Kevin Swanson, writing about the philosopher John Dewey notes that Dewey’s philosophy of education is not essentially different from communism. He quotes Dewey as stating, “The deepest moral training is precisely that which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with others in a unity of work and thought.” The progressive juggernaut rationalized and extolled by John Dewey since the last decade of the 19th century and for many decades thereafter (Dewey lived into his nineties) has been the defining “progressive” philosophy of education under which our children have been mis-educated for decades.
Even thirty-plus years ago in New York City, this writer was teaching at a high school where there was an abortion referral clinic. Under New York State law, parents or guardians of minors not only did not have to provide consent for minors to get an abortion, but additionally at that time, they did not even have to be notified that a referral was given. Thus, female students at the high school could go to this referral office and after a 10–20-minute conversation could (and typically would) be given a referral for an abortion. This writer does not know how many years that had been in existence when I began teaching there in 1992.
One day, as I stood outside of my classroom, one of the “counsellors” from the clinic passed by, and we began a conversation. I asked her how she, as a young woman who graduated from a Catholic high school and Catholic college could be advising the girls to get abortions. She replied that the girls at the rough high school mostly came from dysfunctional homes and that the baby would be born into the same dysfunctional contexts and inherit a sea of troubles from their dysfunctional environments. I asked, “Where is your humility? How can you say that? How can you know that some will not turn out like Dr. Ben Carson and make incredible contributions to society, even saving many lives in the process? And if that is true, how can you weigh the potential benefits against the negative consequences?” The counsellor was playing God, projecting an unacceptable future for these unwanted pregnancies, and then claiming to have the “solution” for that negatively projected future – the referral form. There was no thought about the guilt that might follow such an action or the sinfulness of such a deed in the sight of God. Nor was there any thought that the clinic’s referral was not addressing the moral significance of the girls’ fornications.
On another occasion in the same institution, all teachers in my department were given notice that on a certain date, we would receive batches of condoms to distribute for free to students in our classrooms who requested them. I had passed a rigorous test and interview to teach my subject, but now my role would be modified, and I would have the dubious honor to be licensed as a promoter of teenage fornication. After a lot of praying, I determined that I would bring a non-descript brown paper bag to class on the day of distribution, place the condoms in the bag, and then drop the bag in a waste basket somewhere in the school.
Thankfully, my prayers were answered by a loving God because on the day of distribution, an announcement was made over the public address system that instead of condom distribution being done in class, a new “office of condom distribution” would be opened where students could go to pick them up on an as-needed basis.
Additionally, in that school there were 18 full-time security officers who were unarmed but were allowed to use handcuffs and were given peace officer status, and there were two NYC police officers assigned to the school. Security was breaking up fights that were occurring throughout the school every day. Despite there being metal detectors and wanding of students (an electronic device that would be passed around the bodies of individual students randomly selected) in the search for weapons at the beginning of every school day, weapons were sneaked into the school every day.
The Blue Book describing behavioral violations and listing “consequences” for violations (the word “punishment” was not found in the book) was distributed to teachers. But the violence and immorality continued. This teacher entered a stairwell to see a female student performing oral sex on a male student with two observers standing by. They immediately took off when I arrived. Students would routinely be slashed by other students with razor blades as they moved between classes, with the razor blades being tossed out hallway windows. One female student in one of my classes went over to a window and lifted it wide open. When I told her that the Dept. of Education did not permit windows to be that wide open, she jumped out. Fortunately, it was the first floor and although it was an 8 to 9 foot drop, she was not hurt. Two years later, a friend of hers told me that she and two other girls were high on drugs when she jumped out.
On another occasion, as I tried to begin a class, one of the boys was chasing one of the girls around the room. I asked them to please take their seats, but he was so angry that I had interfered with his “chase” that he began tearing the formica veneer off the top of his desk with his fingernails. I called him out of class and tried to reason with him that he did not have to hate me, that he would be able to see the girl student after class, and that he was not allowed to rip up his desk. I spoke peaceably, not sternly, but firmly emphasized that he could not be allowed to rip up the top of his desk. His eyes remained fiercely filled with hate, and he returned to his desk and continued tearing off the formica. Security was called, and he was removed from class. Lastly in my litany of shocking misbehaviors, the head of my department frequently had to go into the girls’ bathrooms to put out toilet seat fires set by students using lighter fluid. They would then seal the door of the stall, and the Assistant Principal would be forced to climb onto the adjacent toilet seat in order to spray the fire with an extinguisher.
This is a very limited but true glimpse of what education can become and has become with the Ten Commandments and all reference to Biblical values removed from our schools. This is what happens when the National Anthem is almost never sung, and where Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day are never celebrated. Because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, no prayers are ever spoken nor are passages from the Holy Bible ever read since the early 1960’s. This is an educational setting where even crimes like having a gun only have consequences, but do not have punishment. This is a picture of post-Deweyan progressive education.
Did he get it right?
Jeffrey Ludwig
Photo: psicologiaymente.com
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