Educational Experiences with Dewey John Dewey theorizes that the experiences we have in life frame our development. These experiences provide either education or miseducation, yet it is the educational experiences that create growth and encourage us to continue that growth in ourselves and others. A representation of both types of experiences, one that brought out growth and provoked asserted development, occurred in my high school years. This experience, however, also allowed for the use of growth in reorganizing my environment to create growth for others. In high school, I served on the principal search committee. Along with teachers, faculty, parents, other students, and the superintendent; we made decisions on who we thought fit our
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The benefit of seeing an interview from the reverse side helped improve my individual interviews. The first concern, of the committee, involved the formation of our questions for the candidates. Hearing everyone’s questions helped me think about what groups are looking for when they are hiring. Questions that seem simple in nature tend to test a person’s character or preparation for the interview. For example, one of our questions asked about the school and what the candidate would do in a certain behavioral scenario. My high school has a lot of behavioral issues and kids in special programs, so the interviewing committee would often look to see if a candidate seemed prepared and qualified to address these issues. My overall understanding of the interview process brought me inside the mind of an interviewer, and taught me to answer questions in a way that displays my talents and values. “Everything depends upon the quality of the experience which is had” (Dewey 27). So while educational experiences are the ideal experience, miseducation can also occur. Miseducation does not create growth and instead creates asserted development. These types of encounters in life can form social disconnectedness, disinterest, and alienation (Aoki 15). Miseducation discourages individuals drive to grow and often leaves them confused as to what is achievable. Although my experience on the search committee offered growth, …show more content…
Discussions served as the key form of communication for the search group. After each interview we would talk about the positives and negatives of each candidate. As a student, I approached each candidate with this question in mind; “Would this person connect with our student body and is he or she a person students could talk to if concerned about their education?” My opinions about the answers to these questions, however, were disregarded or looked over. For example, we asked the final three candidates to write a letter addressing the student body. After reading these letters I found one candidate to be too commanding and authoritative towards a school sensitive to change. Concerned, I explained how some might interpret the letter, but the adults stared at me with blank expressions while listening to the explanation. This angered me, I represented the student body, yet we went unheard in this important decision of our next educational
The benefit of seeing an interview from the reverse side helped improve my individual interviews. The first concern, of the committee, involved the formation of our questions for the candidates. Hearing everyone’s questions helped me think about what groups are looking for when they are hiring. Questions that seem simple in nature tend to test a person’s character or preparation for the interview. For example, one of our questions asked about the school and what the candidate would do in a certain behavioral scenario. My high school has a lot of behavioral issues and kids in special programs, so the interviewing committee would often look to see if a candidate seemed prepared and qualified to address these issues. My overall understanding of the interview process brought me inside the mind of an interviewer, and taught me to answer questions in a way that displays my talents and values. “Everything depends upon the quality of the experience which is had” (Dewey 27). So while educational experiences are the ideal experience, miseducation can also occur. Miseducation does not create growth and instead creates asserted development. These types of encounters in life can form social disconnectedness, disinterest, and alienation (Aoki 15). Miseducation discourages individuals drive to grow and often leaves them confused as to what is achievable. Although my experience on the search committee offered growth, …show more content…
Discussions served as the key form of communication for the search group. After each interview we would talk about the positives and negatives of each candidate. As a student, I approached each candidate with this question in mind; “Would this person connect with our student body and is he or she a person students could talk to if concerned about their education?” My opinions about the answers to these questions, however, were disregarded or looked over. For example, we asked the final three candidates to write a letter addressing the student body. After reading these letters I found one candidate to be too commanding and authoritative towards a school sensitive to change. Concerned, I explained how some might interpret the letter, but the adults stared at me with blank expressions while listening to the explanation. This angered me, I represented the student body, yet we went unheard in this important decision of our next educational