Category: Writing

1. Do you agree or disagree with critics who contend that
Freire has contributed to class conflict in schools by pitting the poor against
the rich? Defend your answer.
2. Do you support Spencer’s argument that education should
stimulate competition or Dewey’s view that it should encourage cooperation?
Defend your answer.

From the classical period of ancient Greece and Rome to the
Protestant Reformation in the fifteenth century, only a minority of children
attended schools. Males of wealthy families had the greatest opportunity to
attend school. School attendance for both boys and girls began to increase
during the Reformation as a result of the Protestant emphasis on literacy to
read the Bible.

Reflect on trends such as whole-language learning,
collaborative learning, constructivism, portfolio assessment, use of
technology, and the standards movement. How might the pioneers discussed in
this chapter react to these trends?

During the medieval period, the foundations of the
university were established. Medieval education incorporated the mathematical
and scientific contributions that entered the Western world by way of the
Arabs. Renaissance classical humanist educators elaborated on the concept of
the well-rounded, liberally educated person.The Protestant Reformation’s
emphasis on literacy and vernacular education directly influenced colonial
American schools.The Enlightenment was especially influential in shaping
American political and educational institutions.

1. Do you agree or disagree with Rousseau’s critics who
claimed his method presented an overly romantic and unrealistic view of
children and their education? Defend your answer.
2. Do you agree or disagree with critics who allege that
Jane Addams’s philosophy of socialized education diverts schools from teaching
academic skills and subjects? Defend your answer.

How would you define an educational mentor? Who were the
mentors that contributed to your ideas about education, schools, and teaching?
Which of the pioneers in the chapter most appeals to you as an historical
mentor?

1. Addams’s theory of socialized education contributed to
multicultural education, to an examination of technology’s impact on society,
and to the movement for women’s rights and education.
2. Piaget’s developmental psychology illuminated thinking on
children’s cognitive operations and generated change in curriculum and teaching
methods.

Spencer’s sociology of education was a pioneering effort to
relate the school to society and identify social and economic activities as the
basis of the curriculum. Dewey’s pioneering work at the University of Chicago
Laboratory School stimulated progressive educational reform. Montessori’s
prepared environment is currently popular in early childhood education.

Pestalozzi developed simultaneous group teaching methods
that used objects in children’s immediate environments. Herbart sought to
systematize teaching methods. Froebel’s theory was the basis of the
kindergarten. Both Pestalozzi and Froebel liberated early childhood education
by encouraging teachers to be sensitive to children’s interests and needs.

1. The pioneers discussed in this chapter made distinctive
contributions to education and methods of teaching in their countries and
worldwide.
2. Rejecting the dogma of child depravity, Comenius, Locke,
and Rousseau constructed a method of education based on children’s natural
growth and goodness.