Do we know about progressive education? Yeah, DEWEY!

Taliesen West was one of the last great buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright personally had a hand in constructing. Created as an architecture school and living quarters in the desert of Arizona, Wright was the sole teacher for all adult students on campus. He believed his students would have the most valuable experience by "doing" architecture, so together they designed and the students built this gorgeous structure.

My tour guide when I visited Taliesen West last month (pictured left in the sunglasses) was a retired Chicago-area school teacher. He explained Wright was simply following the educational theory put forward by education pioneer, John Dewey. Dewey's concept of experiential learning meant that students were actively participating in what they were learning; the teacher is also participating, but takes a back seat so students are allowed in the "driver's seat," so to speak.

My tour guide lamented, however, that many pre-service teachers he met before his retirement had never heard of Dewey's groundbreaking theory. I was proud to tell him SAIC heavily emphasizes Dewey's theories and he complimented our program for doing so.

How, then, does my experience at Taliesen West relate to Grant Lichtman's TedTalk, "What 60 Schools Can Tell Us About Teaching 21st Century Skills"? After visiting (like the title of his talk suggests) roughly sixty schools across America Lichtman asked himself the question, "Where do we want to be as educators? What does great education look like?" His answer: DEWEY. Though Dewey's philosophy is over a century old, many modern educators remain stuck in the stifling industrial age model. Lichtman advocates for "preparing students for their future, not our own past." To me, this relates to teaching evolving technologies to the best of any school's ability, but with a heavier focus on the openness and overall adaptability of teachers in all subjects. From art to architecture to math and science, students deserve teachers that let them "do" as Dewey recommends.