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Comapring Gardner's Model to the Theory of John Dewey

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Philosophers are part of history, caught in its movement; creators perhaps in some measure of its future, but also assuredly creatures of its past.-John Dewey

American philosopher, social commentator, idealist, educator, and democratic theorist, John Dewey has had a profound impact on America's educational system. Proponent of change and advocate of "hands-on" learning and interactive classrooms, Dewey accomplished a great deal in his long life, (interestingly enough, he is the only major philosopher to live beyond his ninetieth year). He is the one professional philosopher of our age whose ideas have touched the common man through institutional changes in education and social action.

Born on October 20, 1859, in Burlington Vermont, …show more content…

This left him with a carefully constructed, sensitive, stable, and very powerful ego.

After graduating from the local high school at age fifteen, Dewey entered the University of Vermont. While his first two years of schooling at the university consisted of the classical curriculum, his third year brought an intellectual awakening at the hands of a professor of geology and zoology who structured his presentations on the theory of evolution. It was this year that Dewey strayed from his traditional readings and began to read books dealing with the implications of science and evolution for traditional religion.

Dewey's senior year acted to further reinforce his new interests with introductions to various branches of speculative and social philosophy.

Upon graduation from the University of Vermont in 1879, Dewey moved to Oil City where he taught high school for two years. This experience largely left him depressed and impressed upon him that teaching high school was to be but a stepping stone in his career. It was during these two years, however, that Dewey had a mystical experience that greatly altered his spiritual beliefs, substituting the religious anxiety remaining from his childhood with a calm understanding. Dewey was quoted as saying, that, as a result of this experience, he no longer had any doubts nor beliefs.

At the conclusion of his two-year teaching

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