The School and the Life of the Child

            Schools are still designed to run the same way that they have been running for over a hundred years.  As Dewey states, schools are designed for the child to listen and there is not enough room for the child to work.  They have set desks and everything is arranged to handle as many students as possible.  In the Ken Robinson film we watched in class he described schools today as being ran like factories; children are separated into different categories by age and are then expected to know a certain amount of information.  Ken Robinson also agreed with Dewey on the fact that the education system is outdated.  The traditional classroom does not involve much room for experimentation.  However, many children learn more from hands-on activities.  Does this mean we need to change the way we run schools?  Dewey states that, “one may be ready to admit that it would be most desirable for the school to be a place in which the child should really live, and get life-experience in which he should delight and find meaning for its own sake.”  However, he then goes on to question how the child would get all the needed information and discipline if schools were in fact ran this way.  I agree with Dewey, the way schools are designed needs to be changed from a traditional classroom to an activity based classroom.  I also agree with the fact that children learn more from experimentation; they are able to form their own ideas and conclusions.  When I was in elementary school, I remember a large part of the day being lecture.  More experiences need to be introduced in the classroom so that students can take more away from it; however, lecture still needs to be an essential part of the classroom.  People continue to talk about our outdated school system; however, how do we go about changing the whole education system?  Where do we begin? What aspects about the classroom will remain the same?  Dewey ends the article with this message, “When nature and society can live in the schoolroom, when the forms and tools of learning are subordinated to the substance of experience, then shall there be an opportunity for this identification, and culture shall be democratic pass-word.”