Experience and Education
Everyone who is part of a post-secondary university institution (both students and faculty) has succumbed to the formalized schooling system. We have been enculturated in an environment that prizes the prestige of higher education, often with an undertone suggesting that post secondary schooling is a necessary step on the road to success. This experience is flooded with order. Schedules are central to any regular day at school, and the docimological process determines one 's success in how well they have learned the material of each subject. Both John Dewey and John Taylor Gatto write about dichotomies within the schooling system. While Dewey contemplates traditional versus progressive schooling, Gatto suggests that the current system is too regimented, and that an increase in student freedom would lead to a more positive learning environment. The concepts of freedom and education will thus be examined with regard to both Dewey and Gatto 's respective ideological orientations.
Perhaps a fundamental distinction must be made between schooling and education. These two terms are often (and mistakenly) used interchangeably. Education can occur at any place or time; it can be independent of schooling. As suggested by Stanley Aronowitz, "Education may be defined as the collective and individual reflection on the totality of life experiences: what we learn from peers, parents (and the socially situated cultures of which they are a part), media, and schools" (2004:21). Schooling, on the other hand, suggests a formalized setting within the confined walls of a school, led by a teacher or professor who is supposedly qualified to relay information to students. Yet, there is the common assumption that education necessarily takes place within the site of a school (ibid). When Dewey speaks of education, it is in fact paralleled with what would be considered formalized schooling, as it is primarily tied to structured activity within the school seting. Gatto affirms
Perhaps a fundamental distinction must be made between schooling and education. These two terms are often (and mistakenly) used interchangeably. Education can occur at any place or time; it can be independent of schooling. As suggested by Stanley Aronowitz, "Education may be defined as the collective and individual reflection on the totality of life experiences: what we learn from peers, parents (and the socially situated cultures of which they are a part), media, and schools" (2004:21). Schooling, on the other hand, suggests a formalized setting within the confined walls of a school, led by a teacher or professor who is supposedly qualified to relay information to students. Yet, there is the common assumption that education necessarily takes place within the site of a school (ibid). When Dewey speaks of education, it is in fact paralleled with what would be considered formalized schooling, as it is primarily tied to structured activity within the school seting. Gatto affirms
Bibliography: Aronowitz, Stanley. 2004. Against Schooling: Education and Social Class In Social Text. Vol. 22 No. 2. Duke University Press. Dewey, John. 1997. Experience & Education. Published by Simon & Schuster. New York, NY. Gatto, John Taylor. 2005. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. New Society Publishers. Gabriola Island, BC.