Posted on 05/12/2011 3:16:06 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Here’s something I’ve noticed about the 20th Century. The Communists were supremely gifted at turning their loyal voices into cultural superstars. We would hear their names ALL THE DAMN TIME. Our country has been warped by this perpetual propaganda. (Thank you, liberal media!)
Sometimes, I don’t think there was collusion or discussion. The Communists would simply identify the people who would help them and make sure those people became famous. (Conversely, they would see people that would hurt them and work to destroy those people.)
An example of all this is John Dewey, the most famous educator of the 20th century. Admittedly, he was a very smart man and wrote a lot of books and articles. But, mainly, he was a socialist; and the far-left could use him to push for various “progressive” education ideas.
To make Dewey really useful, they had to pretend he was a god walking among us. You can go on the Internet and find HUNDREDS of sites which treat Dewey as one of history’s great geniuses. It’s just too much.
After a while you want to shout: OKAY, maybe he’s smart and productive, maybe he’s even a nice guy, but he’s just another socialist. And when you look at the track record, the ideas promoted in his name have caused a lot of trouble for our public schools. A lot of trouble!
It was this background that prompted me to write an article in 2009 called “25: Phooey on John Dewey” (which you can Google or find on Improve-Education.org). I picked that title as a message to graduate students in education: hey, not everybody thinks this guy is a god.
My newest installment in this rectification process is called “Educational Decline: Inside John Dewey’s Misguided Mind.” It’s a good little summary of Dewey’s real legacy. You can find this one on RightSideNews with a very nice picture of Professor Dewey.
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(Bruce Price founded Improve-Education.org in 2005.)
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011051013482/life-and-science/health-and-education/educational-decline-inside-john-deweys-misguided-mind.html
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Dewey was not made famous by “communists” or anything of the sort.
“The idea of God is the keystone of a perverted society. The true root of liberty, equality and culture is atheism.” (Karl Marx)
Our thinking is enlightened “in the degree in which we cease to depend upon belief in the supernatural.” (John Dewey, father of ‘progressive education’ and 1st President of American Humanist Society)
“…democracy is a human faith and movement, unencumbered by supernatural preconceptions.” (John Childs, a protégé of John Dewey at Columbia)
“…the majority of our youth still hold the values of their parents, and if we do not alter this pattern, if we do not resocialize ourselves to accept change, our society may decay.” (John Goodlad, 1971 Report to President, Schooling for the Future)
“As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially a faith in the prayer-hearing God, who is assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith.” (Humanist Manifesto II, 1973)
“…the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is sixteen tends to lead toward elimination of religious superstition.” (Paul Blanshard, The Humanist, March-April, 1976)
How did the communists make sure those people became famous? Explain that and we can do the same with people of our choice.
Dewey was one of the true evil ones of his time.
He is responsible for the death of America.
People need to read up on him. his quotes, his desires for your kids.
All came to be.
You need the New York Times, TIME, all the networks, etc. The loyal hacks were constantly reviewed, interviewed, praised, promoted, and made to seem god-like. Conversely, conservative voices were made to seem creepy and crazy. (It’s not as bad now because of the New Media and the internet.)
Here’s another good example. A hugely popular edition of 1984, for college students, had a Foreword by Erich Fromm. He manages to make it seem that Orwell is talking about conformity in big corporations. Inane. This made me really curious about Fromm, a guy who was constantly lauded when I lived in Manhattan. You heard his name all the time. When I looked into it, I found that Fromm was basically a Communist, and he was married to an even more committed Communist. See how this worked? They made him famous, and then they could put him in Orwell’s great book, with the express job of spinning Orwell’s message. (For more details, Google “15: 1984—The Cover Up.”)
A truly BAD MAN.. whose legacy stinks up americas schools at every level..
My mother was a 2nd wave Montessori teacher who taught thousands of children to read before age 5 (including her own four children).
Have sent your website link to her, she’s always up for a good Dewey bashing, all richly deserved.
Alas, the Conservatives, in the majority, eschew, ignore, don’t get, are unaware of, or repelled by culture, leaving the field wide open for the Left to infiltrate, dominate, control.
Thank you for that great example, which unfortunately is emblematic if many thousands more.
Ping. I am learning a lot from your posts!
Didn't he run against Truman? Truman got my dad home from the war earlier than might have been. Maybe back then, the Democrats weren't so bad.
The line was so long that night, seems like an hour we snaked along the lockers. At least some people took voting seriously to wait so long like that. Then after my dad and I came out from the booth, somebody waiting in line teased me, "Did you vote, (my name)? I piped up, "yes, I voted for Dewey." A lot of people broke out in laughter because I obviously gave my father's vote away there. Have to have been 1948; I was seven then.
But I think I would have remembered it anyway. And now I'm the one who doesn't like the way the public schools are and their politics. The public schools were different back then, too.
I suppose my parents weren't John Birchers and surely should have known Dewey's philosophy because education was everything growing up, more important than church.
Do you receive a lot of hate mail from Leftists when you deservedly trash Dewey?
Even got a song about him.
You are pulling my leg. It was not Tom Dooley, think he was a doctor in Asia. At least I remember that song but think it was later than that election.
It WAS Dewey, the educator pol.
Bruce, Surely you understand that leftists in academia promote one another through giving each other awards, citations, invitations to publish, invitations to speak, etc. They are all “cross-selling” all the time. This is one reason why “studies” “scholarship” quickly becomes as inbred as the Jukes and the Kallikaks. Simultaneously they exclude everyone who dissents from their ideology. I’ve seen this personally on more than one major campus.
Dewey gets a lot of “shelf-space” in education because leftists control schools of education.
Forgot to mention my YouTube video called “John Dewey and the Burden of Ideology.” THAT is where I get some “hate mail.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwZTkitm3-I.
200 IQ. I would think he would have sounded like babbling fool because his mind would be working to fast to catch up with his speech.
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