In the previous blog we reflected on changes experienced by faculty and staff over the course of the pandemic, regarding how and why they gather together. In this entry we continue to explore the art of gathering in the context of progressive philosophy and pedagogy by celebrating an enduring hallmark of the progressive education movement--the schoolwide assembly. Progressive education pioneer Colonel Francis Wayland Parker was the first to experiment with whole school gatherings as a regular part of the weekly school schedule. He called them “Morning Exercises,” and they were primarily student-led.

In his 1891 Talks on Pedagogics, one the most important thought leaders of the progressive education movement, Colonel Francis Wayland Parker, asserted, “Observation as a mode of attention, its relations to the central subjects of study, and its place in teaching, has significant educational value” (p. 107). A foundation to progressive philosophy and pedagogy — careful and first hand observation of self, society, and the natural world — is critical to a meaningful education. After all, explained Parker (2001), the motivation for lifelong learning “can only come to the one who gains some apprehension of the boundless knowledge and the depths of truth by actual personal experience” (pp. 128-129).

The spirit of Dewey is alive and well as we enter the sixth week of the University of Hawaiʻi’s Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy program! Engaged in coursework, which requires participants to generate their own questions as a starting point for inquiry and learning--the thinking that has emerged from this first cohort of students has brought to the surface some of the biggest problems facing education in our time and have provided an incredible window into the ways progressive educators are well-poised to engage in tough work to address each issue.