Dewey (1997) in Experience and Education discusses the two extremes of education: traditional education and progressive education. Extremely opposite from each other, these two forms of education bring with them positive and negative aspects. It can be said that the history of education is opposed to the idea that education is a development from within. (Dewey, 1997, p. 17) Dewey discusses three important aspects of education and schooling. These are, the nature of knowledge and how it is understood, what kind of people students should become, and what kind of society seems to be fostered. Traditional education can be seen as “…an imposition from above and from outside. It imposes adult standards, arguments, and methods on those who are only slowly growing into maturity. (Dewey, 1997, p. 19) Traditional education is strongly shaped by the surrounding society, schools try to do what they think society considers “correct”. For example, the best form of learning was thought to come from direct instruction where the teacher is at the front of the class and students sit at desks arranged in rows taking notes, learning through observation and listening. Rote learning was a very common form of learning, where students learned content through practice. Traditional teaching meant that the teacher was in control of the learning environment at all times. They had all the power and enormous responsibility, as they were ultimately the instructors and decision makers. “Teachers are the agents through which knowledge and skills are communicated and rules of conduct enforced.” (Dewey, 1997, p. 18) Traditional education viewed the teacher as the structure through which learning occurs. Traditional education aimed to prepare young people for…… half of paper……n. However, what is known about progressive education is that it allows everyone to think for themselves, giving the freedom to allow students to learn what they want to learn without having to justify why, whether it is right or wrong. Freedom for freedom's sake is a bad educational philosophy. (Dewey, 1997, p. 22) And as much as we would all like to think of ourselves as open-minded people, we will always be somewhat of society's prisoners with narrow conceptions of human capabilities. (Ayres, 2004, p. 140) Ultimately, educators are responsible for providing students with valuable experiences that should help them contribute to society. “Being the most mature member of the group, he has a peculiar responsibility for leading the interaction and intercommunications that are the very life of the group as a community.” (Dewey, 1997, p. 58)