The School and SocietyFirst published in 1899, "The School and Society "describes John Dewey's experiences with his own famous Laboratory School, started in 1896. Dewey's experiments at the Labora-tory School reflected his original social and educational philosophy based on American experience and concepts of democracy, not on European education models then in vogue. This forerunner of the major works shows Dewey's per-vasive concern with the need for a rich, dynamic, and viable society. In his introduction to this volume, Joe R. Burnett states Dewey's theme. Industrialization, urbanization, science, and technology have created a revolution the schools cannot ignore. Dewey carries this theme through eight chapters: The School and Social Progress; The School and the Life of the Child; Waste in Education; Three Years of the University Elementary School; The Psychology of Elementary Education; Froebel's Educa-tional Principles; The Psychology of Occupations; and the Development of Attention. |
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activities appeal attitude basis becomes calcium carbon dioxide carried cation chil child connection consciousness cooking culture curriculum direct discipline ditions dren Elementary School environment experience experimental expression external facts fibers Froebel geography give gristmill growth Hence human ideal ideas imagination impulse individual industrial inquiry instinct intel intellectual interest involved isolated kindergarten laboratory learning lessons living materials means ment mental methods mind modes motive natural natural environment necessity needs occupations organization physical play possible practical present primary school principle problem processes psychology question reality reflective attention regarded relation represent Robinson Crusoe SCHOOL AND SOCIETY school discipline school system scientific methods secure sense side simply social sort spinning standpoint subject-matter suggestions symbols teacher technical things thought tical tion typical uncon unity University utilitarian utility vidual whole wool
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Page 3 - What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely ; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.
Page 8 - Again, we cannot overlook the importance for educational purposes of the close and ultimate acquaintance got with nature at first hand, with real things and materials, with the actual processes of their manipulation, and the knowledge of their social necessities and uses.
Page 28 - When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and harmonious.
Page 112 - ... the primary root of all educative activity is in the instinctive, impulsive attitudes and activities of the child...
Page 155 - Whatever history may be for the scientific historian, for the educator it must be an indirect sociology—a study of society which lays bare its process of becoming and its modes of organization.
Page 12 - The mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat. Indeed, almost the only measure for success is a competitive one, in the bad sense of that term — a comparison of results in the recitation or in the examination to see which child has succeeded in getting ahead of others in storing up, in accumulating...
Page 31 - Some few years ago I was looking about the school supply stores in the city, trying to find desks and chairs which seemed thoroughly suitable from all points of view— artistic, hygienic, and educational— to the needs of the children. We had a great deal of difficulty in finding what we needed, and finally one dealer, more intelligent than the rest, made this remark: "I am afraid we have not what you want. You want something at which the children may work; these are all for listening.
Page 26 - The obvious fact is that our social life has undergone a thorough and radical change. If our education is to have any meaning for life, it must pass through an equally complete transformation.
Page 11 - We must conceive of work in wood and metal, of weaving, sewing, and cooking, as methods of living and learning, not as distinct studies. )£ We must conceive of them in their social significance, as types of the processes by which society keeps itself going, as agencies for bringing home to the child some of the primal necessities of community life, and as ways in which these needs have been met by the growing insight and ingenuity of man; in short, as instrumentalities through which the school itself...
Page 24 - It is our present education which is highly specialized, one-sided and narrow. It is an education dominated almost entirely by the medieval conception of learning. It is something which appeals for the most part simply to the intellectual aspect of our natures...