Dewey's Essay: How Important Are Teachers In Education?

How important are teachers in education? In the modern education system, students are seemingly fed prescribed knowledge, rather than core knowledge. Prescribed knowledge supplied to us students deprives us of the ability to think critically, and perhaps challenge the status quo. It ingrains a sense of conformity within us, where opposing another person's views seems a crime. The primary purpose of education, in my opinion, is to help us find out true selves, help us trigger our passion, and teach us the knowledge and expertise needed to direct and sustain it. Schools have a duty to make us better citizens, to develop a devotion to civic and responsibility that arouses a feeling of boldness within us, making us realize we have the power and
Using Dewey's essay as a frame, we can see how Ladson-Billings' and Whitman's essay's support/reject his claims, along with other supplementary materials assigned to us in class. Dewey's essay suggests that we should leave the students to do work on their own, giving them the freedom to be creative, hence giving them a chance to at least challenge the status quo. Ladson Billings' essay further bolsters Dewey's claim of having creative thinkers by coining the term "culturally relevant teachers." Moving on to the Finnish education system and Whitman's essay, there were quite a few differences between them, where the video on the Finnish education system contradicted Whitman's arguments regarding the use of technology/facilities and extending school hours. These ideologies of the Finnish school system simply go against what is preached here in the U.S, hence why they are more successful in creating more intellectual and critical thinking students, whereas the U.S fails to create them. It simply shows that the U.S education system is flawed, and needs a radical change. To simply put it in Dewey's words, the U.S "education system has failed to evolve with the