EDUCATION: SERVANT OF SOCIETY
Dewey, John
EDUCATION: Swant of Society Part 2— Conclusion By JeDewey John Dewey * ideas were once greeted with skepticism, but during the pest halt century they have steadily been gaining widespread...
...They are now more ready than in the past to act in behalf of a change of conditions that, in protecting the wage-earner, will also protect not merely their personal interests but the youth of the country and the future of society...
...In short we teach the doings and impart the skills of the past, and severely leave alone the forces of the present that are creating the future in which the graduates of our school will some day find themselves...
...THE REAL ALTERNATIVE to settling questions is not mental confusion, but the development of a spirit of curiosity that will keep the student in an attitude of inquiry and of search for new light...
...THESE CONSIDERATIONS lead, in the fourth place, to the importance of continuing education...
...A Selected Bibliography of a by John Dewey John Dewey on Education John Dewey...
...434 p. Education Today...
...224 p. John Dewey: The Man and His Works iuays in Honor of John Dewey, on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, Oct...
...It would be so exaggeration to say that, today, the education...
...Modern Library 1930...
...The essential thing is that educators should actively recognize the need and opportunity and act upon that recognition...
...Boston: Heatb . 1933...
...It can only be brought about by co-operative discussion and effort among a great multitude of teachers...
...Indeed, the very addition of new subjects, going on as continually as it has done, has itself produced an educational problem...
...not really held together at all...
...Education and the Social Order...
...SECONDLY, teachers and administrators should undertake among themselves organization for the study of economics and social problems...
...that, as I have already said, indoctrination works inevitably and smoothly when it is in line with what is already largely taken for granted in a community...
...164 p. The Sources of a Science of Education...
...It has permeated not only farmers but the working class...
...But there are already some schools in the country that are genuine community centers and in which the influence •A the school ramifies to take in the main interests of the community In such things as nutrition, health, recreation, etc...
...But the obvious matter is that the social world is in a state of flux, and that we go on teaching as if the Constitution and our forefathers had finally determined all important social and political questions—a method that leaves pupils later in life ready victims of propaganda and publicity agents...
...principles ne innai ior are mtrnwrnm uniTer»any upheld !n the United Steles...
...I do not wish to imply that this method still exists in all its ancient force...
...Problems are brought up but only that they may be solved and put to bed...
...His leadership in the struggle to attain a better society serves as an inspiration for a multitude of disciple* who belong to a generation younger than his...
...Progressive Education Association, 1939...
...Both the depression of the thirties and the inflation of the forties have hit the teachers and the children of the country with great severity...
...But the open mind is a nuisance if it is merely passively open to allow anything to find its way into a vacuous mind behind the opening...
...The situation is a reflex of social aimlessness and dispersiveness...
...In fact, teachers have worked out the technique already for the method that needs to be substituted...
...Older methods of "discipline" have been abolished or fallen into disuse...
...Apart from change in basic attitudes, no thoroughgoing re-organization is possible...
...The needed unification can be obtained only as all subjects are organized with reference to their bearing upon the direction of social life...
...Indeed, while some of till more idealistic immigrants have come here because of anticipated blessings of liberty, the great mass came because they identified liberty with an opportunity for material advancement of them•tlvtt, their children and childf*"*' children, * * * THE PHMUtflMCE of .the earlier psychological and moral motivation has given the many sweeping educational changes to which I have referred a rather external character...
...Social and industrial conditions are so complex that it is absurd to expect boys and girls who leave their schools in great numbers at the ages of fourteen and fifteen to be prepared for intelligent and active citizenship...
...334 p. Problems o/ Man...
...There is current the opinion that the only alternative to this course is to leave students' mind in a state of confusion...
...Columbus, Ohio: Progressive Education Association, 1939...
...Putnam, 1940...
...In order to secure lasting improvements in education, parents and the leaders in community life must also be educated to move in unison with changes within the school...
...Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931.41 p. Dewey, John and Dewey, Evelyn School of Tomorrow...
...There is an important difference between education u>ith respect to a new social order and indoctrina• tion into settled convictions about that order...
...They do not learn . how these achievements were brought about nor do they learn the relation of the present to these achievements...
...Even with respect to conditions inside the schools themselves, it is the surest way out of present 'overloading and aimlessness...
...Too often, however, these schools have remained rather insulated from the larger community, and the influence of their changes in scholastic methods is thereby limited...
...708 p. The Philosophy of the Common Man...
...Put' Philosophy an4 Civilisation...
...In a few cases, the influence has affected the industrial pursuits of the community...
...This can be done through formation of voluntary groups and through use of the stated teachers' meetings...
...40 p. Heyer, Adolph E. John Dewey and Modern Education and Other Euays...
...154 p. Ratner, Joseph, Editor...
...Putnam, 1W 373 p. Freedom and Culture...
...Holt, 1929...
...Business interests concerned with reducing their own load of taxation have long been active with measures of socalled economy that are crippling public education...
...They are per naps moved oy what is got*, on in some of the European countries where the schools are a definite is> strumentality for promoting new social and economic orders...
...Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1934...
...They are doing a valiant work in arousing teachers to think more about existing conditions, and in exposing the kind and amount of indoctrination for a reactionary social order that now goes on in the schools...
...In order to get courage to revise instruction, teachers need the active support not only of organization among themselves but in connection with the elements of the community that have common ends with them and that are already organized...
...EDUCATION: Swant of Society Part 2— Conclusion By JeDewey John Dewey * ideas were once greeted with skepticism, but during the pest halt century they have steadily been gaining widespread acceptance...
...Moreover, it should not be too technical and narrowly vocational...
...Holt, 1928...
...Social planning can be had only by means approaching dictatorship unless education is socially planned...
...It is impossible, I think, to exaggerate the hold that this attitude has upon teaching in the schools...
...The individualistic trend of education—in the narrow sense of individualism—has stimulated the use of competitive methods and appeals in the schools...
...The \eie Lewder takes great pleasure in publishing two articles by aim which Sum up his phnosopny of education...
...For the last thirtyodd years, the attention of teachers has been directed almost exclusively to matters of psychological techniques...
...It would do no harm to declare a temporary moratorium on technical professional discussions...
...published by the League for Industrial Democracy...
...This Is the second of two articles by the venerable educator, reprinted from bis pamphlet...
...But from the standpoint of preparation for taking part in dire-ting the changes that are going on anyway to a desirable end, it is even more necessary...
...The first great step, as far as subject-matter and method are concerned, is to make sure of an educational system that informs students about the present state of society in a way that enables them to understand the conditions and forces at work...
...A start has been made which should continue to gain momentum...
...Avon Press, 1931...
...Mere instruction that is not accompanied with direct participation in school affairs upon a genuine community basis will not go far...
...We educate for the status quo and when the students go forth they do not find anything so settled that it can be called anything of a static kind...
...We live in a world that is changing, not settled and fixed...
...301 p. Interest and Effort in Education Houghton, Mifflin, 1913...
...We educate for a static social order which does not exist...
...101 p. Moral Principles in Education, Boston: Houghton, 1909...
...Unless the idea is carried into the concrete material and methods of the schools, the work of the latter will remain scattered and diffuse...
...171 p. Intelligence and the Modern Modern Library, 1939...
...Teachers in the public schools are public servants...
...Liveright, 1929...
...It is a common compliant that there is multiplication of studies to the point of confusion and congestion, with the result of constant danger of superficially and miscellaneous scattering, so that students get a smattering of many subjects and a thorough mastery of none...
...500 p. Schilpp, Paul A. The Philosophy of John Dewey...
...The emphasis should be decidedly changed...
...The effect has been to divert their thought and study from the social relations of public education...
...A society that is largely held together by the aim of many individuals to get on as individuals is...
...No ivory - tower academician, Professor Dewey is also prominently known a« an active fighter for human freedom, and for the material welfare of mankind...
...Method is relative to subject-matter and not much of the subject-matter of actual economic and social facts and forces finds its way into even the average highschool...
...Art as Experience Minton, 1934...
...That instruction in science, history, geography, etc., can be more vital as well as more coherent by relating it to actual social movements, forces and needs, is an Mea that has still to be worked out...
...60 p. The Child and the Curriculum...
...Mi ton, 1931...
...1934...
...Above all, new subjects and new courses of study have been introduced with almost startling rapidity...
...Nevertheless, there has been no fundamental change in spirit and motivation...
...I do not mean that every opportunity should not be afforded for re-education away from occupational lines which have led into blind alleys...
...There are other schools, more of them in number, in which co-operative technique in instruction and learning and in administration md discipline have been highly developed...
...Essays in Honor of John Dewey to Celebrate his Eightieth Birthday...
...The latter was designed primarily to give employment to thousands of teachers who were among the unemployed...
...Iiomas, Milton H. A Bibliography of John Dewey, 1882-1939...
...Much greater provision for activity within the school has been made in compensation for the curtailments enforced outside the school...
...A Common F*oif| New.Haven: Yale...
...246 p...
...The world has never seen such a growth of school population in secondary and college education as in this country in the last fifty years...
...Some hundreds of thousands of adults have already been reached by state and federal aid...
...Adult education should be construed broadly enough to include the education of all youth after leaving their regular schools...
...Even the best established of the natural sciences, physics, is full of unsolved questions and charged with rapid change...
...176 p. How We Think...
...John Dewey is as nearly perfect an example aa we can possibly have of the ancient ideal of the "king-philosopher...
...THEME II a small but growing number of educators who think the remedy for the drift and aimlessness, which undoubtedly resulted Is to pursue • Policy of deliberate Indoctrination on the basis of a new social order...
...School expansion in subjects, in courses, and in numbers of students, has kept pace with the industrial expansion...
...THE FIRST ACTIVITY in my judgment is necessary...
...It is significant only as it is the mark of an actively searching mind, one on the alert for further knowledge and understanding...
...The Way Out of Educational Co* fusion...
...There is only one way out of the existing educational confusion and drift...
...One of jftgm i urn srmebg nmiilniiili that is put Upon fttjing things under 'pP cussion settled, or, in the vocabulary of the teacher, making sure that pupils get the 'right answer...
...For this reason, school education, if not re-organized, will tend toward the perpetuation of present disorder and social chaos...
...Thus...
...The new program remains to be worked out in detail...
...Holt, 1827...
...Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934...
...Teachers have learned that they are in the wage-earning class...
...316 p. John Dewey on Social Action Dewey, John...
...John Dewey, an Intellectual Portrait...
...Most teachers are honestly bewildered when they are charged with conservatism or reactionary tendencies in their field...
...If an organized movement can be initiated it will gain momentum and power with a rapidity truly surprising...
...FIFTH, all of these considerations reach their culmination in reorganization of subject-matter qf study and methods upon a directly social basis and with a social aim...
...John Day, 1939...
...For this reason I have dwelt upon the importance of re-education of teachers and administrators...
...Minton...
...The subject of adult education is now a live topic...
...But I mean that the continuing education should also provide for adequate instruction for a new type of citizenship in which political questions will be seen in their economic background and bearings...
...127 p. Hook Sidney...
...Changes occur with breathless rapidity, but they have little organization and next to no center and unified tendency...
...As far as possible, especially among high-school and college students, this partrcipation should extend beyond the school and include an active part in some phases of the larger community life...
...For, in the first place, it signifies the substitution of methods of inquiry and mutual consultation and discussion for the methods of imposition and inculcation...
...This fact brings me to the other reason why the method of external imposition is only scotched, not killed...
...IN THE THIRD PLACE, educators should move steadily toward organization of the school itself as a cooperative community...
...But the new method is not widely used and Is still, even when employed, definitely limited In its range of application sod for tvfo twssons...
...I do not think that the re-organization upon a social basis with a social aim can be accomplished over-night...
...67 p. V Human Nature and Conduct...
...Relations of teacher and pupils have been humanized to a large extent...
...335 p. Democracy and Education...
...I have referred to the dispersion and aimlessness of education in the schools...
...Evanston, 111.: Northwestern Univ., 1939...
...Feldman, William T. The Philosophy of John Deicey...
...242 p. Kilpatrick, William H...
...77.p...
...The Philosophy of John Dewey...
...They can point in rebuttal to changes in their own school buildings that, compared with the curriculum and methods of a generation ago, seem nothing short of revolutionary...
...Indeed, as Industry and trade have expanded, and wealth and the opportunities for enjoyment and power offered have grown, the individualistic philosophy of success and material advancement has also grown...
...If the result is simply to leave the student with the idea that there are two sides to the question and that there is a great deal to be said on both sides, the effect may be only a new version of the right answer affair...
...The curriculum of the schools reflects that situation...
...1929...
...there are now two sides instead of just one...
...John Dewey and the Promise of America...
...40 p. The Quest for Certainty...
...But I think it ignores the fact that indoctrination for a new order works in these European countries just because a great change has already taken place in their political structures...
...Century, 1933, 325 p. Kilpatrick William H. and Others...
...Editor, The Educational Frontier...
...318 p. The School and Society...
...What I have said about studying the past does not apply alone nor even chiefly to history...
...The unconscious effect of these methods in conditioning students for a passing social regime is greater than the conscious result...
...Those who engage and dismiss them have great power...
...Chicago: University of Chicago Pre* 1930...
...The opportunity must be taken advantage of and teachers with social insight should take the lead...
...Re-organization upon a co-operative basis should not be confined, moreover, to pupils...
...336 p. j Individualism Old and Neu...
...1929...
...I should not wish any words of mine to encourage teachers in a state of complacency and lethargy, and I fear that considerable opposition to the group in question proceeds from just such sources...
...Mil* ton, Balch, 1930...
...If only this result can be accomplished, students will be ready to take their own active part in aggressive participation in bringing about a new social order...
...In general the students are concerned to learn the achievements of the past, whether it be history, geography, arithmetic, science or civics...
...To some extent such is the result, but it is mainly because they have already been imbued through texts and teachers with the notion that there is already in existence the "right" inswer to every question that is brought up...
...It should extend to administration so that oligarchial management from above may be abolished...
...Written in collaboration with Bode, Dewey, Childs, Raup, Hullflsh, Thayer...
...THE ABOVE STATEMENTS are general in character More specifically I would urge teachers to ally themselves with organized labor...
...Philosophical Library, 1946 . 424 p. The Public and Its Problems...
...1077 p. Liberalism mild Social Action...
...On the occasion of John Dewey's ninetieth birthday this year...
...The most direct way of effecting this change is for socially progressive teachers to start upon a course of economic education of themselves and others...
...Indoctrination in the school subjects has become more skillful and sugar-coated...
...It is often exercised irresponsibly, and in many places there is a process of subtle or overt pressure and even intimidation...
...But the opportunity was never so great nor the emergency so pressing as at present...
...and that no other living American wields a greater influence upon the educational system of this country...
...425 p. ;hilds, John L. and Kilpatrick, William H. 'John Dewey As Educator...
...And, in the schools as in society generally, that change will signify more genuine development of individuality for the mass of individuals...
...Duttoft 1915...
...That way is the definite substitution of a social purpose, controlling methods of teaching and discipline and materials of study, for the traditional individualistic Sim...
...Putnam 1939...
...THE ARGUMENT, which is that of history itself, indicates the present dilemma, the present choice that must be made, and the present opportunity...
...Economic illiteracy prevails throughout the country and it exists among educators...
...Mat millan, 1916...
...Columbia University Press, 1939...
...The basic trouble with much teaching, which oik some grounds is excellent, is that it does not create wants in the mind, wants in tee sense of demands that will go on operating on their own initiative...
...The current psychology of the people has been capitalistic far beyond the confines of the capitalists...
...LAST WEEK I wrote about the pioneer phase of the schools—of the period before the industrial expansion that was stimulated by the Civil War and its aftermath, and which acquired a momentum during the nineties of the last century that swept all before it The last half century has been a time of constant educational change...
Vol. 32 • April 1949 • No. 17
