GC University Faisalabad

ROLE OF PRAGMATISM IN EDUCATION

Faizan Abbas Jappa
To:

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Table of Contents

Beliefs ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 Philosophers ............................................................................................................................................ 1 American Pragmatists ............................................................................................................................. 2 Aims of Education .................................................................................................................................. 6 Educational Aims of pragmatism............................................................................................................ 7 The concept of Student ........................................................................................................................... 9 The concept of Teacher ........................................................................................................................... 9 Curriculum Framework ......................................................................................................................... 10 Instructional Methodology .................................................................................................................... 11 Critical appraisal of Pragmatism ........................................................................................................... 13 REFERENCES- .................................................................................................................................... 17

Beliefs
Pragmatism is basically an American philosophy, but has its roots in European thinking. Pragmatists believe that ideas are tools that can be used to cope with the world. As a theory of mutable truth, pragmatism claims that ideas are true insofar as they are useful in a specific situation -- what works today in one case may not work tomorrow in another case. The standard of moral truth is expediency. Ethical ideas are accepted as long as they continue to work. According to John Deweys (1859-1952) social pragmatism, what is true is that which works for a society (not for an individual) through the promotion of the public good. Dewey advocates a relativistic, secularized form of altruism that calls for sacrificing oneself to attain the ends of the People. In this view society, rather than the individual, passes moral judgment. Social policies are measured by their consequences instead of by abstract principles of what is right or just. There are no facts, no set rules of logic, no objectivity, and no certainty. There are only policies and proposals for social actions that must be treated as working hypotheses. The experience of consequences will indicate the need to keep or alter the original hypotheses.

Philosophers
Several European philosophers influenced the development of American pragmatic thought. Francis Bacon was considered a modern realist. He emphasized the

inductive approach, and placed emphasis on the scientific method, which is important to the pragmatic philosophy. The inductive method implies beginning the problem solving process with observations and then reasoning to arrive at laws or principals. John Locke was considered a realist, but his ideas have influenced pragmatism as well. He believed that as people have more experiences they have more ideas to relate. Some of these ideas can be incorrect, but the way to verify them is through experience. The idea of a computer that needs to be programmed to produce information seems to be an excellent analogy for this philosophy. George Herbert Mead concluded that children do not learn to be social, but that they do have to be social to learn. This implies that the mind is not some inner thing hidden from view.

William James applied the inductive method tor religious and moral implications and thought that religious beliefs had value only if they provided suitable consequences. Jean Jacques Rousseau noted that civilization had harmed individual development because it led them away from nature. His important contribution was the connection he made between nature and experience. He felt that this affected the way that people looked at children. They were not mini adults, but examples of organisms going though natural development. An example of his thinking was that it was unnatural for a child to sit for long periods of time. Rousseau believed in a child centered curriculum, and suggested that a childs interests should guide his education. He developed three sources of education. They were nature, human beings, and things or personal experiences that are associated with material objects. Additionally, Rousseau felt that children should be educated naturally in their formative years. Charles Darwin offered great controversy in publishing is book on the Origin of the Species, which suggested that species in the environment live or die depending on the presence of certain conditions in the environment and the organisms ability to adapt to them. He noted that characteristics that allow a species to survive will persist, while other characteristics that do not ensure survival will not. This theory developed the idea that the universe itself is in development and opposed many of the ideas supported by Plato. These concepts were important to education because they led to the belief that a persons education as tied directly to biological and social development, according to Orzman.

American Pragmatists
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

His ideas were important because he believed in the necessity for testing ideas in experience. He felt that ideas had practical consequences and that they could not be separated from human conduct.

William James (1842-1910)

William James philosophy can be related to one of his statements that the proof is in the pudding, meaning that to tell if pudding is good, you must taste it. Individuals experience things that may be true for them, but not for others. He

therefore did not believe in universal truths. His ideas were often referred to as radical empiricism. William James is responsible for making pragmatism popular.

John Dewey (1859-1952)

Dewey liked to work with real life problems and the practical consequences of ideas. He felt that humans could work toward a more satisfying life by using

processes that would help mankind. We begin to think, according to Dewey, because of a problem. By dealing with the problem we are beginning to think creatively. Dewey felt that each situation was unique and should be dealt with by experimenting with various solutions, meaning that one solution did not fit all problems. He felt that experience and nature could not be separated because nature was what a person experienced. Dewey felt that a child should not be taken out of their social environment when being educated meaning that he considered social relationships important in the education process. He would not appear to have been a proponent of home schooling. He believed in testing ideas on an experimental basis with regard to the results of their successfulness. Method, rather than abstract answers was very important. Dewey also believed that learners would be most motivated to study organized knowledge when they could relate its usefulness to the present. Dewey thought that industrialization had depressed individuality and that the individual and social aspects of children could be nurtured through democratic experiences within the school. Individuality was important because if individual choices were made intelligently, then people had greater control over their destiny. Dewey felt strongly individuals must be educated within a group because of the necessary interplay of the two. Individuals and society support each other. In fact he felt that this social life was the job of the school. 141This duality of coexistence supported Deweys views on religion, holding to the idea of a connecting link between individuals and society. Each action was judged as moral according to its affect on society. For pragmatists -- knowledge of the world is impossible to separate from actions upon it. There is no reality out there -- both facts and values are products of men interacting with an environment and shaping it to their wills. Society, for Dewey, is something free men create out of their intellects and imaginations. An advocate of social malleability, he speaks of men reconstructing what they have experienced in order to impose a particular character on it, thereby bringing an explicit reality into being.

Men are free to choose their own way of thinking and to create whatever reality they want to embrace. However, a mans mind is conditioned by the collective thinking of other people. The mind is thus a social phenomenon -- truth is what works for the group.

It is participation in the common life of democratic society that realizes the freedom of the individual and produces growth in him and in society. Democracy expresses the consensus of the collective -- society is a moral organism with a general will. Each man is to do his duty by adapting himself to the ever-changing views of the group.

Men simply act. They usually do not and need not reflect before acting. The goal of thought is merely to reconstruct the situation in order to solve the problem. If the proposal, when implemented, resolves the issue, then the idea is pragmatically true. Truth cannot be known in advance of action. One must first act and then think. Only then can reality be determined.

Value judgments are to be made according to desires based on feelings. The test of ones desire is its congruity with the majority of other mens wishes, feelings, and values at that time. These, of course, can be examined and abandoned in a future context. Value judgments are instrumental, never completed, and therefore are corrigible. In the end it is feeling, for the pragmatist, that is paramount.

Dewey is primarily concerned with the democratic ideal and its realization in every sphere of life. He advocates education as a way to reconstruct children according to the pragmatist vision of man. Child-centered, rather than subject-centered, education treats the student as an acting being and therefore is focused on discrete, experiential projects. Dewey dismisses as irrelevant the teaching of fundamental knowledge such as reading, writing, math, and science. Both the educator and the students are to be flexible and tentative. The purpose of a school is to foster social consciousness. The child is to be taught to transcend the assimilation of truths and facts by learning to serve and adapt to others and to comply with the directives of their representatives. A disdain for reason and knowledge is thus combined with the practice of altruism (otherism) and collectivism.

Like Marx, Dewey comprehended and appreciated the conflictual essence of the Hegelian dialectic. Dewey stressed the clash in the education process between the child and the curriculum and between the potential and talent of the student and the structure of an outmoded school system. The traditional curriculum, loaded down with formal subjects, was unsuited to the childs active and immediate experience. Dewey saw children as alienated from their academic work because of a contradiction between the interests of the school and the real interests of the students. There was an incongruity between the values, goals, and means embodied in the experience of a mature adult and those of an undeveloped, immature being. The teaching of abstract, general principles, and eternal and external truths was beyond a childs understanding and a barrier to the authentic growth and development of the child. Deweys new school would become a vehicle for the de-alienation and socialization of the child. The school would be an embryonic socialist community in which the progress of the student could only be justified by his relation to the group. Deweys activity method and manual training could produce a collective occupational spirit in the school.

Dewey, like Marx, was convinced that thought is a collective activity in which the individual simply acts as a cell in the social body. For Dewey, the individual is only a conduit conveying the groups influence, and a person's beliefs derive from others through tradition, education, and the environment. Deweys notion that thought is collective, along with his enmity toward human reason and individual responsibility, led to his advocacy of collectivist economic planning. For Dewey, cognition is an activity of the group or society as a whole and innovations are the products of collective science and technology, rather than the creations of individual thinkers and doers. John Deweys progressive model of active learning promoted a revolt against abstract learning and attempted to make education an effective tool for integrating culture and vocation. Dewey was responsible for developing a philosophical approach to education called experimentalism which saw education as the basis for democracy. His goal was to turn public schools into indoctrination centers to develop a socialized population that could adapt to an egalitarian state operated by intellectual elite.

Disavowing the role of the individual mind in achieving technological and social progress, Dewey promoted the group, rather than the teacher, as the main source of social control in the schools. Denying the ideas of universal principles, natural law, and natural rights, Dewey emphasized social values and taught that life adjustment is more important than academic skills.

Dewey explained that the subject matter and moral lessons in the traditional curricula were meant to teach and inspire, but were irrelevant to the students immediate action experiences. The contradiction between the students real interests and those of the traditional school alienated students from their schoolwork. School-age children were caught between the opposing forces of immature, undeveloped beings and the values, meanings, and aims of subject matter constructed by a mature adult. Dewey believed that students energy, talent, and potential could not be realized within the structure of an archaic school system.

Dewey and other members of the Progressive movement wanted a predictable method for providing a common culture and of instilling Americans with democratic values. As a result, by the end of the nineteenth century, a centrally controlled, monopolistic, comprehensive, and bureaucratic public education system was deemed to be essential for Americas future.

Aims of Education
According to Dewey, education was a preparation for life that allowed cultures to survive over time and that allowed all individuals to have the fullest life possible in a social environment using democratic ideals. He felt that educators should be as interested in the interests of children as they were in the environments from which they were coming. Education according to Dewey is a social process that should be flexible and always have an objective in mind. The aim of education is the growth in the ability to learn from experience and to make good decisions based on that experience because humankind is ultimately responsible for bringing order to the universe. Education should be a process that looks at the past for guidance, choosing the ideas that work and apply for the situations of today, solving problems

intelligently rather than automatically relying on tradition. They believe that educators should seek out new process, incorporate traditional and contemporary ideas, or create new ideas to deal with the changing world. There is a great deal of stress placed on sensitivity to consequences, but are quick to state that consideration should be given to the method of arriving at the consequences. The means to solving a problem is as important as the end. The scientific method is important in the thinking process for pragmatists, but it was not to seem like sterile lab thinking. Pragmatists want to apply the scientific method for the greater good of the world. They believe that although science has caused many problems in our world, it can still be used to benefit mankind.

The Progressive pragmatic movement believed in separating children by intelligence and ability in order to meet the needs of society. The softer side of that philosophy believed in giving children a great deal of freedom to explore, leading many people to label the philosophy of pragmatism in education as permissive.

Educational Aims of pragmatism

Pragmatists believe that the aims are always determined by individual not by any organization or any structure. Perhaps the best statement of what might be called the pragmatists educational aims can be found in the writing of John Dewey. The aim for education is to teach children to be comfortable in their learning environment to an extent that children are living their life. Dewey believed in this type of environment that is not considered a preparation for life, but life. He believed that educators should know the things that motivate and interest children and plan accordingly. Dewey believed that aims should grow out of existing conditions, be tentative, and have an end view. In Democracy and education, he wrote that education is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience. The aim that might be

derived from the foregoing definition of education would include the helping of the child to develop in such a way as to contribute to his continued growth.

While Dewey disliked the use of the term aims in its usual sense because it implied an end and Dewey saw on final and permanent end to education, he did set down three characteristics of good educational aims. These were:

1.

An educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activates and

needs (including original instinct and acquired habits) of the given individual to be educated it is one thing to use adult accomplishments as a context in which to place and survey the doings of childhood and youth; it is quite another to set them up as a fixed aim without regard to the concrete activates of those educated.

2.

An aim must be capable of translation into a method of cooperation

with the activities of those undergoing instruction. It must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberated and to organize their capacities. Until the democratic criterion of the intrinsic significance of every growing experience is recognized, we shall be intellectually confused by the demands for adaptation to external aims.

3.

Educators have to be on their guard against ends that are alleged to be

general and ultimate. Every activity, however specific is , of course, general in its ramified connection of possible future achievements, the less his present activity is tied down to a small number of alternatives. If one knew enough, one could star almost anywhere and sustain his activities continuously and fruitfully. Thus, it would seem safe to ay that for Dewey and the pragmatists the one aim in education is to provide the conditions that make growth possible.

The concept of Student

The student is an experiencing organism capable of using intelligence to resolve its problems. He learns as he experiences; as he dose and as he undergoes. As a thinking organism his experiences, and his reflections upon those experiences become a part of him determining his likes, dislikes, and the future direction of his learning. The pragmatist views the student as a whole organism constantly interacting with the environment. The school is both a part of this environment and a special manmade environment designed to provide the best possible educative experience to the learner. For this reason the student is especially involved in interaction with the school.

The whole organism which is the child consists of the biological child, the psychological child, and the social child. The experiencing organism that is the learner brings to school with him all the meanings, values, and experiences that constitute his personality : his self.

The concept of Teacher

The role of the teacher is important in successfully educating children. The teacher must capture the childs interest and build on the natural motivation that exists. Teachers need to remember to vary their teaching methods to accommodate each individual learning style. Not all children learn at the same pace or are at the same point; therefore, the teacher must vary his/her style. Dewey believed that knowledge should be organized and relate to current experiences.

The teacher, for the pragmatist, is a member of the learning group who serves in the capacity of helper, guide, and arranger of experiences. He is as involved in the educative process as are this students. An error common among many who chose to call themselves progressive educators and who swear they are simply following in the footsteps of such men as Dewey, Kilpatrick, Bode, and Counts is the confusion of the concept of freedom and laissez-faire. As Childs has pointed out, . If by a childcentered school is meant a school in which the immature are left free to do

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whatever their own momentary impulses and whims suggest, the pragmatists want to part in it. Thus, the pragmatic teacher does not abdicate responsibility. If anythings just the opposite is true. The teacher is responsible for wiring with the students and helping them develop their own projects. He advises and directs projects and activates that arise out of the felt needs of the students rather than those of the teacher. He must arrange the conditions by, as Dewey indicates, simplifying, purifying, ordering and balancing the environment is such a way as to provide the experiences that will contribute the most to the growth of this students.

Curriculum Framework
It would only be a slight exaggeration to say that the universe is the subject matter for the pragmatist. Any educative experience is the subject matter of the pragmatists curriculum any experience contributing to growth. The subject mater exists ready to be explored, but the real concern must always be for the interaction of the pupil with the subject matter of his current needs, capacities, and concerns.

Teachers and students have a tendency to view subject matter in different ways. For the teacher it is organized into bodies of knowledge which generally show a progression from the simple to the more complex, but for the student this is not the case. As a child stands before a complex structure, he sees only what is, at the moment, important to him. As homely example may suffice. A child in a building being viewed as an architectural masterpiece by a class is concerned with only those architectural aspects of the building that meet his particular needs. If he is hungry, he is more than likely going to be most interested in the snack bar. If he is thirsty, he will be interested in the water fountain. And, if he has a full bladder, the only architectural concern he will fine of interest will be the location of the bathroom.

The child cannot, in his earlier years in school, distinguish subject matter as teacher so often understand it from his own interests and needs. Thus, the closer the two can be aligned, the more successful will the teaching and learning situation become. In the

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early yeas, according to many pragmatists, the curriculum should not be hindered by subject matter lines but rather should be divided into units which grow out of the questions and the experiences of the learners. The curriculum is learner- centered. In changes and shifts as the needs of the learners vary.

Subject matter, per se, and the traditional arrangement of subject matter are seen as an arbitrary and wasteful system to which all learners have been forced to conform. The pragmatist rejects this system in order to center the subject matter around the problems and needs of the learner.

Instructional Methodology
To discuss the methods of teaching employed by the pragmatist is to open up a veritable Pandoras box. The widest variety of techniques have been justified in the mane of pragmatic philosophy, ranging from the almost complete laissez-faire to the relatively structured. Probably the most common method employed by those most in line with the Thinking of the pragmatists is the project method. Classroom discussion in a free and open atmosphere is encouraged, as well as individual problem solving research. All of this may well involve a tremendous amount of reading, studying, and traditional subject matter mastery.

The methods of educating are unique to each individual. This philosophy believes that not all children learn the same way, so it is important to vary educational methods. This philosophy supports large print text, small desk, and things that move easily. The classroom would be a functional atmosphere with the interest of the children at hand. Problem solving, themes, experiments are all parts of the pragmatic philosophy. The curriculum for the pragmatic philosophy supports a connection between knowledge and experience. It is important for children to connect the two so learning can become meaningful. According to Dewey, children must be interested in the subject matter to gain meaning. Subjects that are difficult and cause children to struggle should be organized and designed to build motivation about the topics. Children should enjoy learning and leave with a sense of accomplishment.

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The problems around which education is centered must be the real problems of the students, not problems from txst books, or even problems thought up by the teachers which have a neat solution that can be revealed at the end of the exercise. True learning in no way resembles the magicians trick of pulling rabbits or pigeons out of top hats. Pragmatic method is rooted in the psychological needs of the students rather than in the logical order of the subject matter. Thus, method is nothing more than the helping of the students to use intelligence and the scientific method in the solution of problems that are meaningful to the child.

In the actual process of teaching there are a number of things that need to be kept in mind. First, we must start where the learner is. As William Heard Kilpatrick has pointed out,

Kilpatrick goes on to suggest that the teacher discuss with the students the interests of the class and the types of things they would like to study. Interest is not enough. It is necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for selecting an area of concern. It should also offer a challenge and significant educational value. It is important that the subject selected by the students be one to which they are committed as wholeheartedly as possible. For if the topic has their commitment, then the value of self direction may be implemented. the teacher will from start to finish encourage in the pupils as high a degree of self-directed responsible acting on thinking as it is possible to get. To feel ones self acting responsibly and so helping to create what is being done, and to do this in a way to deserve respect from others, is one of the very keenest of satisfactions. Thus, the method is primarily one of guidance. Finally, Kilpatrick gives some practical suggestions which deal with methodology. As the man whose entire academic career at Teachers College, Columbia University, was dedicated to putting into educational practice the theories arrived at by John Dewey, they may be said to represent the best thinking on the subject of education method done by a pragmatist.

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The teacher will as well as possible help the learners at each stage of the effort: (i) to initiate the activity (to form or choose the purpose); (ii) to plan how to carry the activity forward, (iii) to execute to plan: (iv) to evaluate progress during the activity and the result at the end. While all this is going forward the teacher will also (v) encourage the learners to think up and note suggestions or new leads for other and further work; (vi) help them to formulate these suggestions both for clarification of thinking and for later recall and possible use (perhaps writing them in a book or on the board for future reference); (vii) help pupils criticize their thinking en route or at the close, as may seen wise; and finally (viii) look back over the whole process to pick up and fix important kinds of learning as well as draw lessons for the future from both successes and failures.

Critical appraisal of Pragmatism

The pragmatic philosophy of education has probably been subjected to more criticism, both valid and invalid, than any other education philosophy. This is, in part, because of its liberal orientation. Social, economic, political and educational conservatives have found it a useful target for the pointed finger and the cry of anathema. To some extent the criticisms have been justified, but for the most part the pragmatists have simply stood as a convenient scapegoat for the demagogues. Even today, in many parts of the nation, conservative candidates for political office are expected to swear their eternal opposition to progressive education and the prime devil of the movement, John Dewey. In None Dare Call It Treason by John Stormer, a book which became a major campaign document for conservatives during the political wars of 1964, John Dewey is characterized as Denying God, he held to the Marxist concept that man is without a soul or free will. His educational experiments in Chicago are dismissed in the following tow sentences. They were dismal failures. Children learned nothing. As for Deweys philosophy orientation toward education, Stormer describes is as follows. Taken to a logical conclusion. Deweys theory would have the child who finds himself in the company of thieves become a thief also. The tendency to justify

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immoral or unethical conduct by rationalizing that everybody dose it is rooted in Deweys teaching. The author goes on to say, Strict acceptance of Deweys theories would eliminate teaching world geography unless the child can take a trip around the world. History would be eliminated from the curriculum, because it is past and will not be relieved by the student.

While it would be impossible to refute all of the fallacious criticisms to which John Dewey and his philosophical statements have been subjected, it is perhaps worth noting that John Stormers book, between February and July of 1964, went through eleven printings with a total of 1,400,000 copies coming off the presses. The author was, as that time, chairman of the Missouri Federation of Yong Republicans and as member of the Republican State Committee of Missouri. Thus, because of the authors political position, the strategic time of publication, and the subject matter, the book received widespread publicity and was widely read. Unfortunately many Americans received their basic introduction to John Dewey and his philosophy in its pages. How accurate it may be can perhaps be determined through use of the following quote form John Deweys most popular book on education, democracy and Education, which sets forth his view on the subject of history and geography.

Geography and history supply subject matter which gives background and outlook, intellectual perspective; to what might otherwise be narrow personal actins or mere forms of technical skill. With every increase of ability to place our own doings in their time and space connections, our doings gain is significant content. We realize that we citizens of no mean city in discovering the scene in space of which we are denizens, and the continuous manifestation of endeavor in time of which hw ear heir and continues. Thus our ordinary daily experiences cease to be things of the moment and gain enduring substance.

Aside from the criticisms of those who seek to make political or social capital from Dewey and his educational theories, there are a number of critics and a variety of criticisms which need to be heard with regard to the pragmatic position in both philosophy and education.

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1. Weak Ontology

It has been argued that the whole structure of the pragmatic position is relatively unstable due to its lack of a sound ontological base. The contention that eh pragmatist do not concern themselves with the clarification of their ontological assumptions is valid. Because of their general orientation, the pragmatic movement has emphasized concerns of an epistemological nature.

2. Anti-Intellectualism

Another criticism often leveled at he pragmatic movement is that it is essentially antiintellectual. While this is perhaps an perhaps an overstatement, it is true that the main area of concern for pragmatists is the marketplace of daily life. Thus, those philosophies oriented toward a rather rationalistic a priori type of though will find the pragmatists empirical and anti-intellectual.

3. Theory of Truth On of the seemingly weakest points in the pragmatists chain of though, and the one that has probably subjected the pragmatists to more valid and invalid criticism than any other theory of truth. If truth is seen as constantly being changed and tested, rather than as a stable body of knowledge, the whole stability of the universe is previous experience, which has been oriented toward finding and cataloging such truths, will go for naught. All other major philosophical systems are concerned with the nature of truth, and historically the vast majority have found a core of stable, unchanging, absolute values on which they could rely. The very fact that pragmatism challenges the existence of this core makes it, for many, a dangerous and radical philosophy.

4. School as Instrument of Social Change

For schoolmen the idea that there are no absolute and unchanging truths offers another dangerous challenge that many feel unable or unwilling to accept.

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Traditionally the school has been viewed as societys instrument for the preservation and continuation of our cultural heritage. While the pragmatists would not argue with this, they would carry it a step further. The school and the whole process of education should be an instrument of social change and social improvement. Not only should students be taught (and even here the pragmatists would probably prefer to say not only should students be helped to learn.) factual materials, they should deal with social problems. More conservative schoolmen will argue that this is not the function of the school and that if the school and the classroom become instrument of inquiry and of social change, we are moving away from stability and toward anarchy.

5. Theoretical Rather the Practical Perhaps the greatest criticism that can be leveled at the pragmatic philosophers in the field of education is that while they have madder great inroads in educational theory, and some inroads in educational practice in the elementary schools, they are, from most educators, a group of thinkers largely ignored beyond the payment of ritual lipservice. This should be especially painful to those who would support a philosophy that measures much in terms of the practical consequences of a course of action. In fact, pragmatism in education is for the most part nothing but a straw man set up by the critics so they may knock it down. While preached loudly in the classroom of institutions of teacher education, it is not practiced in these very same classrooms or very many others around the country.

6. Cult of Personality

Pragmatism has had a wide appeal to the mind of educators despite its general failure to emerge into practice. Because of this, and because of the many years of teaching by such pragmatists as John Dewey, Boyd Bode, William Heard Kilpatrick, and others, a whole cult grew up calling themselves progressive educators. For inspiration they largely turned toward Teachers College, Columbia University; but while turning in the direction of this fount of educational wisdom, they too often took as the gospel of progressive education third, fourth and fifth-hand accounts of what the intellectual leaders of the movement said and meant. This cult of personality and hero worship, coupled wit the failure or inability of many progressive educators to either read or understand the thinking of the educational theorist, too often led to a warmed over

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form of laissez-fair freedom in the classroom. The progressive education movement was, in fact, guilty of what must have been for the leaders of the pragmatic movement the greatest of all sins, reliance on authority as absolute. Because of this, and because of the burden of clichs the progressive movement has had to bear, it has had little opportunity to try its wings in the arena of public education.

Pragmatism as a philosophy of education has not totally been used correctly. Many schools have used certain parts of the philosophy, but not many use it consciously. Most people were interested in using the practical parts than focusing on the philosophy. Pragmatism as an educational belief does not have everyone agreeing. Some believe that it is too vague and others believe it is too watered down.

After analyzing pragmatism, we feel that this philosophy best describes our teaching style. This philosophy was easier to understand and make connections. Pragmatism reminds teachers to individualize their instruction to meet the needs of each learner. One must remember to keep old traditions, but incorporate new idea.

REFERENCES1. 2. Adams, The Educational Theory Macmillan &Co. Broudy, Harry S., Building a Philosophy of Education. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1961. 3. Butler, J.Donald, Four Philosophies and Their Practice in Education and Cunningham, J.K., Problems of Philosophy, p-05. Frank Thilly, A History of philosophy, Central Publishing House,

Religion. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1957. 4. 5.

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Allahabad. 6. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, p-38. London, University of John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1960, Introduction. Piece, Chance, love and Logic (M.R. Cohen, Editor). Harcourt, Brace and Rusk, R.R., Philosophical Basis of Education p-68, footnote, London,

London Press Ltd. 1921. 7. 8. Co. 9.

University of London Press, 1956.. 10. The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Sixth Edition, III. Impression, 1976, p-868.