Dewey is still in the room: A closer look at Lawrence Cremin's "Public education and the education of the public"

Extract

[...] When Cremin says “Whatever is done must be done with an awareness of what has gone on and what is going on elsewhere” (1553), he is telling his readers that the origins of education are as important as its present-day state. How then can Cremin criticize Dewey when Dewey addresses the origins of institutions? It is very difficult for an audience to attach any significant amount of credibility to the argument that Laurence Cremin is attempting to justify if he cannot maintain an adequate line of consistency. [...]

[...] Cremin criticizes Dewey for lingering too extensively on origins of institutions of institutions rather than their functions” (1549) saying that question of origins may not be central to the argument” (1549) and that forms of education outside of that of the school are intentional though in different ways and in different measures” (1549). Dewey contends that the importance lies in the fact that “those of us who are here today need to go back to find a time when the household was practically the center in which were carried on all typical forms of industrial occupation” (297). [...]

[...] The statement is similar to the one that is made by Dewey when he says number of object lessons for the sake of giving information can afford even the shadow of a substitute for [hands-on learning]”.Cremin's uses a heavy emphasis towards the inclusion of the variety of institutions that educate” (1551) in public policy-making which is very similar to the emphasis that Dewey attaches to the revival of manual methods of education. This is especially evident to his audience when Cremin states must be aware that public thinking about education and public policymaking for education goes on at a variety of levels and in a variety of places” (1553). [...]