Growth and Knowledge to more knowledge

I would like to give my thoughts on Dewey’s idea of growth and knowledge, building on some of the area Xin explored earlier.

Dewey seems to state that a piece of information held by an individual is not knowledge unless it is able to develop growth for the benefit of a democratic society. That in order for information to become knowledge it must be able to pass some type of democratic moral filter. It seems that knowledge should be more basic than that. My engineering (black and white hat) wants to come on and say “No.” Knowledge happens if you attain some sort of fact. It does not need to be true or false or “right” or “wrong.” Those are different subjects than knowledge. There should be another category of the knowledge that the philosopher believes is important and needs to be harnessed and passed on.

Now with the reflecting, I find myself asking, what I believe the important knowledge that should be focused on within a society. I am finding that each of the philosophers has a piece of education I believe in, even the ones that contradict. I see children having an inherent goodness that needs to be preserved, as well as needing strong moral codes to create foundation within their early career.

I am creating a Mary Poplins like list of the ideal education system, where a student taught fundamental information, but able to explore topics of their own interests. Where students are pushed to their individual limits, but feel comforted in a surrounding of community. Critical thinking where students area able to question the status quo, but able to work within the current society, since that is where they are at.

As I write this I see there is a lot of parallels with Palmer, and his philosophies on teaching in Paradox.