Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository
Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository Stony Brook University - SUNY Digital Repository
simply by “observing that others are like himself in that their cares and quandaries are like his own” but also by “experienc[ing] himself as seen by others in the same way.” Put simply, students whom we, as teachers, would see attain relativism and commitment both “[need] not only models to emulate but the experience of community with them,” in this way, the “personal” becoming “social” and the “social” becoming “personal,” both dialectically furthering and deepening the other in the process. With Perry’s developmental “scheme” then, what you have is that dialectic manifesting at different times and at different places in students’ experience of the educational process. Most profoundly, there exists the dialectic between uncertainties and certainties among “knowledge and values” and “values and points of view” through exposure to “diversity” and relativity” and between the uncertainty of relativistic thought and the certainty of commitment. And all the while, these churn and surge back and forth across an “intellectual and ethical” field that is defined by yet another dialectic, this between the “personal,” the “internal,” and the “social,” the “community.” All of them influence and are influenced by the others in a dynamic that is “ongoing, unfolding.” In this way, the “intellectual and ethical development” that Perry observed through his study and described in his subsequent report is, ideally, not something that ends 156
with a graduation from college or university but is, again, “ongoing, unfolding.” In this way, that “intellectual and ethical development” becomes life itself. Education becomes life itself. This view of “education” as a dialectical and continual phenomenon as laid out by Perry is something shared by Dewey. The fact that Perry does not reference Dewey or any of his work in Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years has always been surprising to me because his findings, although not forthcoming in terms of explicit suggestions for actual teaching, would seem to almost emerge from Dewey and his theories of education. This is not to say that Perry owes some “debt” to Dewey that he has failed to acknowledge. No. I would say that the conclusions he had taken away from those Harvard students stand almost as realizations or proofs of Dewey’s philosophy because it is something that is so rooted in an almost natural understanding of, as his book proclaims, how we think. How we, we as children, we as students, we as adults, we as teachers, and so on, think – and can think further, deeper, fuller. I realize I have thrown any claim I could have made to objectivity – if I still believed in such a thing – out the window by now. But, regardless, I believe I have returned to Dewey time and time again since I read How We Think for the very 157
- Page 113 and 114: asking the same question: What had
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with a graduation from college or university but is, again,<br />
“ongoing, unfolding.” In this way, that “intellectual and<br />
ethical development” becomes life itself. Education becomes<br />
life itself.<br />
This view of “education” as a dialectical and continual<br />
phenomenon as laid out by Perry is something shared by Dewey.<br />
The fact that Perry does not reference Dewey or any of his work<br />
in Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College<br />
Years has always been surprising to me because his findings,<br />
although not forthcoming in terms of explicit suggestions for<br />
actual teaching, would seem to almost emerge from Dewey and his<br />
theories of education. This is not to say that Perry owes some<br />
“debt” to Dewey that he has failed to acknowledge. No. I would<br />
say that the conclusions he had taken away from those Harvard<br />
students stand almost as realizations or proofs of Dewey’s<br />
philosophy because it is something that is so rooted in an<br />
almost natural understanding of, as his book proclaims, how we<br />
think. How we, we as children, we as students, we as adults, we<br />
as teachers, and so on, think – and can think further, deeper,<br />
fuller.<br />
I realize I have thrown any claim I could have made to<br />
objectivity – if I still believed in such a thing – out the<br />
window by now. But, regardless, I believe I have returned to<br />
Dewey time and time again since I read How We Think for the very<br />
157
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