Dichotomies to ponder in Education

Mulling over a couple of things that will need more complete posts later. Of course they are not pure dichotomies, but different ways of seeing things. Like all of Life, it's about finding the balance that works.

1. Scholarship v. What Works
Educators have strong bias towards scholarship. It is what a lot of them do. And it is a significant way in which the collective memory of a culture is interpreted and passed on to the next generation.

But an Education is a preparation for Life. And Life, especially commerce, increasingly does not care for scholarship. It's more about having the creativity to come up with what works.

And you can see that in the classroom. I sense that boots-on-the-ground educators bother less with the scholarship in Pedagogy, and rely more on what works for their students.


2. Conservative v. Progressive

Education as a profession is conservative. It needs to be, since it's mission is to conserve 100s if not 1000s of years of collective cultural memory. You don't mess with such things lightly.

Yet, Educators are Progressives. Like it or not, they have a future vision of society. Their students are their arrows that will travel swift and far.

Or as Dewey begins his 5th (& last) article of faith, The School and Social Progress "I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform."