When an ism isn't an ism

Some rather old words from John Dewey could be applied to current arguments for current educational movements such as constructivism:

"Those who are looking ahead to a new movement in education, adapted to the existing need for a new social order, should think in terms of Education itself rather than in terms of some 'ism about education, even such an 'ism as "progressivism." For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an 'ism becomes so involved in reaction against other 'isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them."

John Dewey (1938) "Experience and Education" New York: Kappa Delta Pi