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Provoking annoyingly

Continuing my intended to annoy (to provoke a conversation that should but likely will not happen) thread here, I want to begin drawing a picture of what progressive education entails, not to teach a course for college students, but to try to arouse interest in truly viable, though difficult to enact, approaches to education for an American public capable of, through the decisions it makes, moving this society toward the sane and humane. So, first, progressive education is student-centered, the focus on individual intelligence of students as the primary teaching force in the school, what students think and do and say about the things they encounter in school ad their world of experience outside the school the critical subject matter. That two and two might equal four is discussed so that student understanding of the concept is a main consideration is basic to progressive education. That two and two equals four has considerable amounts of meaning beyond four when properly understood, conceptual understanding a change in mentality rather than memory of a sanctioned fact. That four is gotten by combining two twos of something is of relevance to both mathematics and the universe and, in a progressive classroom, repeating the answer to the question of what does two plus two equal might be a beginning as would an answer of three or five, the beginning of conversation as to how the answers were gotten, through what kinds of mental processes, internal logics. Consider how this might work for the study of science concepts, grammar, history, cooking, etc.!

By lafered

Retired professor of education concerned with thoughtfulness

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