if you care about schools, A Pedagogic Creed worth reading

From Daily Kos via Education Policy Blog:

“I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening For the full post…of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile.”For the full post…

If the author of those words is correct in his belief, then the entire thrust of American educational policy of the past few decades, since the release of A Nation At Risk in the Reagan administration, is doomed to failure.

If the words sound like those of a contemporary critic of the sanctions No Child Left Behind or of the big stick approach of current Secretary Arne Duncan, then perhaps the author was more prescient than many realize. The words appeared in print on this day in 1897 in School Journal. The piece is titled My Pedagogic Creed and was written by the great American philosopher and Educator John Dewey

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