Original sentence: Always at the forefront of the battle between the traditional and progressive education of his day, he is today often criticized for "what he did to our schools," a catch-all phrase which never actually pinpoints any specific criticism as it is not apparent that he really did anything directly to the schools, nor even that he fully approved of much of what passed for progressivism
Edited sentence: "I believe that we violate the child's nature and render difficult the best ethical results, by introducing the child too abruptly to a number of special studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc."The mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively an individual affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness., out of relation to this social life.Always at the forefront of the battle between the traditional and progressive education of his day, he is today often criticized for "what he did to our schools,".By Dewey's own words, he also seemingly viewed a child's perceived connection to his social peer group as more important than actual learning:.He based many of his recommendations for American education off of the Soviet model.Much of this seems to stem from some of Dewey's philosophies as they relate to the role of education in America, and what effect such would have on children.One also has to realise that it wasn't until schools in America adopted Dewey's methods that they began to decline on the quality of education.Some point to the statement credited to Dewey, "Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent", as an indication of this agenda.There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat.This did not, however, prevent him from praising the Soviet Union's system of carefully controlled government programming in their educational methods, so much that he eventually accepted an invitation by the Soviet Union in 1928 to observe schools in the USSR