What Was The New School Movement About?
The new school movement was characterized by being broad and complex with disparate ideological orientations. In other words, it was made up of various theoretical and practical contributions from different thinkers from around the world.
Arisen first in Europe and later spread to other countries of the world, it was a true movement of general renewal in the educational field.
A new concept of school and education
On the basis of the theoretical precedents established by the Enlightenment developed by authors such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi or Frobel, the new school movement was born. Also known as pedagogy or progressive education. the new school consisted, basically, of making a critique of the traditional education that existed at the time.
The new school movement arises as a defense and vindication of a school that has the child as the main protagonist, attending to their needs and desires. A school far from the traditional conception of formal, authoritarian and disciplining teaching, which considered the student as a passive subject.
Authors such as Dewey, Piaget, Vigotsky, Cousinet, Ausubel, Ferriere, Montessori, and Freire, among others, have made great contributions over the years to found a new concept of school. This new concept of school was based on an education conceived mainly on the following principles:
- Understanding the needs of childhood, as a stage of life governed by laws and particular needs.
- The respect for the personality of the student and his freedom.
- The constant interrelation between a practical and manual education with an education of concepts.
- The promotion of group work without the need for any student to lose their character of individuality.
- A functional educational action from both an individual and a social perspective.
- The importance given to symbolic learning for development in social life situations.
- The consideration of the individualities of people with respect to their family and cultural, work and religious context.
- A comprehensive education aimed at all dimensions of the person ranging from cognitive and intellectual development, such as emotional and social, and physical and artistic development.
Main contributions of the new school movement
Many of the principles on which our current education is based come from the breakthroughs and breakthroughs achieved by the new school movement. The consideration of an education in freedom, practical, participatory, vital and democratic is an important legacy of the new school movement, where the child, his individuality and his learning based on his biological evolution have the main role.
The school of our time, thanks to the movement of the new school, conceives a new type of child and pupil. A child who is capable, thanks to the mediation and help of educators, to become an autonomous and responsible person.
The new school movement advocated an education that did not promote competitiveness, but formed in cooperation. This idea is taken up by our current educational system, organizing teaching based on competencies. That is, the learning of appropriate competencies both for the world of work and professional, as well as others associated with the development of a democratic and responsible coexistence.
Therefore, as the new school movement did, education today has as its main purpose to educate for life, but always about the consideration of school as life.
Conclution
In short, there are many contributions that the new school movement has made to the conception of education and the shaping of our current educational system.
But we could say that the main legacy to education and current pedagogy has been the permanent need to rethink and modify educational practices. Above all, when these practices are not aimed at the formation of free citizens capable of building an increasingly plural, tolerant and inclusive society.
