Category: Progressively Incorrect

In this episode of Progressively Incorrect, Zach Groshell and Bradley Arnold discuss "The Dynamic Tension at the Core of the Grammar of Schooling" by David F. Labaree (@DLabaree). The discussion has us both acknowledging that organizational needs - i.e., what is doable - often prevent large-scale changes to the "grammar of schooling", such as age-graded classrooms, teacher-centered instruction, and a decentralized curriculum.

In this episode of Progressively Incorrect, Zach Groshell and Bradley Arnold discuss a New York Times article by John Dewey with the headline, "Dewey Outlines Utopian Schools." Much of the discussion revolves around whether any of Dewey's utopian ideas could be realistically implemented in the world we live in, and both of us question whether informal interest-based learning without a core curriculum would do more harm than good.

In this episode of Progressively Incorrect, Zach Groshell and Bradley Arnold discuss "The Classroom Management Field Can't Stop Chasing the Wrong Goal" by Alfie Kohn (@alfiekohn). Brad suggests that in an ideal world progressive ideas of classroom management would be enough, but that we live in the real world. Zach wonders what use it is to live in any other world but the real world, and shares some of the real world strategies he's used for classroom management.

Wielding a popular inquiry cycle, Zach attempts to demonstrate that progressive thought encourages teachers to devalue knowledge, while Brad is reminded of (bad) teachers from his education who drilled isolated facts without helping students make connections between the facts.