H
E IS KNOWN AS THE FATHER of progressive
education, a renowned philosopher, a genius, an
intellectual giant, the co-founder of the ACLU
and the NAACP, an evolutionist, a humanist, a communist,
an atheist, and a fierce enemy of Christ. Who is he? His
name is John Dewey.
John Dewey (1859-1952) began a movement that trans-
formed the American educational landscape. Dewey shared
the theory behind this movement in an essay he wrote in
1898 titled The Primary Education Fetish. The foundation
of his thinking was the theory of evolution, and he exalted
this argument to a new loftier level by applying evolu-
tion to education. For his movement to be successful, the
traditional Christ-centered education of the time needed
to be discarded.
Using Schools to Reconstruct Society
Dewey’s movement had a new vision for schools. He wanted
to use schools as instruments for the reconstruction of
society. Dewey didn’t want to educate children to think for
themselves: “Children who know how to think for them-
selves spoil the harmony of the collective society which
is coming where everyone is interdependent.” 1 His vision
veered dramatically from the traditional Christ-centered
approach to education.
Teacher David Vaillancourt explains that Dewey’s plan
“rejected the classics, any emphasis on rhetoric and logic, or
rote memorization. Instead, the pragmatist Dewey valued
experience over facts, logic, or debate.” 2 Dewey’s vision is
also captured by historian and theologian Rousas Rush-
doony in his book The Messianic Character of American
Education. Rushdoony says, “Dewey believed you learned
through your senses and you learned by doing. Thus, the
past has no value. He couldn’t see a need for the study of
history, Latin, Greek, or even English. By fostering the idea
that all education should rest on experience, he minimized
the significance of book learning.”
A Dramatic Change in Direction
Dewey recognized that “change must come gradually. To
force it unduly would compromise its final success by
favoring a violent reaction.” 3 Samuel Blumenfeld and
Alex Newman discuss this quote in their book Crimes of
the Educators: “In other words, deception would have to
be used in order for this long-range, complex plan to be
successfully implemented.”
Vaillancourt shares that Dewey believed “the key element
that held the entire existing system together was high literacy.
It gives the individual the means to seek knowledge inde-
pendently, to question the status quo and to exercise one’s
own judgment. Literacy allows us to think for ourselves.”
Blumenfeld and Newman also share, “Dewey stated that the
only way to undermine the capitalist system was to get rid
of the emphasis primary schools placed on the development
of high literacy and independent intelligence.” According to
Dewey, “It is one of the great mistakes of education to make
reading and writing constitute the bulk of the school work
the first two years.” 4
Dewey also believed the role for teachers should change:
rather than teach a body of knowledge, the teacher should
help the child learn by experience and learn alongside the
child. This was a great contrast to the previous approach
where teachers were the experts.
Dewey’s direction was based on using government
schools; minimizing the role of parents (because they might
teach things like religion); changing the role of teachers to
facilitators; de-emphasizing Latin, the classics, the three
Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic), western history, and
history in general (including the study of the Constitution
and capitalism); and providing a secular environment. The
end product was designed to prepare students to be good
citizens in a socialist society (students who don’t read very
well or think very well for themselves).
Dewey’s Success
John Dewey began discarding traditional Christian
curriculum on an extensive scale, and his vision has been
successfully implemented throughout the country. Numer-
ous reports and books document the success of the Dewey
agenda and the ensuing downward trends. The 1983 govern-
ment report, A Nation at Risk, and the previously mentioned
book, Crimes of the Educators, are just two examples that do
an excellent job of documenting plummeting literacy and
SAT scores and the general statistical decline of education
across the nation.
Additionally, a regular review of the news demonstrates
the impact to our country of this slow but increasingly steady
direction in education. Recent topics include the emergence
of a credible socialist candidate for President, the Reason-
Rupe poll showing that 58% of college-age Americans have
a favorable view of socialism, 5 and the trend at universities
to implement new civics courses that teach students that a
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