Prompt 4: Dewey

Entering my school for the first time, I saw the school as a slightly rundown building in an old neighborhood that seems to be placed in the middle of a moderate sized city. Judging strictly on the appearances, I thought the school would be filled with students of low-income families. That however, was a misconception. I am still unaware of the general income of the families whose children attend the school, but by observing the students, they seem to have many of the same cultural influences as students in other areas of the state.

In one of my tutoring sessions, my advising teacher, Mrs. Smith had the students work in rotating groups. One group would be doing silent reading, another would be working on their personal laptops, a third would be working on reading comprehension with Mrs. Smith, and the fourth group would be doing math problems with me, every 15 minutes or so the groups would rotate to the next station to do other work. The group in one of my rotations was not having trouble with the math from that week, so while we waited for Mrs. Smith to finish up in her group, the students had a quick side conversation. It all started with one of the students saying “Man, I had to sell my sidekick the other day”. This comment started a conversation about which generation sidekick he had, what type of phone he is getting to replace it, how much he sold it for, etc.

Needless to say I was completely shocked. (After it ended, I realized I probably shouldn’t have let them continue with the conversation, but I couldn’t help it- I was so interested.) These kids are 10 or 11 years old! I didn’t have a cell phone at that age. Please- sidekicks weren’t even invented when I was their age. Of course I automatically thought- who does a 10 year old need to call? Better yet- who does a 10 year old need to email?! I’m almost 20 years old, a sophomore in college, have been working since I was 14 years old, and I don’t even have a sidekick. After listening in on this conversation, I now understand when older people talk about the younger generation and their technology- I felt so old!

This short conversation showed me how the society affects children in every socioeconomic position. Children know the values society puts on material things, and in turn they find value in those same things. What surprised me is not only how this one student started talking about his cellphone, but also that every other student in the group knew details about the phone. I see this as a perfect example of socialization brought up in Jonathon Dewey’s The Democratic Conception in Education.

Dewey writes that the social group an individual is associated with teaches the norms and values of that group. Therefore, socialization depends of the habits of that group, “any education given by a group tends to socialize its members, but the quality and value of the socialization depends upon the habits and aims of the group”(pg2). I was very shocked to see children of such a young age be concerned with the same materialistic concerns of adults. Education is a social process, so these children have been socialized and taught indirectly the values and norms of the society they are living in.

Entering this classroom I had a misconception that the children would be from low income families, where things such as new electronics would not be the main priority. I would be surprised if any student in elementary school, or even middle school had a smartphone. The purpose of the phone is to make calls, text, check emails, and go on the internet, I personally don’t think those are necessities a young child has, should be allowed to have, or needs to do at the touch of a button. Maybe (most likely) I’m a little outdated, as the world is constantly changing and new technologies are constantly being invented. I got my first cell phone when I was about 13, and only used it to call my parents for rides home or things of that nature, however texting was unpopular- if even around at all.

Do you think that technology becoming more mainstream and being available to everyone is a good thing? Do you think it is a disservice to children when it comes to establishing material values? Do you think children (or adults) will possibly loosing face-to-face conversational abilities as texting and email become more popular? How about the idea having the uncensored internet available to children at all times?