Going back farther...

It came to my attention today, thanks to Dr. Rowan at CSUSB, to examine the works of Ira Shor in my discussion. I did, and found a plethora of information regarding this very topic. Shor gave significant regard to John Dewey, who made this profound statement in his 1916 book Democracy and Education: "The idea still prevails that a truly cultural or liberal education cannot have anything in common, directly at least, with industrial affairs, and that the education which is fit for the masses must be a useful or practical education in a sense which opposes useful and practical to nurture of appreciation and liberation of thought...The notion that the 'essentials' of elementary education are the three R's, mechanically treated, is based upon ignorance of the essentials needed for realization of democratic ideals" (Shor). Shor goes on to note that the discourse of the classroom is not the same discourse used by most students in their individual lives. This, again, is an idea proposed by Dewey. Dewey found the teaching of language absurd in the development of responsible citizens participating in a democracy. He felt that teaching language as a system dismissed entirely the very usefulness of language as it is used in human interaction. This is exactly what we have allowed to happen in this country by instituting standardized testing as a gauge of a school's progress. Privatizing schools only serves to add to this problem, as standardizd tests are the only means by which a large corporation can assess students.