The "Father" of experiential education - John Dewey

Before we try to understand experiential education, CAS, and the theories of Alec Peterson and Kurt Hahn, I would like to talk about John Dewey.

Regarded by many as the "father" of experiential education, he was most commonly known as a supporter of  "Progressive Education".

John Dewey (1859-1952)

Born October 20, 1859, in Burlington, Vermont. After he graduated second in his class from the University of Vermont, he started teaching high school. He then spent a year studying under the guidance of G. Stanley Hall at Johns Hopkins University in America's first psychology lab, where he earned his Ph.D. He taught at universities from 1884 to 1930, when he retired from Columbia University with the title of professor emeritus. 

An academic philosopher and proponent of progressive educational reform, he believed that education should be based on the principle of learning through doing, or what we call today "active learning". In 1894 Dewey started an experimental elementary school to test his theories. In 1919 he co-founded The New School for Social Research.

After his retirement from teaching in 1930, he was an active member of many educational organizations. At the end of his life, he was more and more involved in politics, eventually becoming president of the People's Lobby - an organization that lobbied their own candidates to avoid being "servants of big business".

Dewey published over 1,000 pieces of writings during his lifetime.

He died June 1, 1952, in New York, New York.

One of the greatest educational thinkers of the 20th century, and the "philosophical father" of experiential education, Dewey believed that the strict, pre-ordained knowledge approach of education was only concerned with "delivering" knowledge to students. He was also critical of completely "free" non-structured education, because students should not only be guided, but also motivated, in order to achieve critical understanding. To him education should be designed on the basis of a theory of experience.

Two currents of thoughts are opposed to Dewey's theory:

The less credible one believed Dewey to be a socialist, regarding education as a means to condition children, in order to create a socialist society. He was regarded as being against literacy, and in favor of "anti-education" to achieve a goal.

The other main opposing current believes that Dewey's philosophy concentrated more on the individual as a part of a group, a member of a social structure, neglecting individual needs. That his methods would go against the development of "independent young minds".

Both of these currents opposed Dewey's theories to those of Maria Montessori M.D (1870-1952) - an Italian physician, scientist, philosopher, feminist and humanitarian, who developed a theory on education, described in The Montessori Method in 1912 and in The Discovery of the Child in 1948. Her method was founded on the observation of children at liberty to act freely in an environment prepared to meet their needs. Her educational method was highly and internationally acclaimed, and is still in use today.

Articles you might find interesting

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER2/dewey/cover.html

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/montessori-dewey-and-capitalism-educational-theory-for-a-free-market-in-education#axzz2PzyUGmP5

http://www.kazakbar.info/article-03.html

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/deweye.PDF

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/montesse.pdf

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/montessori/method/method.html