John Dewey was one of the greatest minds in history. A philosopher, his concern was democracy and its ideals. A thinker about the problems in education. A prominent voice in America, commanding the admiration of those who agreed with his views, and respect for his mind even from those who did not. The man: John Dewey, an American philosopher.
Dewey’s pedagogy was one with three distinctive traits: it was democratic in that it called for pluralism. It was a follower of the scientific method in that it was a systemic approach at solving problems and forming judgments, both practical and moral. It prized directed experience as an ongoing process of means as ends and ends as means. These three traits of Dewey’s philosophy are tied to all that he wrote and thought.
Dewey felt that democracy was the ideal social structure, the one best suited to the needs and aims of all people; under no other political scheme was it possible for general citizens to have allowance and responsibility to grow individually and culturally. All other systems hindered personal and social growth in Dewey’s scheme. Any form of despotic state used fear to such an extent that it became one of the only factors that kept the state in union, and the other factors that would naturally cause people to work together in their social environments were perverted and wasted. “Instead of operating on their own account they are reduced to mere servants of attaining pleasure and avoiding pain” (DE, 84).
The cultural paralysis was seen in the fact that “there is no free play back and forth among the members of the social group. Stimulation and response are exceedingly one-sided.” Both the rich and poor suffer: the poor in that they have little involvement in the courses taken in their lives; the rich in that their “culture becomes sterile” (DE, 84).
Dewey asserted that “democracy has always been allied with humanism, with faith in the potentials of human nature” and that “democracy means the belief that humanistic culture should prevail.” He advised that democracy is not something that will necessarily happen if “human nature is left to itself, when freed from external arbitrary restriction” (FC, 97). Democracy, for Dewey, was a moral issue that required efforts born in democratic vision. Democracy was Dewey’s tool of progress. But Dewey also saw that democracy did not guarantee progress.
The imper...
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...nt. Otherwise facts gained only have the potential to gain meaning, and many facts will turn out to be disconnected, never finding their place in a person’s experience. Facts grow naturally out of meaningful experience, but meaningful experience which leads to more facts do not necessarily flow from facts.
Dewey wrote that “the tragic weakness of the present school is that it endeavors to prepare future members of the social order in a medium in which the conditions of the social spirit are eminently wanting” (SSCC, 15). The conditions wanting were democracy, rational judgment conducive of the scientific method, and a conception of experience that recognizes the continuous nature of ends as means of further action.
What Dewey wanted was ideal, but it was not utopian. He knew that we should do better, that we could do better. The question was more whether there was a will to do better.
References
Dewey, John. 1944. Democracy and Education (DE). New York: The Free Press.
Dewey, John. 1989. Freedom and Culture (FC). Buffalo: Prometheus Books.
Dewey, John. 1964. The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum (SSCC). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dewey’s philosophy of pragmatism and his creation of progression education, simply emphasize the need to learn by doing (Rivera-Castro). His idea that children learn best by doing and exploring the environment around them plays well into Greene’s idea of being wide-awake and allowing teachers and students to create
Democracy may be the best foundation on which to build a society, but to glorify it
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
Janda, Kenneth. Berry, Jeffrey. Goldman, Jerry (2008). The Challenge of Democracy (9th ed.). Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
People who work hard for their goals experience true happiness. True happiness is the feeling you get when you try to complete your ultimate aim in life. People in the pursuit of education experience this greatly because they are striving to pass their classes to succeed academically. Anthony writes, “No doubt some of the experience I have in my relationships are part of what is good about them, part of what makes the relationship contribute to my flourishing, to what is good in my life” (Kwame Anthony Appiah 450). The experience, he feels during a relationship is what makes him happy in life not the relationship itself. This is similar to how education experience works because many people enjoy the hard work they put into their academics rather than the grades they receive. Dewey believed that education was a way for someone to complete their goal in life. He states, “If a few words are added upon the topic of education, it is only for the sake of suggesting that the educative process is all one with moral process, since the latter is a continuous passage of experience from worse to better” (John Dewey 401). Dewey is explaining that the experience of education allows people to develop their moral process and happiness. Dewey’s ideas on education combined with Anthony’s views on happiness support the idea that one’s experience in education directly influences their happiness. In short, the pursuit of education is an
... to do. I favor parts of Dewey’s philosophy because it is a hands-on approach to learning. However, I believe that the students need instruction. I believe that everyone can be educated to the furthest of their abilities if given the proper tools to learn. There is no shame in vocational schooling because society as a whole needs people for every job. Plowing a field is just as important as writing poetry, and some people are destined for both. Overall, with philosophers like Froebel, Dewey and Dewey, Strike and Soltis, and DuBois, I have gained knowledge that I will take with me forever and apply in my classrooms.
When he toured prisons, he would not touch a doorknob without first wiping it off with a folded handkerchief. He also drank three quarts of water a day because of the presumed health effects. Dewey achieved much, but had he been less ridged and more open-minded he might have achieved more, and he might have been a happier person. R.N.... ...
The political culture that defines American politics shows that despite this compromise, America is still very much a democratic society. The very history of the country, a major contributor to the evolution of its political culture, shows a legacy of democracy that reaches from the Declaration of Independence through over two hundred years to today’s society. The formation of the country as a reaction to the tyrannical rule of a monarchy marks the first unique feature of America’s democratic political culture. It was this reactionary mindset that greatly affected many of the decisions over how to set up the new governmental system. A fear of simply creating a new, but just as tyrannic... ...
Dewey had a holistic child in mind as he developed his theory. Dewey encouraged teachers to involve students within their learning environment (Webb, Metha, Jordan 2013). Dewey wanted each child to learn through experiential means. This meant the task at hand for teachers was to change their teaching methods and to encourage their students to play a part in their learning. This changed education by allowing students to ask questions and to learn by trying direct experiences. John Dewey wanted teachers to take on a whole new thinking process when approaching education in their classrooms. This approach was meant to get rid of the scientific approach and to embrace a new child-centered approach (Schrag 2009). A large area that Dewey influenced and continues to today is within the early education classrooms. Although Dewey helped teachers to make advancements, the Cold War brought up a new challenge; the Science and Math Education
The problem in the book “Reconstruction in Philosophy” was that, people in the earlier years upheld tradition and values by past experiences. Instead of calling it “memory” we call it tradition, in the book Dewey say’s values are embedded in social traditions. In memory there are two factors that must relate to each other, values which are the traditionally, conservative factor, we have to conserve what we value, the second factor is facts, we have to know how to progress. Tradition was held at a very high standard than facts were they were never connected because people were not open to change, because they followed memories of past history. Past civilization, followed past history and past religion, it was more tradition and little science involved in thoughts. People did not question life, they just followed what everybody thought was right. Dewey gives an example of Socrates in the book “Reconstruction in Philosophy” and explain how Socrates tried to put together thoughts and values but because of old traditions his new way of thinking was not accepted by most, ultimately leading to his demise. In the second chapter, Dewey introduces the philosopher Francis Bacon; Bacon thought knowledge is the most important factor but he rather new knowledge than old knowledge. Dewey states that Francis bacon is “the great forerunner of the spirit of modern life”; he embraces change, the world changes and peoples old tradition does not fit in the new world anymore. We have o change our values because the old tradition does not fit the new values. We have to adjust the way we think, adapt and change the way we think to changing situations. This addresses the problem of why philosophy needs to be reconstructed, as time goes by things change, ...
Postman says that if education is to survive, it must have an end. In this essay, we will discuss what these ends are, and how they compare with the “ends” of John Dewey. Dewey believes that it is the very nature of life is to strive to continue being alive, and that education is the most important way to achieve that. Postman says that the learning process should never really ever end. These two educational philosophers, when you examine them, actually have similar theories.
Barry, Brian. "Is Democracy Special?" in Philosophy, Politics, & Society, 5th Series, ed. Peter Laslett & James Fishkin. Hew Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
John Dewey was one of the most influential American philosopher born in Vermont in 1859. He graduated from the University of Vermont and eventually got his Ph.D. and went on to teaching at other universities. In his book Experience and Education he talks about traditional education, the theory of experience, criteria of experience, social control, the nature of freedom, the meaning of purpose, progressive organization, and at the end he raps it up with the means and goals of education. Dewey was a well-known philosopher and his ideas travel all around during the early 20th century. He had two main principles; the principle of continuity and the principle of interaction that led to what he believed was the proper way to educated students.
Dewey, John, and Reginald D. Archambault. John Dewey on education; selected writings.. New York: Modern Library, 1964. Print.
It was not until the 1840s when character education became a priority focus within the classroom. Horace Mann was an American politician and education reformer who is known as the ‘father of public school.’ Mann said that the key to good society is “best expressed in these few and simple words: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it’(ppt).” Reflecting on Mann’s quote, I believe he was sharing his belief that public school could have a positive social and moral effect on students beyond the academic benefit they receive from the classroom and that he felt it was worthy of being intentionally taught. When Horace Mann passed away in the 1850s, John Dewey took that notion even deeper than Mann and emphasized the impact of character and moral education on the current society as well as the society of the future. Dewey believed that the school should create an environment similar to a community center in the sense of giving students an awareness regarding how their choices and behavior affect