October 20 marked the 150th anniversary of John Dewey’s birth. If he were alive today, the educational reformer would no doubt be aghast at the fact that the dominant educational philosophy still mimics that of an assembly line, with memorization and regurgitation of isolated “facts” organized in a pre-determined curriculum continuing to be important aspects of school life. As a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago in the 1880s and ’90s, Dewey foresaw that our increasing dependence on technology would require creative thinkers able to solve problems and be inventive…and that was not the sort of person schools were turning out. He pioneered the notion of informal learning, which was quite radical in its day, even though such learning was still organized as curriculum and programs. His ideas never really took hold in education systems because they required small classes and individual attention, and scorned testing. I think Dewey would, however, be pleased to observe today’s unschoolers and secular homeschoolers (Dewey wasn’t popular with the Christian fundamentalists of the day), for whom ideas like interest-led learning, lateral thinking, interconnections among academic “subjects,” attention to individual needs and learning styles, democratic classrooms, and children’s ownership of the learning process are part of life learning. He once wrote, “Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” He also wrote, “The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs.” And that describes as well as anything why his ideas haven’t been put to use beyond the progressive homeschooling community!