Of The Problems With John Dewey's Philosophy

                      John Dewey lived from 1859 to 1952.  Dewey introduced many ideas that helped shape modern education.  He graduated from the University of Vermont in 1879.  He spent two years as a high school teacher and one year as an elementary school teacher in a small town.  Dewey grew tired of teaching and left his post to pursue a doctorate in psychology at Johns Hopkins University.  In 1884 he graduated and accepted a position as faculty at the University of Michigan and he worked there the first several years after receiving his PhD.
                In 1894 Dewey elected to join the newly founded University of Chicago where he conducted experiments to test his theories.  He conducted experiments that involved activities similar to a mouse running through a maze or a dog learning to respond to a bell.  Eventually, he performed his experiments in a class room setting.  Dewey believed that the job of the teacher was to create an environment where the students would learn and perform the task that teachers wanted them to.  In other words, he believed that children can and should be trained.  Eventually, this thinking led to classical subjects that have traditionally been part of a high school level education such as Greek and Latin being eliminated from K through 12 schools.  Also, art and music was is not taught nearly as much as it used to be.  For the most part schools are abandoning the arts and humanities as science and technology becomes the main focus.  Some people would argue that the arts and humanity are no longer important and it is no longer necessary to spend time teaching kids the arts and humanities.  However, the arts and humanities are necessary to be connected to music and texts that are deeply connected to traditional western culture.  Furthermore, the arts and humanities are vital for people to develop human characteristics and creativity.
               Dewey believed that most of the decisions people made was merely a response to the environment or simply out of habit.  Dewey believed that most decisions people make did not require much thought.  This line of thought is reductionist in nature.  It assumes that people make decision based on spur of the moment feelings rather than rational thought.  Indeed, politicians have justified giving the government more control over the economy on the basis that most people are not capable of making rational decisions.