling of ignorance”?
11. Do you agree with progressives that ability grouping leads to snobbery, discrimination, and limited opportunities for some students? Do you agree that students should never be separated on the basis of sex, race, social class, or academic performance? Do you support the concept of “mainstreaming” all types of exceptional students? Why or why not?
12. Look at the reflective inquiry process outlined in the paper. Suppose you were teaching a middle school language arts/social studies class and a student brought up the following "inconsistency” or “ problem" in a class discussion. Do steps: 2-articulate the problem; 3-hypothesize likely reasons for the problem; 4- tell how and from which sources you might gather relevant data on the problem.
“ A kid who lives in a ghetto notices that there is uncollected garbage, trash, and litter on the street where he lives. As he rides a school bus through the same city’s central business district, he notices that the sidewalks, streets and gutters are very clean. As he arrives in the neighborhood of his school—on the other side of the same town—he notices that there is no uncollected trash, garbage or litter here either. This is an inconsistency that bothers him, because he cannot understand why such differences should exist in the same city.” (By the way, if any of you doubt that this could happen in a city, take a look at the streets of mid-town Manhattan and then the streets of the South Bronx.
13. Do you agree with the progressive position that textbooks ought to be used selectively instead of covering them page-by-page in order? Why or why not?
14. Is the average teacher well-educated enough to be an effective “resource person” in an “interdisciplinary” curriculum?
15. Would students better observe rules that they had a part in formulating? Why or why not? Is student self-government a workable concept, or is it more often than not a “sham” in practice?
16. Do students have the wisdom and integrity to engage meaningfully in self-evaluation?
17. Are progressives right or wrong to advocate a policy of “social promotions”?