My Pedagogic Creed Analysis

The True Purpose of School I believe that the purpose of school is to cultivate our children with respect to their individual traits and characteristics, as well as their diverse inclinations and passions. In My Pedagogic Creed, John Dewey writes that education “must begin with a psychological insight into the child's capacities, interests, and habits. It must be controlled at every point by reference to these same considerations. These powers, interests, and habits must be continually interpreted - we must know what they mean. They must be translated into terms of their social equivalents - into terms of what they are capable of in the way of social service” (1972). Although Dewey acknowledges the end goal of social service, he is primarily arguing that society can best be served if the needs of individuals within that society are satisfied first. This idea is reinforced by Socrates

In Releasing the Imagination, she writes, “In my view, the classroom situation most provocative of thoughtfulness and critical consciousness is the one in which teachers and learners find themselves conducting a kind of collaborative search, each from her or his lived situation.” (Greene, p. 23). To Greene, cooperation between teachers and students is essential because, as human beings, both are in the “process of creating a self, an identity” (Greene, p. 20). As a result, teachers must be acutely aware that they too are lacking and have something valuable to gain from the experience of teaching. Greene suggested, “If teaching can be thought of as an address to others’ consciousness, it may be a summons on the part of one incomplete person to other incomplete persons to reach for wholeness” (Greene, p. 26). As a teacher, I view the ability to be conscious of your own inadequacies and deficiencies as indispensable because it helps you relate to and identify with your students and their