Democracy and education
an introduction to the philosophy of education
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| Democracy and education - PDF by John Dewey |
Excerpt:
Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate beings is that the former maintain themselves by renewal,
A stone, when struck, resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it nonetheless tries to turn the energies that act upon it into means of its own further existence.
If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil.
To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word control in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment. In all the higher forms this process cannot be kept up indefinitely.
After a while they succumb; they die. The creature is not equal to the task of indefinite self-renewal. But the continuity of the life process is not dependent upon the prolongation of the existence of any one individual. Reproduction of other forms of life goes on in continuous sequence. And though, as the geological record shows, not merely individuals but also species die out, the life process continues in increasingly complex forms. As some species die out, forms better adapted to utilize the obstacles against which they struggled in vain come into being. Continuity of life means continual readaptation of the environment to the needs of living organisms.
We have been speaking of life in its lowest terms as a physical thing. But we use the word life to denote the whole range of experience, individual and racial. When we see a book called the Life of Lincoln we do not expect to find within its covers a treatise on physiology.
We look for an account of social antecedents; a description of early surroundings, of the conditions and occupation of the family; of the chief episodes in the development of character; of signal struggles and achievements; of the individual s hopes, tastes, joys and sufferings. In precisely similar fashion we speak of the life of a savage tribe, of the Athenian people, of the American nation. " Life " covers customs, institutions, be liefs, victories and defeats, recreations and occupations. We employ the word experience in the same pregnant sense. And to it, as well as to life in the bare physiological sense, the principle of continuity through renewal applies.
With the renewal of physical existence goes, in the case of human beings, the re-creation of beliefs, ideals, hopes, happiness, misery, and practices. The continuity of any experience, through renews- Education as a Necessity of life of the social group, is a literal fact. Education, in its broadest sense, is the means of this social continuity of life. Every one of the constituent elements of a social group, in a modern city as in a savage tribe, is born immature, helpless, without language, beliefs, ideas, or social standards. Each individual, each unit who is the carrier of the life-experience of his group, in time passes away.
Yet the life of the group goes on. The primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of each one of the constituent members in a social group determine the necessity of education. On one hand, there is a contrast between the immaturity of the newborn member* of the group its future sole representatives and the maturity of the adult members who possess the knowledge and customs of the group. On the other hand, there is the necessity that these immature members be not merely physically preserved in adequate numbers, but that they are initiated into the interests, purposes, information, skill, and practices of the mature members: otherwise the group will cease its characteristic life.
Even in a savage tribe, the achievements of adults are far beyond what the immature members would be capable of if left to themselves. \With the growth of civilization, the gap between the original capacities of the immature and the standards and customs of the elder's increases. ^ Mere physical growing up, mere mastery of the bare necessities of subsistence will not suffice to reproduce the life of the group. Deliberate effort and the taking of thoughtful pains are required. Beings who are born not only unaware of, but quite indifferent to, the aims and habits of the social group have to be rendered cognizant of them and actively interested. Education, and education alone, spans the gap. Society exists through a process of transmission quite as much as biological life.
This transmission occurs by means of communication of habits of doing, thinking, and feeling from the older to the younger. Without this communication of ideals, hopes, expectations, standards, opinions, from those members of society who are passing out of the group life to those who are coming into it, social life could not survive. If the members who compose a society lived on continuously, they might educate the newborn members, but it would be a task-directed by personal interest rather than social need.
Some contents;
CHAPTER I
EDUCATION AS A NECESSITY OF LIFE:
Renewal of Life by Transmission i
Education and Communication 4
The Place of Formal Education .... 7
Summary **
CHAPTER II
EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION:
EDUCATION AS A SOCIAL FUNCTION:
The Nature and Meaning of Environment . . 12
The Social Environment 14
The Social Medium as Educative ... 19
The School as a Special Environment .... 22
Summary 26
CHAPTER III
EDUCATION AS DIRECTION :
EDUCATION AS DIRECTION :
The Environment as Directive 28
Modes of Social Direction 31
Imitation and Social Psychology 40
Some Applications to Education .... 43
Summary 47
CHAPTER IV
EDUCATION AS GROWTH :
EDUCATION AS GROWTH :
The Conditions of Growth 49
Habits as Expressions of Growth ... 54
The Educational Bearings of the Conception of Development. 59
The Educational Bearings of the Conception of Development. 59
Summary 62
CHAPTER V
PREPARATION, UNFOLDING, AND FORMAL DISCIPLINE: PACK
Education as Preparation 63
Education as Unfolding 65
Education as Training of Faculties 70
Summary 79
CHAPTER VI
EDUCATION AS CONSERVATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE:
EDUCATION AS CONSERVATIVE AND PROGRESSIVE:
Education as Formation 81
Education as Recapitulation and Retrospection .... 84
Education as Reconstruction 89
Summary 92
CHAPTER VII
THE DEMOCRATIC CONCEPTION IN EDUCATION :
THE DEMOCRATIC CONCEPTION IN EDUCATION :
The Implications of Human Association ...... 94
The Democratic Ideal 100
The Platonic Educational Philosophy 102
The " Individualistic " Ideal of the Eighteenth Century . . . 106
Education as National and as Social 108
Summary 115
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