Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
I have tried to make this the most accurate text possible but I am sure that there are still mistakes.
I would like to dedicate this etext to my mother who was a elementary school teacher for more years than I can remember. Thanks.
David Reed
1. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things 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 none the less tries to turn the energies which 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 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.
John Dewey
DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION
Transcriber's Note:
Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life
Summary. It is the very nature of life to strive to continue in being.
Chapter Two: Education as a Social Function
Summary. The development within the young of the attitudes and
Chapter Three: Education as Direction
1. The Environment as Directive.
Summary. The natural or native impulses of the young do not agree with
Chapter Four: Education as Growth
1. The Conditions of Growth.
Summary. Power to grow depends upon need for others and plasticity.
Chapter Five: Preparation, Unfolding, and Formal Discipline
Summary. The conception that the result of the educative process is
Chapter Six: Education as Conservative and Progressive
Summary. Education may be conceived either retrospectively or
Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception in Education
Summary. Since education is a social process, and there are many kinds
Chapter Eight: Aims in Education
1. The Nature of an Aim.
Summary. An aim denotes the result of any natural process brought to
Chapter Nine: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims
Summary. General or comprehensive aims are points of view for surveying
1 Donaldson, Growth of Brain, p. 356.
Chapter Ten: Interest and Discipline
Summary. Interest and discipline are correlative aspects of activity
Chapter Eleven: Experience and Thinking
Summary. In determining the place of thinking in experience we first
Chapter Twelve: Thinking in Education
Summary. Processes of instruction are unified in the degree in which
Chapter Thirteen: The Nature of Method
1. The Unity of Subject Matter and Method.
Summary. Method is a statement of the way the subject matter of an
Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of Subject Matter
Summary. The subject matter of education consists primarily of the
Chapter Fifteen: Play and Work in the Curriculum
Summary. In the previous chapter we found that the primary subject
Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History
Summary. It is the nature of an experience to have implications which
Chapter Seventeen: Science in the Course of Study
Summary. Science represents the fruition of the cognitive factors in
Chapter Eighteen: Educational Values
Summary. Fundamentally, the elements involved in a discussion of value
Chapter Nineteen: Labor and Leisure
1. The Origin of the Opposition.
Summary. Of the segregations of educational values discussed in the
Chapter Twenty: Intellectual and Practical Studies
Summary. The Greeks were induced to philosophize by the increasing
Chapter Twenty-one: Physical and Social Studies: Naturalism and Humanism
Summary. The philosophic dualism between man and nature is reflected in
Chapter Twenty-two: The Individual and the World
Summary. True individualism is a product of the relaxation of the grip
Chapter Twenty-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education
Summary. A vocation signifies any form of continuous activity which
Chapter Twenty-four: Philosophy of Education
Summary. After a review designed to bring out the philosophic issues
Chapter Twenty-five: Theories of Knowledge
Summary. Such social divisions as interfere with free and full
Chapter Twenty-six: Theories of Morals
1. The Inner and the Outer.
Summary. The most important problem of moral education in the school