Theories of Childhood, Second Edition (Carol Garhart Mooney) / quote 8 of 70
Don't bemoan the good old days
In 1899 John Dewey gave a talk to the parents of children in his school. The parents were worried about the changing times. On the edge of the industrial age, these parents of one hundred years ago were old enough to remember the “agricultural era” in the United States. They remembered when children were educated at home by watching their parents do meaningful work. They thought the new generation lacked character and values. Dewey agreed with parents that the home was no longer educating children in the way it had in the past, but he gave them good counsel. “We cannot overlook the factors of discipline and of character building involved . . . but it is useless to bemoan the departure of the good old days of children’s modesty, reverence, and implicit obedience, if we expect merely by bemoaning and by exhortation to bring them back” (Dewey 1899, 19, 21).