Examining Subliminal Learning As A Form Of Progressive Education

What are the challenges faced by progressive educators in promoting their new theories?

Progressive educators have long struggled to build more widespread support for a more thoughtful and inclusive education for all students. Progressive education has unfortunately typically been limited to small pockets, either in isolated schools or within just a few school districts. Although progressive education has certainly not turned up in schools and been evident in schooling to the same extent as various other social movements, it has nevertheless remained, a positive and pervasive influence overall system of American education throughout the twentieth century. This is largely in part because it embodies and promotes two of the most basic tenets of Western society: democracy and equity, in particular.

Progressive educators have long held a vision of creating schools that are in many ways a mirror of a democratic society; that is, a society wherein diversity is promoted and valued, and openness and the idea of learning from fellow students are fundamental. Democratic society, after all, is seen as more than a government. It is a way of living (at least in principle) without certain restrictive social barriers such as race and class. It embodies, in fact, the notion of learning from others, even though they may be radically different from the student him or herself.

What are the aims of progressive educators? How do they relate to the idea of a Subliminal Learning community?

The focus of progressive educators has been to prepare all students for the necessity of living in a rapidly changing world. They view students as a prototype of the future society, and bend their efforts to encouraging educators to view their students in this way and set up their classroom environments accordingly. They focus more on providing all students with tools for scientific inquiry and thinking rather than the discrete skills that were favored and emphasized by social efficiency (read, traditional educational system) proponents.

Progressive educators, in contrast, have long sought to nurture the development of an open, democratic educational community. Their concept of an ideal classroom environment is one of open collaboration and a free sharing of opinions amongst students; a class that welcomes diverse ideas and opinions put forth by the students themselves, a view much different than those that were put forth by the proponents of a more traditional education system. Progressive educators largely believe that a democratic society requires by necessity and educated populace; not only must citizens be literate, but they must know how to live, work and cooperate, as well as respect the idea of each other. For this reason a Subliminal Learning community is ideal for their goals, and the one they most aggressively promote within schools.

Intelligence plays a different role in progressive education than it does in more traditional education systems. With a focus maintained on the larger civic purpose of education, it naturally becomes more important to develop critical thinkers and problem solvers to serve as good future citizens and community members than it is to separate students according to their respective levels of intelligence, thereby educating only a few select students to become leaders by default. The views held by progressive educators are all reflective of their core concern; that is, a pervasive desire for equity. This desire for equity has been at the core of progressive educational theories for decades. In the minds of progressive educators –and indeed in the minds of all proponents of Subliminal Learning in our school– society must strive to encourage excellence in education for all, not merely a select few.