John Dewey, Democracy and Education

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Democracy and Education by John Dewey A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication Democracy and Education by John Dewey is a publication of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable Document file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own risk. Nei- ther the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, nor anyone associated with the Pennsylvania State University assumes any responsibility for the material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any way.

Democracy and Education by John Dewey, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in En- glish, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them.

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The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university. Contents

Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life ...... 5 Chapter Two: Education as a Social Function ...... 14 Chapter Three: Education as Direction ...... 28 Chapter Four: Education as Growth ...... 46 Chapter Five: Preparation, Unfolding, and Formal Discipline...... 58 Chapter Six: Education as Conservative and Progressive...... 74 Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception in Education...... 85 Chapter Eight: Aims in Education ...... 105 Chapter Nine: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims...... 116 Chapter Ten: Interest and Discipline ...... 130 Chapter Eleven: Experience and Thinking ...... 145 Chapter Twelve: Thinking in Education ...... 158 Chapter Thirteen: The Nature of Method ...... 171 Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of Subject Matter ...... 188 Chapter Fifteen: Play and Work in the Curriculum ...... 202 Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History ...... 214 Chapter Seventeen: Science in the Course of Study...... 226 Chapter Eighteen: Educational Values...... 239 Chapter Nineteen: Labor and Leisure...... 258 Chapter Twenty: Intellectual and Practical Studies ...... 270 Chapter Twenty-one: Physical and Social Studies: Naturalism and Humanism ...... 285 Chapter Twenty-two: The Individual and the World ...... 299 Chapter Twenty-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education...... 315 Chapter Twenty-four: Philosophy of Education...... 330 Chapter Twenty-five: Theories of Knowledge ...... 340 Chapter Twenty-six: Theories of Morals...... 353 John Dewey While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior Democracy force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it and Education 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. by As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, John Dewey 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 turn- Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life ing the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding 1. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable the word “control” in this sense, it may be said that a distinction between living and inanimate things is that living being is one that subjugates and controls for its the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when own continued activity the energies that would other- struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of wise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Other- action upon the environment. wise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the In all the higher forms this process cannot be kept up stone attempt to react in such a way that it may main- indefinitely. After a while they succumb; they die. The tain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the creature is not equal to the task of indefinite self-re- blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. 5 Democracy & Education newal. But continuity of the life process is not depen- tribe, of the Athenian people, of the American nation. dent upon the prolongation of the existence of any one “Life” covers customs, institutions, beliefs, victories and individual. Reproduction of other forms of life goes on in defeats, recreations and occupations. continuous sequence. And though, as the geological record We employ the word “experience” in the same pregnant shows, not merely individuals but also species die out, sense. And to it, as well as to life in the bare physiologi- the life process continues in increasingly complex forms. cal sense, the principle of continuity through renewal As some species die out, forms better adapted to utilize applies. With the renewal of physical existence goes, in the obstacles against which they struggled in vain come the case of human beings, the recreation of beliefs, ide- into being. Continuity of life means continual readaptation als, hopes, happiness, misery, and practices. The conti- of the environment to the needs of living organisms. nuity of any experience, through renewing of the social We have been speaking of life in its lowest terms—as a group, is a literal fact. Education, in its broadest sense, physical thing. But we use the word Life” to denote the is the means of this social continuity of life. Every one of whole range of experience, individual and racial. When the constituent elements of a social group, in a modern we see a book called the Life of Lincoln we do not expect city as in a savage tribe, is born immature, helpless, with- to find within its covers a treatise on physiology. We look out language, beliefs, ideas, or social standards. Each for an account of social antecedents; a description of individual, each unit who is the carrier of the life-experi- early surroundings, of the conditions and occupation of ence of his group, in time passes away. Yet the life of the the family; of the chief episodes in the development of group goes on. character; of signal struggles and achievements; of the The primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of individual’s hopes, tastes, joys and sufferings. In pre- each one of the constituent members in a social group cisely similar fashion we speak of the life of a savage determine the necessity of education. On one hand, there

6 John Dewey is the contrast between the immaturity of the new-born Society exists through a process of transmission quite members of the group —its future sole representatives— as much as biological life. This transmission occurs by and the maturity of the adult members who possess the means of communication of habits of doing, thinking, knowledge and customs of the group. On the other hand, and feeling from the older to the younger. Without this there is the necessity that these immature members be communication of ideals, hopes, expectations, standards, not merely physically preserved in adequate numbers, but opinions, from those members of society who are passing that they be initiated into the interests, purposes, infor- out of the group life to those who are coming into it, mation, skill, and practices of the mature members: other- social life could not survive. If the members who com- wise the group will cease its characteristic life. Even in a pose a society lived on continuously, they might educate savage tribe, the achievements of adults are far beyond the new-born members, but it would be a task directed what the immature members would be capable of if left to by personal interest rather than social need. Now it is a themselves. With the growth of civilization, the gap be- work of necessity. tween the original capacities of the immature and the stan- If a plague carried off the members of a society all at dards and customs of the elders increases. Mere physical once, it is obvious that the group would be permanently growing up, mere mastery of the bare necessities of sub- done for. Yet the death of each of its constituent mem- sistence will not suffice to reproduce the life of the group. bers is as certain as if an epidemic took them all at once. Deliberate effort and the taking of thoughtful pains are But the graded difference in age, the fact that some are required. Beings who are born not only unaware of, but born as some die, makes possible through transmission quite indifferent to, the aims and habits of the social group of ideas and practices the constant reweaving of the so- have to be rendered cognizant of them and actively inter- cial fabric. Yet this renewal is not automatic. Unless pains ested. Education, and education alone, spans the gap. are taken to see that genuine and thorough transmission

7 Democracy & Education takes place, the most civilized group will relapse into ture; but it is only one means, and, compared with other barbarism and then into savagery. In fact, the human agencies, a relatively superficial means. Only as we have young are so immature that if they were left to them- grasped the necessity of more fundamental and persis- selves without the guidance and succor of others, they tent modes of tuition can we make sure of placing the could not acquire the rudimentary abilities necessary for scholastic methods in their true context. physical existence. The young of human beings compare Society not only continues to exist by transmission, by so poorly in original efficiency with the young of many of communication, but it may fairly be said to exist in trans- the lower animals, that even the powers needed for physi- mission, in communication. There is more than a verbal cal sustentation have to be acquired under tuition. How tie between the words common, community, and commu- much more, then, is this the case with respect to all the nication. Men live in a community in virtue of the things technological, artistic, scientific, and moral achievements which they have in common; and communication is the of humanity! way in which they come to possess things in common. What they must have in common in order to form a com- 2. Education and Communication. So obvious, indeed, munity or society are aims, beliefs, aspirations, knowl- is the necessity of teaching and learning for the contin- edge—a common understanding—like-mindedness as the ued existence of a society that we may seem to be dwell- sociologists say. Such things cannot be passed physically ing unduly on a truism. But justification is found in the from one to another, like bricks; they cannot be shared fact that such emphasis is a means of getting us away as persons would share a pie by dividing it into physical from an unduly scholastic and formal notion of educa- pieces. The communication which insures participation tion. Schools are, indeed, one important method of the in a common understanding is one which secures similar transmission which forms the dispositions of the imma- emotional and intellectual dispositions—like ways of re-

8 John Dewey sponding to expectations and requirements. not as yet social. A large number of human relationships Persons do not become a society by living in physical in any social group are still upon the machine-like plane. proximity, any more than a man ceases to be socially Individuals use one another so as to get desired results, influenced by being so many feet or miles removed from without reference to the emotional and intellectual dis- others. A book or a letter may institute a more intimate position and consent of those used. Such uses express association between human beings separated thousands physical superiority, or superiority of position, skill, tech- of miles from each other than exists between dwellers nical ability, and command of tools, mechanical or fiscal. under the same roof. Individuals do not even compose a So far as the relations of parent and child, teacher and social group because they all work for a common end. pupil, employer and employee, governor and governed, The parts of a machine work with a maximum of coopera- remain upon this level, they form no true social group, tiveness for a common result, but they do not form a no matter how closely their respective activities touch community. If, however, they were all cognizant of the one another. Giving and taking of orders modifies action common end and all interested in it so that they regu- and results, but does not of itself effect a sharing of lated their specific activity in view of it, then they would purposes, a communication of interests. form a community. But this would involve communica- Not only is social life identical with communication, tion. Each would have to know what the other was about but all communication (and hence all genuine social life) and would have to have some way of keeping the other is educative. To be a recipient of a communication is to informed as to his own purpose and progress. Consensus have an enlarged and changed experience. One shares in demands communication. what another has thought and felt and in so far, mea- We are thus compelled to recognize that within even gerly or amply, has his own attitude modified. Nor is the the most social group there are many relations which are one who communicates left unaffected. Try the experi-

9 Democracy & Education ment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some enlightens experience; it stimulates and enriches imagi- experience to another, especially if it be somewhat com- nation; it creates responsibility for accuracy and vivid- plicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your ness of statement and thought. A man really living alone experience changing; otherwise you resort to expletives (alone mentally as well as physically) would have little or and ejaculations. The experience has to be formulated in no occasion to reflect upon his past experience to ex- order to be communicated. To formulate requires getting tract its net meaning. The inequality of achievement be- outside of it, seeing it as another would see it, consider- tween the mature and the immature not only necessi- ing what points of contact it has with the life of another tates teaching the young, but the necessity of this teach- so that it may be got into such form that he can appreci- ing gives an immense stimulus to reducing experience to ate its meaning. Except in dealing with commonplaces that order and form which will render it most easily com- and catch phrases one has to assimilate, imaginatively, municable and hence most usable. something of another’s experience in order to tell him intelligently of one’s own experience. All communication 3. The Place of Formal Education. There is, accordingly, is like art. It may fairly be said, therefore, that any social a marked difference between the education which every arrangement that remains vitally social, or vitally shared, one gets from living with others, as long as he really is educative to those who participate in it. Only when it lives instead of just continuing to subsist, and the delib- becomes cast in a mold and runs in a routine way does it erate educating of the young. In the former case the lose its educative power. education is incidental; it is natural and important, but In final account, then, not only does social life demand it is not the express reason of the association. While it teaching and learning for its own permanence, but the may be said, without exaggeration, that the measure of very process of living together educates. It enlarges and the worth of any social institution, economic, domestic,

10 John Dewey political, legal, religious, is its effect in enlarging and nate that educative effect to some external and tangible improving experience; yet this effect is not a part of its result, it is not so easy as in dealing with adults. The original motive, which is limited and more immediately need of training is too evident; the pressure to accom- practical. Religious associations began, for example, in plish a change in their attitude and habits is too urgent the desire to secure the favor of overruling powers and to to leave these consequences wholly out of account. Since ward off evil influences; family life in the desire to gratify our chief business with them is to enable them to share appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, in a common life we cannot help considering whether or for the most part, because of enslavement to others, etc. no we are forming the powers which will secure this abil- Only gradually was the by-product of the institution, its ity. If humanity has made some headway in realizing that effect upon the quality and extent of conscious life, noted, the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively and only more gradually still was this effect considered human effect—its effect upon conscious experience— as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution. we may well believe that this lesson has been learned Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain val- largely through dealings with the young. ues of industriousness and thrift, the intellectual and We are thus led to distinguish, within the broad educa- emotional reaction of the forms of human association tional process which we have been so far considering, a under which the world’s work is carried on receives little more formal kind of education—that of direct tuition or attention as compared with physical output. schooling. In undeveloped social groups, we find very But in dealing with the young, the fact of association little formal teaching and training. Savage groups mainly itself as an immediate human fact, gains in importance. rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the the same sort of association which keeps adults loyal to effect of our acts upon their disposition, or to subordi- their group. They have no special devices, material, or

11 Democracy & Education institutions for teaching save in connection with initia- prior training given with this end in view. Intentional tion ceremonies by which the youth are inducted into agencies—schools—and explicit material—studies—are full social membership. For the most part, they depend devised. The task of teaching certain things is delegated upon children learning the customs of the adults, acquir- to a special group of persons. ing their emotional set and stock of ideas, by sharing in Without such formal education, it is not possible to trans- what the elders are doing. In part, this sharing is direct, mit all the resources and achievements of a complex soci- taking part in the occupations of adults and thus serving ety. It also opens a way to a kind of experience which an apprenticeship; in part, it is indirect, through the dra- would not be accessible to the young, if they were left to matic plays in which children reproduce the actions of pick up their training in informal association with others, grown-ups and thus learn to know what they are like. To since books and the symbols of knowledge are mastered. savages it would seem preposterous to seek out a place But there are conspicuous dangers attendant upon the where nothing but learning was going on in order that transition from indirect to formal education. Sharing in one might learn. actual pursuit, whether directly or vicariously in play, is But as civilization advances, the gap between the ca- at least personal and vital. These qualities compensate, pacities of the young and the concerns of adults widens. in some measure, for the narrowness of available oppor- Learning by direct sharing in the pursuits of grown-ups tunities. Formal instruction, on the contrary, easily be- becomes increasingly difficult except in the case of the comes remote and dead—abstract and bookish, to use less advanced occupations. Much of what adults do is so the ordinary words of depreciation. What accumulated remote in space and in meaning that playful imitation is knowledge exists in low grade societies is at least put less and less adequate to reproduce its spirit. Ability to into practice; it is transmuted into character; it exists share effectively in adult activities thus depends upon a with the depth of meaning that attaches to its coming

12 John Dewey within urgent daily interests. Hence one of the weightiest problems with which the But in an advanced culture much which has to be learned philosophy of education has to cope is the method of is stored in symbols. It is far from translation into familiar keeping a proper balance between the informal and the acts and objects. Such material is relatively technical and formal, the incidental and the intentional, modes of edu- superficial. Taking the ordinary standard of reality as a mea- cation. When the acquiring of information and of techni- sure, it is artificial. For this measure is connection with cal intellectual skill do not influence the formation of a practical concerns. Such material exists in a world by itself, social disposition, ordinary vital experience fails to gain unassimilated to ordinary customs of thought and expres- in meaning, while schooling, in so far, creates only sion. There is the standing danger that the material of for- “sharps” in learning—that is, egoistic specialists. To avoid mal instruction will be merely the subject matter of the a split between what men consciously know because they schools, isolated from the subject matter of life- experi- are aware of having learned it by a specific job of learn- ence. The permanent social interests are likely to be lost ing, and what they unconsciously know because they have from view. Those which have not been carried over into the absorbed it in the formation of their characters by inter- structure of social life, but which remain largely matters of course with others, becomes an increasingly delicate task technical information expressed in symbols, are made con- with every development of special schooling. spicuous in schools. Thus we reach the ordinary notion of Summary. It is the very nature of life to strive to con- education: the notion which ignores its social necessity and tinue in being. Since this continuance can be secured its identity with all human association that affects con- only by constant renewals, life is a self-renewing pro- scious life, and which identifies it with imparting informa- cess. What nutrition and reproduction are to physiologi- tion about remote matters and the conveying of learning cal life, education is to social life. This education con- through verbal signs: the acquisition of literacy. sists primarily in transmission through communication.

13 Democracy & Education Communication is a process of sharing experience till it Chapter Two: Education as a Social Function becomes a common possession. It modifies the disposition of both the parties who partake in it. That the ulte- 1. The Nature and Meaning of Environment. We have rior significance of every mode of human association lies seen that a community or social group sustains itself in the contribution which it makes to the improvement through continuous self-renewal, and that this renewal of the quality of experience is a fact most easily recog- takes place by means of the educational growth of the nized in dealing with the immature. That is to say, while immature members of the group. By various agencies, every social arrangement is educative in effect, the edu- unintentional and designed, a society transforms uniniti- cative effect first becomes an important part of the pur- ated and seemingly alien beings into robust trustees of pose of the association in connection with the associa- its own resources and ideals. Education is thus a foster- tion of the older with the younger. As societies become ing, a nurturing, a cultivating, process. All of these words more complex in structure and resources, the need of mean that it implies attention to the conditions of growth. formal or intentional teaching and learning increases. As We also speak of rearing, raising, bringing up—words formal teaching and training grow in extent, there is the which express the difference of level which education danger of creating an undesirable split between the ex- aims to cover. Etymologically, the word education means perience gained in more direct associations and what is just a process of leading or bringing up. When we have acquired in school. This danger was never greater than at the outcome of the process in mind, we speak of educa- the present time, on account of the rapid growth in the tion as shaping, forming, molding activity—that is, a last few centuries of knowledge and technical modes of shaping into the standard form of social activity. In this skill. chapter we are concerned with the general features of the way in which a social group brings up its immature

14 John Dewey members into its own social form. others. Thus it gradually produces in him a certain sys- Since what is required is a transformation of the qual- tem of behavior, a certain disposition of action. The words ity of experience till it partakes in the interests, pur- “environment,” “medium” denote something more than poses, and ideas current in the social group, the problem surroundings which encompass an individual. They de- is evidently not one of mere physical forming. Things can note the specific continuity of the surroundings with his be physically transported in space; they may be bodily own active tendencies. An inanimate being is, of course, conveyed. Beliefs and aspirations cannot be physically continuous with its surroundings; but the environing cir- extracted and inserted. How then are they communicated? cumstances do not, save metaphorically, constitute an Given the impossibility of direct contagion or literal in- environment. For the inorganic being is not concerned in culcation, our problem is to discover the method by which the influences which affect it. On the other hand, some the young assimilate the point of view of the old, or the things which are remote in space and time from a living older bring the young into like-mindedness with them- creature, especially a human creature, may form his envi- selves. The answer, in general formulation, is: By means ronment even more truly than some of the things close of the action of the environment in calling out certain to him. The things with which a man varies are his genu- responses. The required beliefs cannot be hammered in; ine environment. Thus the activities of the astronomer the needed attitudes cannot be plastered on. But the vary with the stars at which he gazes or about which he particular medium in which an individual exists leads him calculates. Of his immediate surroundings, his telescope to see and feel one thing rather than another; it leads is most intimately his environment. The environment of him to have certain plans in order that he may act suc- an antiquarian, as an antiquarian, consists of the remote cessfully with others; it strengthens some beliefs and epoch of human life with which he is concerned, and the weakens others as a condition of winning the approval of relics, inscriptions, etc., by which he establishes connec-

15 Democracy & Education tions with that period. realization of his tendencies. When he moves he stirs In brief, the environment consists of those conditions them and reciprocally. We might as well try to imagine a that promote or hinder, stimulate or inhibit, the charac- business man doing business, buying and selling, all by teristic activities of a living being. Water is the environ- himself, as to conceive it possible to define the activi- ment of a fish because it is necessary to the fish’s activities of an individual in terms of his isolated actions. The ties—to its life. The north pole is a significant element manufacturer moreover is as truly socially guided in his in the environment of an arctic explorer, whether he suc- activities when he is laying plans in the privacy of his ceeds in reaching it or not, because it defines his activi- own counting house as when he is buying his raw mate- ties, makes them what they distinctively are. Just be- rial or selling his finished goods. Thinking and feeling cause life signifies not bare passive existence (suppos- that have to do with action in association with others is ing there is such a thing), but a way of acting, environ- as much a social mode of behavior as is the most overt ment or medium signifies what enters into this activity cooperative or hostile act. as a sustaining or frustrating condition. What we have more especially to indicate is how the social medium nurtures its immature members. There is 2. The Social Environment. A being whose activities are no great difficulty in seeing how it shapes the external associated with others has a social environment. What habits of action. Even dogs and horses have their actions he does and what he can do depend upon the expecta- modified by association with human beings; they form tions, demands, approvals, and condemnations of others. different habits because human beings are concerned with A being connected with other beings cannot perform his what they do. Human beings control animals by control- own activities without taking the activities of others into ling the natural stimuli which influence them; by creat- account. For they are the indispensable conditions of the ing a certain environment in other words. Food, bits and

16 John Dewey bridles, noises, vehicles, are used to direct the ways in persist after he had forgotten about the original burns; which the natural or instinctive responses of horses oc- later on he might even invent some reason to account for cur. By operating steadily to call out certain acts, habits his seemingly irrational antipathy. In some cases, alter- are formed which function with the same uniformity as ing the external habit of action by changing the environ- the original stimuli. If a rat is put in a maze and finds ment to affect the stimuli to action will also alter the food only by making a given number of turns in a given mental disposition concerned in the action. Yet this does sequence, his activity is gradually modified till he ha- not always happen; a person trained to dodge a threat- bitually takes that course rather than another when he is ening blow, dodges automatically with no corresponding hungry. thought or emotion. We have to find, then, some differ- Human actions are modified in a like fashion. A burnt entia of training from education. child dreads the fire; if a parent arranged conditions so A clew may be found in the fact that the horse does not that every time a child touched a certain toy he got really share in the social use to which his action is put. burned, the child would learn to avoid that toy as auto- Some one else uses the horse to secure a result which is matically as he avoids touching fire. So far, however, we advantageous by making it advantageous to the horse to are dealing with what may be called training in distinc- perform the act—he gets food, etc. But the horse, pre- tion from educative teaching. The changes considered sumably, does not get any new interest. He remains in- are in outer action rather than in mental and emotional terested in food, not in the service he is rendering. He is dispositions of behavior. The distinction is not, however, not a partner in a shared activity. Were he to become a a sharp one. The child might conceivably generate in time copartner, he would, in engaging in the conjoint activity, a violent antipathy, not only to that particular toy, but to have the same interest in its accomplishment which oth- the class of toys resembling it. The aversion might even ers have. He would share their ideas and emotions.

17 Democracy & Education Now in many cases—too many cases—the activity of turn to things connected with war. Only in this way can the immature human being is simply played upon to se- he become fully a recognized member of his group. Thus cure habits which are useful. He is trained like an animal his mental habitudes are gradually assimilated to those rather than educated like a human being. His instincts of his group. remain attached to their original objects of pain or plea- If we formulate the principle involved in this illustra- sure. But to get happiness or to avoid the pain of failure tion, we shall perceive that the social medium neither he has to act in a way agreeable to others. In other cases, implants certain desires and ideas directly, nor yet merely he really shares or participates in the common activity. establishes certain purely muscular habits of action, like In this case, his original impulse is modified. He not merely “instinctively” winking or dodging a blow. Setting up con- acts in a way agreeing with the actions of others, but, in ditions which stimulate certain visible and tangible ways so acting, the same ideas and emotions are aroused in of acting is the first step. Making the individual a sharer him that animate the others. A tribe, let us say, is war- or partner in the associated activity so that he feels its like. The successes for which it strives, the achievements success as his success, its failure as his failure, is the upon which it sets store, are connected with fighting and completing step. As soon as he is possessed by the emo- victory. The presence of this medium incites bellicose tional attitude of the group, he will be alert to recognize exhibitions in a boy, first in games, then in fact when he the special ends at which it aims and the means em- is strong enough. As he fights he wins approval and ad- ployed to secure success. His beliefs and ideas, in other vancement; as he refrains, he is disliked, ridiculed, shut words, will take a form similar to those of others in the out from favorable recognition. It is not surprising that group. He will also achieve pretty much the same stock his original belligerent tendencies and emotions are of knowledge since that knowledge is an ingredient of strengthened at the expense of others, and that his ideas his habitual pursuits.

18 John Dewey The importance of language in gaining knowledge is Sounds are just one kind of stimulus to direct response, doubtless the chief cause of the common notion that some having a soothing effect, others tending to make knowledge may be passed directly from one to another. It one jump, and so on. The sound h-a-t would remain as almost seems as if all we have to do to convey an idea meaningless as a sound in Choctaw, a seemingly inar- into the mind of another is to convey a sound into his ticulate grunt, if it were not uttered in connection with ear. Thus imparting knowledge gets assimilated to a purely an action which is participated in by a number of people. physical process. But learning from language will be found, When the mother is taking the infant out of doors, she when analyzed, to confirm the principle just laid down. says “hat” as she puts something on the baby’s head. It would probably be admitted with little hesitation that Being taken out becomes an interest to the child; mother a child gets the idea of, say, a hat by using it as other and child not only go out with each other physically, but persons do; by covering the head with it, giving it to both are concerned in the going out; they enjoy it in others to wear, having it put on by others when going common. By conjunction with the other factors in activ- out, etc. But it may be asked how this principle of shared ity the sound “hat” soon gets the same meaning for the activity applies to getting through speech or reading the child that it has for the parent; it becomes a sign of the idea of, say, a Greek helmet, where no direct use of any activity into which it enters. The bare fact that language kind enters in. What shared activity is there in learning consists of sounds which are mutually intelligible is from books about the discovery of America? enough of itself to show that its meaning depends upon Since language tends to become the chief instrument connection with a shared experience. of learning about many things, let us see how it works. In short, the sound h-a-t gains meaning in precisely The baby begins of course with mere sounds, noises, and the same way that the thing “hat” gains it, by being used tones having no meaning, expressing, that is, no idea. in a given way. And they acquire the same meaning with

19 Democracy & Education the child which they have with the adult because they about, say, the Greek helmet originally got a meaning (or are used in a common experience by both. The guarantee were understood) by use in an action having a common for the same manner of use is found in the fact that the interest and end. They now arouse a new meaning by thing and the sound are first employed in a joint activity, inciting the one who hears or reads to rehearse imagina- as a means of setting up an active connection between tively the activities in which the helmet has its use. For the child and a grownup. Similar ideas or meanings spring the time being, the one who understands the words “Greek up because both persons are engaged as partners in an helmet” becomes mentally a partner with those who used action where what each does depends upon and influ- the helmet. He engages, through his imagination, in a ences what the other does. If two savages were engaged shared activity. It is not easy to get the full meaning of in a joint hunt for game, and a certain signal meant “move words. Most persons probably stop with the idea that to the right” to the one who uttered it, and “move to the “helmet” denotes a queer kind of headgear a people called left” to the one who heard it, they obviously could not the Greeks once wore. We conclude, accordingly, that the successfully carry on their hunt together. Understanding use of language to convey and acquire ideas is an exten- one another means that objects, including sounds, have sion and refinement of the principle that things gain the same value for both with respect to carrying on a meaning by being used in a shared experience or joint common pursuit. action; in no sense does it contravene that principle. After sounds have got meaning through connection with When words do not enter as factors into a shared situa- other things employed in a joint undertaking, they can tion, either overtly or imaginatively, they operate as pure be used in connection with other like sounds to develop physical stimuli, not as having a meaning or intellectual new meanings, precisely as the things for which they value. They set activity running in a given groove, but stand are combined. Thus the words in which a child learns there is no accompanying conscious purpose or meaning.

20 John Dewey Thus, for example, the plus sign may be a stimulus to an educative or formative influence unconsciously and perform the act of writing one number under another and apart from any set purpose. adding the numbers, but the person performing the act In savage and barbarian communities, such direct par- will operate much as an automaton would unless he real- ticipation (constituting the indirect or incidental educa- izes the meaning of what he does. tion of which we have spoken) furnishes almost the sole influence for rearing the young into the practices and 3. The Social Medium as Educative. Our net result thus beliefs of the group. Even in present-day societies, it far is that social environment forms the mental and emo- furnishes the basic nurture of even the most insistently tional disposition of behavior in individuals by engaging schooled youth. In accord with the interests and occupa- them in activities that arouse and strengthen certain im- tions of the group, certain things become objects of high pulses, that have certain purposes and entail certain con- esteem; others of aversion. Association does not create sequences. A child growing up in a family of musicians impulses or affection and dislike, but it furnishes the will inevitably have whatever capacities he has in music objects to which they attach themselves. The way our stimulated, and, relatively, stimulated more than other group or class does things tends to determine the proper impulses which might have been awakened in another objects of attention, and thus to prescribe the directions environment. Save as he takes an interest in music and and limits of observation and memory. What is strange or gains a certain competency in it, he is “out of it”; he is foreign (that is to say outside the activities of the groups) unable to share in the life of the group to which he be- tends to be morally forbidden and intellectually suspect. longs. Some kinds of participation in the life of those It seems almost incredible to us, for example, that things with whom the individual is connected are inevitable; which we know very well could have escaped recognition with respect to them, the social environment exercises in past ages. We incline to account for it by attributing

21 Democracy & Education congenital stupidity to our forerunners and by assuming struction but as a social necessity. The babe acquires, as superior native intelligence on our own part. But the ex- we well say, the mother tongue. While speech habits thus planation is that their modes of life did not call for at- contracted may be corrected or even displaced by con- tention to such facts, but held their minds riveted to scious teaching, yet, in times of excitement, intention- other things. Just as the senses require sensible objects ally acquired modes of speech often fall away, and indi- to stimulate them, so our powers of observation, recol- viduals relapse into their really native tongue. Secondly, lection, and imagination do not work spontaneously, but manners. Example is notoriously more potent than pre- are set in motion by the demands set up by current social cept. Good manners come, as we say, from good breeding occupations. The main texture of disposition is formed, or rather are good breeding; and breeding is acquired by independently of schooling, by such influences. What habitual action, in response to habitual stimuli, not by conscious, deliberate teaching can do is at most to free conveying information. Despite the never ending play of the capacities thus formed for fuller exercise, to purge conscious correction and instruction, the surrounding them of some of their grossness, and to furnish objects atmosphere and spirit is in the end the chief agent in which make their activity more productive of meaning. forming manners. And manners are but minor morals. While this “unconscious influence of the environment” Moreover, in major morals, conscious instruction is likely is so subtle and pervasive that it affects every fiber of to be efficacious only in the degree in which it falls in character and mind, it may be worth while to specify a with the general “walk and conversation” of those who few directions in which its effect is most marked. First, constitute the child’s social environment. Thirdly, good the habits of language. Fundamental modes of speech, taste and esthetic appreciation. If the eye is constantly the bulk of the vocabulary, are formed in the ordinary greeted by harmonious objects, having elegance of form intercourse of life, carried on not as a set means of in- and color, a standard of taste naturally grows up. The

22 John Dewey effect of a tawdry, unarranged, and over-decorated envi- 4. The School as a Special Environment. The chief im- ronment works for the deterioration of taste, just as mea- portance of this foregoing statement of the educative ger and barren surroundings starve out the desire for process which goes on willy-nilly is to lead us to note beauty. Against such odds, conscious teaching can hardly that the only way in which adults consciously control the do more than convey second-hand information as to what kind of education which the immature get is by control- others think. Such taste never becomes spontaneous and ling the environment in which they act, and hence think personally engrained, but remains a labored reminder of and feel. We never educate directly, but indirectly by means what those think to whom one has been taught to look of the environment. Whether we permit chance environ- up. To say that the deeper standards of judgments of ments to do the work, or whether we design environ- value are framed by the situations into which a person ments for the purpose makes a great difference. And any habitually enters is not so much to mention a fourth point, environment is a chance environment so far as its educa- as it is to point out a fusion of those already mentioned. tive influence is concerned unless it has been deliber- We rarely recognize the extent in which our conscious ately regulated with reference to its educative effect. An estimates of what is worth while and what is not, are due intelligent home differs from an unintelligent one chiefly to standards of which we are not conscious at all. But in in that the habits of life and intercourse which prevail general it may be said that the things which we take for are chosen, or at least colored, by the thought of their granted without inquiry or reflection are just the things bearing upon the development of children. But schools which determine our conscious thinking and decide our remain, of course, the typical instance of environments conclusions. And these habitudes which lie below the framed with express reference to influencing the mental level of reflection are just those which have been formed and moral disposition of their members. in the constant give and take of relationship with others. Roughly speaking, they come into existence when so-

23 Democracy & Education cial traditions are so complex that a considerable part of derstood without explicit statement and attention. In the social store is committed to writing and transmitted precisely similar fashion, our daily associations cannot through written symbols. Written symbols are even more be trusted to make clear to the young the part played in artificial or conventional than spoken; they cannot be our activities by remote physical energies, and by invis- picked up in accidental intercourse with others. In addi- ible structures. Hence a special mode of social intercourse tion, the written form tends to select and record matters is instituted, the school, to care for such matters. which are comparatively foreign to everyday life. The This mode of association has three functions sufficiently achievements accumulated from generation to genera- specific, as compared with ordinary associations of life, to tion are deposited in it even though some of them have be noted. First, a complex civilization is too complex to be fallen temporarily out of use. Consequently as soon as a assimilated in toto. It has to be broken up into portions, community depends to any considerable extent upon what as it were, and assimilated piecemeal, in a gradual and lies beyond its own territory and its own immediate gen- graded way. The relationships of our present social life are eration, it must rely upon the set agency of schools to so numerous and so interwoven that a child placed in the insure adequate transmission of all its resources. To take most favorable position could not readily share in many of an obvious illustration: The life of the ancient Greeks and the most important of them. Not sharing in them, their Romans has profoundly influenced our own, and yet the meaning would not be communicated to him, would not ways in which they affect us do not present themselves become a part of his own mental disposition. There would on the surface of our ordinary experiences. In similar be no seeing the trees because of the forest. Business, fashion, peoples still existing, but remote in space, Brit- politics, art, science, religion, would make all at once a ish, Germans, Italians, directly concern our own social clamor for attention; confusion would be the outcome. affairs, but the nature of the interaction cannot be un- The first office of the social organ we call the school is to

24 John Dewey provide a simplified environment. It selects the features The school is its chief agency for the accomplishment of which are fairly fundamental and capable of being responded this end. to by the young. Then it establishes a progressive order, In the third place, it is the office of the school environ- using the factors first acquired as means of gaining insight ment to balance the various elements in the social envi- into what is more complicated. ronment, and to see to it that each individual gets an In the second place, it is the business of the school opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unwor- group in which he was born, and to come into living thy features of the existing environment from influence contact with a broader environment. Such words as “so- upon mental habitudes. It establishes a purified medium ciety” and “community” are likely to be misleading, for of action. Selection aims not only at simplifying but at they have a tendency to make us think there is a single weeding out what is undesirable. Every society gets en- thing corresponding to the single word. As a matter of cumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the fact, a modern society is many societies more or less past, and with what is positively perverse. The school loosely connected. Each household with its immediate has the duty of omitting such things from the environ- extension of friends makes a society; the village or street ment which it supplies, and thereby doing what it can to group of playmates is a community; each business group, counteract their influence in the ordinary social environ- each club, is another. Passing beyond these more inti- ment. By selecting the best for its exclusive use, it strives mate groups, there is in a country like our own a variety to reinforce the power of this best. As a society becomes of races, religious affiliations, economic divisions. Inside more enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to the modern city, in spite of its nominal political unity, transmit and conserve the whole of its existing achieve- there are probably more communities, more differing cus- ments, but only such as make for a better future society. toms, traditions, aspirations, and forms of government or

25 Democracy & Education control, than existed in an entire continent at an earlier portation, intercommunication, and emigration, countries epoch. like the United States are composed of a combination of Each such group exercises a formative influence on the different groups with different traditional customs. It is active dispositions of its members. A clique, a club, a this situation which has, perhaps more than any other gang, a Fagin’s household of thieves, the prisoners in a one cause, forced the demand for an educational institu- jail, provide educative environments for those who enter tion which shall provide something like a homogeneous into their collective or conjoint activities, as truly as a and balanced environment for the young. Only in this church, a labor union, a business partnership, or a politi- way can the centrifugal forces set up by juxtaposition of cal party. Each of them is a mode of associated or com- different groups within one and the same political unit munity life, quite as much as is a family, a town, or a be counteracted. The intermingling in the school of youth state. There are also communities whose members have of different races, differing religions, and unlike customs little or no direct contact with one another, like the guild creates for all a new and broader environment. Common of artists, the republic of letters, the members of the subject matter accustoms all to a unity of outlook upon a professional learned class scattered over the face of the broader horizon than is visible to the members of any earth. For they have aims in common, and the activity of group while it is isolated. The assimilative force of the each member is directly modified by knowledge of what American public school is eloquent testimony to the effi- others are doing. cacy of the common and balanced appeal. In the olden times, the diversity of groups was largely The school has the function also of coordinating within a geographical matter. There were many societies, but the disposition of each individual the diverse influences each, within its own territory, was comparatively homo- of the various social environments into which he enters. geneous. But with the development of commerce, trans- One code prevails in the family; another, on the street; a

26 John Dewey third, in the workshop or store; a fourth, in the religious ity, the individual appropriates the purpose which actu- association. As a person passes from one of the environ- ates it, becomes familiar with its methods and subject ments to another, he is subjected to antagonistic pulls, matters, acquires needed skill, and is saturated with its and is in danger of being split into a being having differ- emotional spirit. ent standards of judgment and emotion for different oc- The deeper and more intimate educative formation of casions. This danger imposes upon the school a steady- disposition comes, without conscious intent, as the young ing and integrating office. gradually partake of the activities of the various groups to which they may belong. As a society becomes more Summary. The development within the young of the atti- complex, however, it is found necessary to provide a spe- tudes and dispositions necessary to the continuous and cial social environment which shall especially look after progressive life of a society cannot take place by direct nurturing the capacities of the immature. Three of the conveyance of beliefs, emotions, and knowledge. It takes more important functions of this special environment are: place through the intermediary of the environment. The simplifying and ordering the factors of the disposition it environment consists of the sum total of conditions which is wished to develop; purifying and idealizing the exist- are concerned in the execution of the activity character- ing social customs; creating a wider and better balanced istic of a living being. The social environment consists of environment than that by which the young would be likely, all the activities of fellow beings that are bound up in if left to themselves, to be influenced. the carrying on of the activities of any one of its members. It is truly educative in its effect in the degree in which an individual shares or participates in some conjoint activity. By doing his share in the associated activ-

27 Democracy & Education Chapter Three: Education as Direction by which he is brought to subordinate his natural impulses to public or common ends. Since, by conception, his own 1. The Environment as Directive. We now pass to one of nature is quite alien to this process and opposes it rather the special forms which the general function of educa- than helps it, control has in this view a flavor of coercion tion assumes: namely, that of direction, control, or guid- or compulsion about it. Systems of government and theo- ance. Of these three words, direction, control, and guid- ries of the state have been built upon this notion, and it ance, the last best conveys the idea of assisting through has seriously affected educational ideas and practices. But cooperation the natural capacities of the individuals there is no ground for any such view. Individuals are cer- guided; control conveys rather the notion of an energy tainly interested, at times, in having their own way, and brought to bear from without and meeting some resis- their own way may go contrary to the ways of others. But tance from the one controlled; direction is a more neutral they are also interested, and chiefly interested upon the term and suggests the fact that the active tendencies of whole, in entering into the activities of others and taking those directed are led in a certain continuous course, part in conjoint and cooperative doings. Otherwise, no such instead of dispersing aimlessly. Direction expresses the thing as a community would be possible. And there would basic function, which tends at one extreme to become a not even be any one interested in furnishing the police- guiding assistance and at another, a regulation or ruling. man to keep a semblance of harmony unless he thought But in any case, we must carefully avoid a meaning some- that thereby he could gain some personal advantage. Con- times read into the term “control.” It is sometimes as- trol, in truth, means only an emphatic form of direction of sumed, explicitly or unconsciously, that an individual’s powers, and covers the regulation gained by an individual tendencies are naturally purely individualistic or egois- through his own efforts quite as much as that brought tic, and thus antisocial. Control then denotes the process about when others take the lead.

28 John Dewey In general, every stimulus directs activity. It does not energy may be wasted, going aside from the point; it may simply excite it or stir it up, but directs it toward an also go against the successful performance of an act. It object. Put the other way around, a response is not just a does harm by getting in the way. Compare the behavior re-action, a protest, as it were, against being disturbed; of a beginner in riding a bicycle with that of the expert. it is, as the word indicates, an answer. It meets the stimu- There is little axis of direction in the energies put forth; lus, and corresponds with it. There is an adaptation of they are largely dispersive and centrifugal. Direction in- the stimulus and response to each other. A light is the volves a focusing and fixating of action in order that it stimulus to the eye to see something, and the business may be truly a response, and this requires an elimination of the eye is to see. If the eyes are open and there is of unnecessary and confusing movements. In the second light, seeing occurs; the stimulus is but a condition of place, although no activity can be produced in which the the fulfillment of the proper function of the organ, not person does not cooperate to some extent, yet a response an outside interruption. To some extent, then, all direc- may be of a kind which does not fit into the sequence tion or control is a guiding of activity to its own end; it and continuity of action. A person boxing may dodge a is an assistance in doing fully what some organ is already particular blow successfully, but in such a way as to extending to do. pose himself the next instant to a still harder blow. Ad- This general statement needs, however, to be qualified equate control means that the successive acts are brought in two respects. In the first place, except in the case of a into a continuous order; each act not only meets its im- small number of instincts, the stimuli to which an imma- mediate stimulus but helps the acts which follow. ture human being is subject are not sufficiently definite In short, direction is both simultaneous and succes- to call out, in the beginning, specific responses. There is sive. At a given time, it requires that, from all the ten- always a great deal of superfluous energy aroused. This dencies that are partially called out, those be selected

29 Democracy & Education which center energy upon the point of need. Successively, light has in causing a person to see who has no eyes. it requires that each act be balanced with those which While the customs and rules of adults furnish stimuli which precede and come after, so that order of activity is direct as well as evoke the activities of the young, the achieved. Focusing and ordering are thus the two aspects young, after all, participate in the direction which their of direction, one spatial, the other temporal. The first actions finally take. In the strict sense, nothing can be insures hitting the mark; the second keeps the balance forced upon them or into them. To overlook this fact required for further action. Obviously, it is not possible means to distort and pervert human nature. To take into to separate them in practice as we have distinguished account the contribution made by the existing instincts them in idea. Activity must be centered at a given time and habits of those directed is to direct them economi- in such a way as to prepare for what comes next. The cally and wisely. Speaking accurately, all direction is but problem of the immediate response is complicated by one’s re-direction; it shifts the activities already going on into having to be on the lookout for future occurrences. another channel. Unless one is cognizant of the energies Two conclusions emerge from these general statements. which are already in operation, one’s attempts at direc- On the one hand, purely external direction is impossible. tion will almost surely go amiss. The environment can at most only supply stimuli to call On the other hand, the control afforded by the customs out responses. These responses proceed from tendencies and regulations of others may be short-sighted. It may already possessed by the individual. Even when a person accomplish its immediate effect, but at the expense of is frightened by threats into doing something, the threats throwing the subsequent action of the person out of bal- work only because the person has an instinct of fear. If ance. A threat may, for example, prevent a person from he has not, or if, though having it, it is under his own doing something to which he is naturally inclined by arous- control, the threat has no more influence upon him than ing fear of disagreeable consequences if he persists. But

30 John Dewey he may be left in the position which exposes him later on ences by which they are controlled. In such cases, our to influences which will lead him to do even worse things. control becomes most direct, and at this point we are His instincts of cunning and slyness may be aroused, so most likely to make the mistakes just spoken of. We are that things henceforth appeal to him on the side of eva- even likely to take the influence of superior force for sion and trickery more than would otherwise have been control, forgetting that while we may lead a horse to the case. Those engaged in directing the actions of oth- water we cannot make him drink; and that while we can ers are always in danger of overlooking the importance of shut a man up in a penitentiary we cannot make him the sequential development of those they direct. penitent. In all such cases of immediate action upon others, we need to discriminate between physical results 2. Modes of Social Direction. Adults are naturally most and moral results. A person may be in such a condition conscious of directing the conduct of others when they that forcible feeding or enforced confinement is neces- are immediately aiming so to do. As a rule, they have sary for his own good. A child may have to be snatched such an aim consciously when they find themselves re- with roughness away from a fire so that he shall not be sisted; when others are doing things they do not wish burnt. But no improvement of disposition, no educative them to do. But the more permanent and influential modes effect, need follow. A harsh and commanding tone may of control are those which operate from moment to mo- be effectual in keeping a child away from the fire, and ment continuously without such deliberate intention on the same desirable physical effect will follow as if he had our part. been snatched away. But there may be no more obedi- 1. When others are not doing what we would like them ence of a moral sort in one case than in the other. A man to or are threatening disobedience, we are most con- can be prevented from breaking into other persons’ houses scious of the need of controlling them and of the influ- by shutting him up, but shutting him up may not alter

31 Democracy & Education his disposition to commit burglary. When we confuse a to. Shaming, ridicule, disfavor, rebuke, and punishment physical with an educative result, we always lose the are used. Or contrary tendencies in the child are appealed chance of enlisting the person’s own participating dispo- to to divert him from his troublesome line of behavior. sition in getting the result desired, and thereby of devel- His sensitiveness to approbation, his hope of winning oping within him an intrinsic and persisting direction in favor by an agreeable act, are made use of to induce the right way. action in another direction. In general, the occasion for the more conscious acts of 2. These methods of control are so obvious (because so control should be limited to acts which are so instinctive intentionally employed) that it would hardly be worth or impulsive that the one performing them has no means while to mention them if it were not that notice may now of foreseeing their outcome. If a person cannot foresee be taken, by way of contrast, of the other more impor- the consequences of his act, and is not capable of under- tant and permanent mode of control. This other method standing what he is told about its outcome by those with resides in the ways in which persons, with whom the more experience, it is impossible for him to guide his act immature being is associated, use things; the instrumen- intelligently. In such a state, every act is alike to him. talities with which they accomplish their own ends. The Whatever moves him does move him, and that is all there very existence of the social medium in which an indi- is to it. In some cases, it is well to permit him to experi- vidual lives, moves, and has his being is the standing ment, and to discover the consequences for himself in effective agency of directing his activity. order that he may act intelligently next time under simi- This fact makes it necessary for us to examine in greater lar circumstances. But some courses of action are too detail what is meant by the social environment. We are discommoding and obnoxious to others to allow of this given to separating from each other the physical and course being pursued. Direct disapproval is now resorted social environments in which we live. The separation is

32 John Dewey responsible on one hand for an exaggeration of the moral hold life. Imitation, emulation, the need of working to- importance of the more direct or personal modes of con- gether, enforce control. trol of which we have been speaking; and on the other If the mother hands the child something needed, the hand for an exaggeration, in current psychology and phi- latter must reach the thing in order to get it. Where there losophy, of the intellectual possibilities of contact with a is giving there must be taking. The way the child handles purely physical environment. There is not, in fact, any the thing after it is got, the use to which it is put, is surely such thing as the direct influence of one human being on influenced by the fact that the child has watched the another apart from use of the physical environment as an mother. When the child sees the parent looking for some- intermediary. A smile, a frown, a rebuke, a word of warn- thing, it is as natural for it also to look for the object and ing or encouragement, all involve some physical change. to give it over when it finds it, as it was, under other Otherwise, the attitude of one would not get over to alter circumstances, to receive it. Multiply such an instance by the attitude of another. Comparatively speaking, such the thousand details of daily intercourse, and one has a modes of influence may be regarded as personal. The physi- picture of the most permanent and enduring method of cal medium is reduced to a mere means of personal con- giving direction to the activities of the young. tact. In contrast with such direct modes of mutual influ- In saying this, we are only repeating what was said ence, stand associations in common pursuits involving previously about participating in a joint activity as the the use of things as means and as measures of results. chief way of forming disposition. We have explicitly added, Even if the mother never told her daughter to help her, or however, the recognition of the part played in the joint never rebuked her for not helping, the child would be activity by the use of things. The philosophy of learning subjected to direction in her activities by the mere fact has been unduly dominated by a false psychology. It is that she was engaged, along with the parent, in the house- frequently stated that a person learns by merely having

33 Democracy & Education the qualities of things impressed upon his mind through out a blaze, I respond intelligently; the sound meant fire, the gateway of the senses. Having received a store of and fire meant need of being extinguished. I bump into a sensory impressions, association or some power of men- stone, and kick it to one side purely physically. I put it to tal synthesis is supposed to combine them into ideas— one side for fear some one will stumble upon it, intelli- into things with a meaning. An object, stone, orange, gently; I respond to a meaning which the thing has. I am tree, chair, is supposed to convey different impressions startled by a thunderclap whether I recognize it or not— of color, shape, size, hardness, smell, taste, etc., which more likely, if I do not recognize it. But if I say, either aggregated together constitute the characteristic mean- out loud or to myself, that is thunder, I respond to the ing of each thing. But as matter of fact, it is the charac- disturbance as a meaning. My behavior has a mental qual- teristic use to which the thing is put, because of its spe- ity. When things have a meaning for us, we mean (in- cific qualities, which supplies the meaning with which it tend, propose) what we do: when they do not, we act is identified. A chair is a thing which is put to one use; a blindly, unconsciously, unintelligently. table, a thing which is employed for another purpose; an In both kinds of responsive adjustment, our activities orange is a thing which costs so much, which is grown in are directed or controlled. But in the merely blind re- warm climes, which is eaten, and when eaten has an sponse, direction is also blind. There may be training, agreeable odor and refreshing taste, etc. but there is no education. Repeated responses to recur- The difference between an adjustment to a physical rent stimuli may fix a habit of acting in a certain way. All stimulus and a mental act is that the latter involves re- of us have many habits of whose import we are quite sponse to a thing in its meaning; the former does not. A unaware, since they were formed without our knowing noise may make me jump without my mind being impli- what we were about. Consequently they possess us, rather cated. When I hear a noise and run and get water and put than we them. They move us; they control us. Unless we

34 John Dewey become aware of what they accomplish, and pass judg- refers what he is doing to what the other is doing and ment upon the worth of the result, we do not control vice-versa. That is, the activity of each is placed in the them. A child might be made to bow every time he met a same inclusive situation. To pull at a rope at which oth- certain person by pressure on his neck muscles, and bow- ers happen to be pulling is not a shared or conjoint acing would finally become automatic. It would not, how- tivity, unless the pulling is done with knowledge that ever, be an act of recognition or deference on his part, others are pulling and for the sake of either helping or till he did it with a certain end in view—as having a hindering what they are doing. A pin may pass in the certain meaning. And not till he knew what he was about course of its manufacture through the hands of many and performed the act for the sake of its meaning could persons. But each may do his part without knowledge of he be said to be “brought up” or educated to act in a what others do or without any reference to what they do; certain way. To have an idea of a thing is thus not just to each may operate simply for the sake of a separate re- get certain sensations from it. It is to be able to respond sult—his own pay. There is, in this case, no common to the thing in view of its place in an inclusive scheme of consequence to which the several acts are referred, and action; it is to foresee the drift and probable consequence hence no genuine intercourse or association, in spite of of the action of the thing upon us and of our action upon juxtaposition, and in spite of the fact that their respec- it. To have the same ideas about things which others tive doings contribute to a single outcome. But if each have, to be like-minded with them, and thus to be really views the consequences of his own acts as having a bear- members of a social group, is therefore to attach the ing upon what others are doing and takes into account same meanings to things and to acts which others at- the consequences of their behavior upon himself, then tach. Otherwise, there is no common understanding, and there is a common mind; a common intent in behavior. no community life. But in a shared activity, each person There is an understanding set up between the different

35 Democracy & Education contributors; and this common understanding controls attitude changes. He takes an interest, as we say; he the action of each. Suppose that conditions were so ar- takes note and watches what others are doing. He no ranged that one person automatically caught a ball and longer reacts just to his own hunger, but behaves in the then threw it to another person who caught and auto- light of what others are doing for its prospective satis- matically returned it; and that each so acted without faction. In that way, he also no longer just gives way to knowing where the ball came from or went to. Clearly, hunger without knowing it, but he notes, or recognizes, such action would be without point or meaning. It might or identifies his own state. It becomes an object for him. be physically controlled, but it would not be socially di- His attitude toward it becomes in some degree intelli- rected. But suppose that each becomes aware of what gent. And in such noting of the meaning of the actions of the other is doing, and becomes interested in the other’s others and of his own state, he is socially directed. action and thereby interested in what he is doing himself It will be recalled that our main proposition had two as connected with the action of the other. The behavior sides. One of them has now been dealt with: namely, that of each would then be intelligent; and socially intelli- physical things do not influence mind (or form ideas and gent and guided. Take one more example of a less imagi- beliefs) except as they are implicated in action for pro- nary kind. An infant is hungry, and cries while food is spective consequences. The other point is persons modify prepared in his presence. If he does not connect his own one another’s dispositions only through the special use state with what others are doing, nor what they are do- they make of physical conditions. Consider first the case ing with his own satisfaction, he simply reacts with in- of so-called expressive movements to which others are creasing impatience to his own increasing discomfort. sensitive; blushing, smiling, frowning, clinching of fists, He is physically controlled by his own organic state. But natural gestures of all kinds. In themselves, these are not when he makes a back and forth reference, his whole expressive. They are organic parts of a person’s attitude.

36 John Dewey One does not blush to show modesty or embarrassment against which we should guard ourselves? In one case, to others, but because the capillary circulation alters in his action means to run toward him; in the other case, to response to stimuli. But others use the blush, or a slightly run away. In any case, it is the change he effects in the perceptible tightening of the muscles of a person with physical environment which is a sign to us of how we whom they are associated, as a sign of the state in which should conduct ourselves. Our action is socially controlled that person finds himself, and as an indication of what because we endeavor to refer what we are to do to the course to pursue. The frown signifies an imminent rebuke same situation in which he is acting. for which one must prepare, or an uncertainty and hesi- Language is, as we have already seen (ante, p. 15) a tation which one must, if possible, remove by saying or case of this joint reference of our own action and that of doing something to restore confidence. A man at some another to a common situation. Hence its unrivaled sig- distance is waving his arms wildly. One has only to pre- nificance as a means of social direction. But language serve an attitude of detached indifference, and the mo- would not be this efficacious instrument were it not that tions of the other person will be on the level of any re- it takes place upon a background of coarser and more mote physical change which we happen to note. If we tangible use of physical means to accomplish results. A have no concern or interest, the waving of the arms is as child sees persons with whom he lives using chairs, hats, meaningless to us as the gyrations of the arms of a wind- tables, spades, saws, plows, horses, money in certain ways. mill. But if interest is aroused, we begin to participate. If he has any share at all in what they are doing, he is led We refer his action to something we are doing ourselves thereby to use things in the same way, or to use other or that we should do. We have to judge the meaning of things in a way which will fit in. If a chair is drawn up to his act in order to decide what to do. Is he beckoning for a table, it is a sign that he is to sit in it; if a person help? Is he warning us of an explosion to be set off, extends his right hand, he is to extend his; and so on in

37 Democracy & Education a never ending stream of detail. The prevailing habits of stand them in terms of the use to which they are turned using the products of human art and the raw materials of in joint or shared situations. And mind in this sense is nature constitute by all odds the deepest and most per- the method of social control. vasive mode of social control. When children go to school, they already have “minds”—they have knowledge and 3. Imitation and Social Psychology. We have already dispositions of judgment which may be appealed to noted the defects of a psychology of learning which places through the use of language. But these “minds” are the the individual mind naked, as it were, in contact with organized habits of intelligent response which they have physical objects, and which believes that knowledge, ideas, previously required by putting things to use in connec- and beliefs accrue from their interaction. Only compara- tion with the way other persons use things. The control tively recently has the predominating influence of asso- is inescapable; it saturates disposition. The net outcome ciation with fellow beings in the formation of mental and of the discussion is that the fundamental means of con- moral disposition been perceived. Even now it is usually trol is not personal but intellectual. It is not “moral” in treated as a kind of adjunct to an alleged method of the sense that a person is moved by direct personal ap- learning by direct contact with things, and as merely peal from others, important as is this method at critical supplementing knowledge of the physical world with junctures. It consists in the habits of understanding, which knowledge of persons. The purport of our discussion is are set up in using objects in correspondence with oth- that such a view makes an absurd and impossible separa- ers, whether by way of cooperation and assistance or tion between persons and things. Interaction with things rivalry and competition. Mind as a concrete thing is pre- may form habits of external adjustment. But it leads to cisely the power to understand things in terms of the use activity having a meaning and conscious intent only when made of them; a socialized mind is the power to under- things are used to produce a result. And the only way one

38 John Dewey person can modify the mind of another is by using physi- interest. The basic error in the current notion of imita- cal conditions, crude or artificial, so as to evoke some tion is that it puts the cart before the horse. It takes an answering activity from him. Such are our two main con- effect for the cause of the effect. There can be no doubt clusions. It is desirable to amplify and enforce them by that individuals in forming a social group are like-minded; placing them in contrast with the theory which uses a they understand one another. They tend to act with the psychology of supposed direct relationships of human same controlling ideas, beliefs, and intentions, given simi- beings to one another as an adjunct to the psychology of lar circumstances. Looked at from without, they might be the supposed direct relation of an individual to physical said to be engaged in “imitating” one another. In the objects. In substance, this so-called social psychology sense that they are doing much the same sort of thing in has been built upon the notion of imitation. Consequently, much the same sort of way, this would be true enough. we shall discuss the nature and role of imitation in the But “imitation” throws no light upon why they so act; it formation of mental disposition. repeats the fact as an explanation of itself. It is an ex- According to this theory, social control of individuals planation of the same order as the famous saying that rests upon the instinctive tendency of individuals to imi- opium puts men to sleep because of its dormitive power. tate or copy the actions of others. The latter serve as Objective likeness of acts and the mental satisfaction models. The imitative instinct is so strong that the young found in being in conformity with others are baptized by devote themselves to conforming to the patterns set by the name imitation. This social fact is then taken for a others and reproducing them in their own scheme of be- psychological force, which produced the likeness. A con- havior. According to our theory, what is here called imi- siderable portion of what is called imitation is simply the tation is a misleading name for partaking with others in fact that persons being alike in structure respond in the a use of things which leads to consequences of common same way to like stimuli. Quite independently of imita-

39 Democracy & Education tion, men on being insulted get angry and attack the the unconscious confirmations and ratifications of those insulter. This statement may be met by citing the un- with whom one associates. doubted fact that response to an insult takes place in Suppose that some one rolls a ball to a child; he catches different ways in groups having different customs. In one it and rolls it back, and the game goes on. Here the stimu- group, it may be met by recourse to fisticuffs, in another lus is not just the sight of the ball, or the sight of the by a challenge to a duel, in a third by an exhibition of other rolling it. It is the situation—the game which is contemptuous disregard. This happens, so it is said, be- playing. The response is not merely rolling the ball back; cause the model set for imitation is different. But there it is rolling it back so that the other one may catch and is no need to appeal to imitation. The mere fact that return it,—that the game may continue. The “pattern” or customs are different means that the actual stimuli to model is not the action of the other person. The whole behavior are different. Conscious instruction plays a part; situation requires that each should adapt his action in prior approvals and disapprovals have a large influence. view of what the other person has done and is to do. Still more effective is the fact that unless an individual Imitation may come in but its role is subordinate. The acts in the way current in his group, he is literally out of child has an interest on his own account; he wants to it. He can associate with others on intimate and equal keep it going. He may then note how the other person terms only by behaving in the way in which they behave. catches and holds the ball in order to improve his own The pressure that comes from the fact that one is let into acts. He imitates the means of doing, not the end or the group action by acting in one way and shut out by thing to be done. And he imitates the means because he acting in another way is unremitting. What is called the wishes, on his own behalf, as part of his own initiative, effect of imitation is mainly the product of conscious to take an effective part in the game. One has only to instruction and of the selective influence exercised by consider how completely the child is dependent from his

40 John Dewey earliest days for successful execution of his purposes upon the development of effective action. fitting his acts into those of others to see what a pre- This excursus should, accordingly, have the effect of mium is put upon behaving as others behave, and of de- reinforcing the conclusion that genuine social control veloping an understanding of them in order that he may means the formation of a certain mental disposition; a so behave. The pressure for likemindedness in action from way of understanding objects, events, and acts which this source is so great that it is quite superfluous to enables one to participate effectively in associated ac- appeal to imitation. As matter of fact, imitation of ends, tivities. Only the friction engendered by meeting resis- as distinct from imitation of means which help to reach tance from others leads to the view that it takes place by ends, is a superficial and transitory affair which leaves forcing a line of action contrary to natural inclinations. little effect upon disposition. Idiots are especially apt at Only failure to take account of the situations in which this kind of imitation; it affects outward acts but not the persons are mutually concerned (or interested in acting meaning of their performance. When we find children responsively to one another) leads to treating imitation engaging in this sort of mimicry, instead of encouraging as the chief agent in promoting social control. them (as we would do if it were an important means of social control) we are more likely to rebuke them as apes, 4. Some Applications to Education. Why does a savage monkeys, parrots, or copy cats. Imitation of means of group perpetuate savagery, and a civilized group civiliza- accomplishment is, on the other hand, an intelligent act. tion? Doubtless the first answer to occur to mind is be- It involves close observation, and judicious selection of cause savages are savages; being of low-grade intelli- what will enable one to do better something which he gence and perhaps defective moral sense. But careful study already is trying to do. Used for a purpose, the imitative has made it doubtful whether their native capacities are instinct may, like any other instinct, become a factor in appreciably inferior to those of civilized man. It has made

41 Democracy & Education it certain that native differences are not sufficient to existed they were indifferent to human endeavors. Every account for the difference in culture. In a sense the mind domesticated plant and animal, every tool, every utensil, of savage peoples is an effect, rather than a cause, of every appliance, every manufactured article, every esthetic their backward institutions. Their social activities are such decoration, every work of art means a transformation of as to restrict their objects of attention and interest, and conditions once hostile or indifferent to characteristic hence to limit the stimuli to mental development. Even human activities into friendly and favoring conditions. as regards the objects that come within the scope of Because the activities of children today are controlled by attention, primitive social customs tend to arrest obser- these selected and charged stimuli, children are able to vation and imagination upon qualities which do not fruc- traverse in a short lifetime what the race has needed tify in the mind. Lack of control of natural forces means slow, tortured ages to attain. The dice have been loaded that a scant number of natural objects enter into associ- by all the successes which have preceded. ated behavior. Only a small number of natural resources Stimuli conducive to economical and effective response, are utilized and they are not worked for what they are such as our system of roads and means of transportation, worth. The advance of civilization means that a larger our ready command of heat, light, and electricity, our number of natural forces and objects have been trans- ready-made machines and apparatus for every purpose, formed into instrumentalities of action, into means for do not, by themselves or in their aggregate, constitute a securing ends. We start not so much with superior ca- civilization. But the uses to which they are put are civi- pacities as with superior stimuli for evocation and direc- lization, and without the things the uses would be im- tion of our capacities. The savage deals largely with crude possible. Time otherwise necessarily devoted to wresting stimuli; we have weighted stimuli. Prior human efforts a livelihood from a grudging environment and securing a have made over natural conditions. As they originally precarious protection against its inclemencies is freed. A

42 John Dewey body of knowledge is transmitted, the legitimacy of which Intentional education signifies, as we have already seen, is guaranteed by the fact that the physical equipment in a specially selected environment, the selection being made which it is incarnated leads to results that square with the on the basis of materials and method specifically pro- other facts of nature. Thus these appliances of art supply a moting growth in the desired direction. Since language protection, perhaps our chief protection, against a recru- represents the physical conditions that have been sub- descence of these superstitious beliefs, those fanciful myths jected to the maximum transformation in the interests of and infertile imaginings about nature in which so much of social life—physical things which have lost their original the best intellectual power of the past has been spent. If quality in becoming social tools—it is appropriate that we add one other factor, namely, that such appliances be language should play a large part compared with other not only used, but used in the interests of a truly shared or appliances. By it we are led to share vicariously in past associated life, then the appliances become the positive human experience, thus widening and enriching the ex- resources of civilization. If Greece, with a scant tithe of perience of the present. We are enabled, symbolically and our material resources, achieved a worthy and noble intel- imaginatively, to anticipate situations. In countless ways, lectual and artistic career, it is because Greece operated language condenses meanings that record social outcomes for social ends such resources as it had. But whatever the and presage social outlooks. So significant is it of a lib- situation, whether one of barbarism or civilization, whether eral share in what is worth while in life that unlettered one of stinted control of physical forces, or of partial en- and uneducated have become almost synonymous. slavement to a mechanism not yet made tributary to a The emphasis in school upon this particular tool has, shared experience, things as they enter into action furnish however, its dangers—dangers which are not theoretical the educative conditions of daily life and direct the forma- but exhibited in practice. Why is it, in spite of the fact tion of mental and moral disposition. that teaching by pouring in, learning by a passive ab-

43 Democracy & Education sorption, are universally condemned, that they are still so necessarily substitute a bookish, a pseudo-intellectual entrenched in practice? That education is not an affair of spirit for a social spirit. Children doubtless go to school “telling” and being told, but an active and constructive to learn, but it has yet to be proved that learning occurs process, is a principle almost as generally violated in prac- most adequately when it is made a separate conscious tice as conceded in theory. Is not this deplorable situation business. When treating it as a business of this sort tends due to the fact that the doctrine is itself merely told? It is to preclude the social sense which comes from sharing in preached; it is lectured; it is written about. But its enact- an activity of common concern and value, the effort at ment into practice requires that the school environment isolated intellectual learning contradicts its own aim. We be equipped with agencies for doing, with tools and physi- may secure motor activity and sensory excitation by keep- cal materials, to an extent rarely attained. It requires that ing an individual by himself, but we cannot thereby get methods of instruction and administration be modified to him to understand the meaning which things have in the allow and to secure direct and continuous occupations with life of which he is a part. We may secure technical spe- things. Not that the use of language as an educational cialized ability in algebra, Latin, or botany, but not the resource should lessen; but that its use should be more kind of intelligence which directs ability to useful ends. vital and fruitful by having its normal connection with Only by engaging in a joint activity, where one person’s shared activities. “These things ought ye to have done, use of material and tools is consciously referred to the and not to have left the others undone.” And for the school use other persons are making of their capacities and ap- “these things” mean equipment with the instrumentalities pliances, is a social direction of disposition attained. of cooperative or joint activity. Summary. The natural or native impulses of the young For when the schools depart from the educational con- do not agree with the life-customs of the group into which ditions effective in the out-of-school environment, they they are born. Consequently they have to be directed or

44 John Dewey guided. This control is not the same thing as physical direct or personal. Moreover it is intrinsic to the disposi- compulsion; it consists in centering the impulses acting tion of the person, not external and coercive. To achieve at any one time upon some specific end and in introduc- this internal control through identity of interest and un- ing an order of continuity into the sequence of acts. The derstanding is the business of education. While books action of others is always influenced by deciding what and conversation can do much, these agencies are usu- stimuli shall call out their actions. But in some cases as ally relied upon too exclusively. Schools require for their in commands, prohibitions, approvals, and disapprovals, full efficiency more opportunity for conjoint activities in the stimuli proceed from persons with a direct view to which those instructed take part, so that they may ac- influencing action. Since in such cases we are most con- quire a social sense of their own powers and of the mate- scious of controlling the action of others, we are likely to rials and appliances used. exaggerate the importance of this sort of control at the expense of a more permanent and effective method. The basic control resides in the nature of the situations in which the young take part. In social situations the young have to refer their way of acting to what others are doing and make it fit in. This directs their action to a common result, and gives an understanding common to the participants. For all mean the same thing, even when performing different acts. This common understanding of the means and ends of action is the essence of social control. It is indirect, or emotional and intellectual, not

45 Democracy & Education Chapter Four: Education as Growth mean by capacity an ability, a power; and by potentiality potency, force. Now when we say that immaturity means 1. The Conditions of Growth. In directing the activities the possibility of growth, we are not referring to absence of the young, society determines its own future in deter- of powers which may exist at a later time; we express a mining that of the young. Since the young at a given force positively present—the ability to develop. time will at some later date compose the society of that Our tendency to take immaturity as mere lack, and period, the latter’s nature will largely turn upon the di- growth as something which fills up the gap between the rection children’s activities were given at an earlier pe- immature and the mature is due to regarding childhood riod. This cumulative movement of action toward a later comparatively, instead of intrinsically. We treat it simply result is what is meant by growth. as a privation because we are measuring it by adulthood The primary condition of growth is immaturity. This may as a fixed standard. This fixes attention upon what the seem to be a mere truism—saying that a being can de- child has not, and will not have till he becomes a man. velop only in some point in which he is undeveloped. But This comparative standpoint is legitimate enough for some the prefix “im” of the word immaturity means something purposes, but if we make it final, the question arises positive, not a mere void or lack. It is noteworthy that whether we are not guilty of an overweening presump- the terms “capacity” and “potentiality” have a double tion. Children, if they could express themselves articu- meaning, one sense being negative, the other positive. lately and sincerely, would tell a different tale; and there Capacity may denote mere receptivity, like the capacity is excellent adult authority for the conviction that for of a quart measure. We may mean by potentiality a merely certain moral and intellectual purposes adults must be- dormant or quiescent state—a capacity to become some- come as little children. The seriousness of the assump- thing different under external influences. But we also tion of the negative quality of the possibilities of im-

46 John Dewey maturity is apparent when we reflect that it sets up as an helplessness were all there were in dependence, no de- ideal and standard a static end. The fulfillment of growing velopment could ever take place. A merely impotent be- is taken to mean an accomplished growth: that is to say, ing has to be carried, forever, by others. The fact that an Ungrowth, something which is no longer growing. The dependence is accompanied by growth in ability, not by futility of the assumption is seen in the fact that every an ever increasing lapse into parasitism, suggests that it adult resents the imputation of having no further possi- is already something constructive. Being merely sheltered bilities of growth; and so far as he finds that they are by others would not promote growth. For closed to him mourns the fact as evidence of loss, instead (2) it would only build a wall around impotence. With of falling back on the achieved as adequate manifestation reference to the physical world, the child is helpless. He of power. Why an unequal measure for child and man? lacks at birth and for a long time thereafter power to make Taken absolutely, instead of comparatively, immaturity his way physically, to make his own living. If he had to do designates a positive force or ability,—the pouter to grow. that by himself, he would hardly survive an hour. On this We do not have to draw out or educe positive activities side his helplessness is almost complete. The young of the from a child, as some educational doctrines would have it. brutes are immeasurably his superiors. He is physically weak Where there is life, there are already eager and impas- and not able to turn the strength which he possesses to sioned activities. Growth is not something done to them; coping with the physical environment. it is something they do. The positive and constructive as- 1. The thoroughgoing character of this helplessness sug- pect of possibility gives the key to understanding the two gests, however, some compensating power. The relative chief traits of immaturity, dependence and plasticity. ability of the young of brute animals to adapt themselves (1) It sounds absurd to hear dependence spoken of as fairly well to physical conditions from an early period something positive, still more absurd as a power. Yet if suggests the fact that their life is not intimately bound

47 Democracy & Education up with the life of those about them. They are compelled, his impulses all tend to facile social responsiveness. The so to speak, to have physical gifts because they are lack- statement that children, before adolescence, are egotisti- ing in social gifts. Human infants, on the other hand, can cally self-centered, even if it were true, would not contra- get along with physical incapacity just because of their dict the truth of this statement. It would simply indicate social capacity. We sometimes talk and think as if they that their social responsiveness is employed on their own simply happened to be physically in a social environ- behalf, not that it does not exist. But the statement is not ment; as if social forces exclusively existed in the adults true as matter of fact. The facts which are cited in support who take care of them, they being passive recipients. If of the alleged pure egoism of children really show the in- it were said that children are themselves marvelously tensity and directness with which they go to their mark. If endowed with power to enlist the cooperative attention the ends which form the mark seem narrow and selfish to of others, this would be thought to be a backhanded way adults, it is only because adults (by means of a similar of saying that others are marvelously attentive to the engrossment in their day) have mastered these ends, which needs of children. But observation shows that children have consequently ceased to interest them. Most of the are gifted with an equipment of the first order for social remainder of children’s alleged native egoism is simply an intercourse. Few grown-up persons retain all of the flex- egoism which runs counter to an adult’s egoism. To a grown- ible and sensitive ability of children to vibrate sympa- up person who is too absorbed in his own affairs to take thetically with the attitudes and doings of those about an interest in children’s affairs, children doubtless seem them. Inattention to physical things (going with inca- unreasonably engrossed in their own affairs. pacity to control them) is accompanied by a correspond- From a social standpoint, dependence denotes a power ing intensification of interest and attention as to the rather than a weakness; it involves interdependence. There doings of people. The native mechanism of the child and is always a danger that increased personal independence

48 John Dewey will decrease the social capacity of an individual. In mak- It is a familiar fact that the young of the higher ani- ing him more self-reliant, it may make him more self- mals, and especially the human young, have to learn to sufficient; it may lead to aloofness and indifference. It utilize their instinctive reactions. The human being is often makes an individual so insensitive in his relations born with a greater number of instinctive tendencies than to others as to develop an illusion of being really able to other animals. But the instincts of the lower animals per- stand and act alone—an unnamed form of insanity which fect themselves for appropriate action at an early period is responsible for a large part of the remediable suffering after birth, while most of those of the human infant are of the world. of little account just as they stand. An original special- 2. The specific adaptability of an immature creature for ized power of adjustment secures immediate efficiency, growth constitutes his plasticity. This is something quite but, like a railway ticket, it is good for one route only. A different from the plasticity of putty or wax. It is not a being who, in order to use his eyes, ears, hands, and capacity to take on change of form in accord with external legs, has to experiment in making varied combinations of pressure. It lies near the pliable elasticity by which some their reactions, achieves a control that is flexible and persons take on the color of their surroundings while retain- varied. A chick, for example, pecks accurately at a bit of ing their own bent. But it is something deeper than this. It food in a few hours after hatching. This means that defi- is essentially the ability to learn from experience; the power nite coordinations of activities of the eyes in seeing and to retain from one experience something which is of avail in of the body and head in striking are perfected in a few coping with the difficulties of a later situation. This means trials. An infant requires about six months to be able to power to modify actions on the basis of the results of prior gauge with approximate accuracy the action in reaching experiences, the power to develop dispositions. Without it, which will coordinate with his visual activities; to be the acquisition of habits is impossible. able, that is, to tell whether he can reach a seen object

49 Democracy & Education and just how to execute the reaching. As a result, the constant continued care was probably a chief means in chick is limited by the relative perfection of its original transforming temporary cohabitations into permanent endowment. The infant has the advantage of the multi- unions. It certainly was a chief influence in forming hab- tude of instinctive tentative reactions and of the experi- its of affectionate and sympathetic watchfulness; that ences that accompany them, even though he is at a tem- constructive interest in the well-being of others which is porary disadvantage because they cross one another. In essential to associated life. Intellectually, this moral de- learning an action, instead of having it given ready-made, velopment meant the introduction of many new objects one of necessity learns to vary its factors, to make varied of attention; it stimulated foresight and planning for the combinations of them, according to change of circum- future. Thus there is a reciprocal influence. Increasing stances. A possibility of continuing progress is opened complexity of social life requires a longer period of in- up by the fact that in learning one act, methods are de- fancy in which to acquire the needed powers; this pro- veloped good for use in other situations. Still more im- longation of dependence means prolongation of plastic- portant is the fact that the human being acquires a habit ity, or power of acquiring variable and novel modes of of learning. He learns to learn. control. Hence it provides a further push to social progress. The importance for human life of the two facts of dependence and variable control has been summed up in 2. Habits as Expressions of Growth. We have already the doctrine of the significance of prolonged infancy. 1 noted that plasticity is the capacity to retain and carry This prolongation is significant from the standpoint of over from prior experience factors which modify subse- the adult members of the group as well as from that of quent activities. This signifies the capacity to acquire the young. The presence of dependent and learning be- habits, or develop definite dispositions. We have now to ings is a stimulus to nurture and affection. The need for consider the salient features of habits. In the first place,

50 John Dewey a habit is a form of executive skill, of efficiency in doing. the fact that this change consists in ability to effect A habit means an ability to use natural conditions as means subsequent changes in the environment, we shall be led to ends. It is an active control of the environment through to think of “adjustment” as a conformity to environment control of the organs of action. We are perhaps apt to as wax conforms to the seal which impresses it. The envi- emphasize the control of the body at the expense of con- ronment is thought of as something fixed, providing in trol of the environment. We think of walking, talking, play- its fixity the end and standard of changes taking place in ing the piano, the specialized skills characteristic of the the organism; adjustment is just fitting ourselves to this etcher, the surgeon, the bridge-builder, as if they were fixity of external conditions. 2 Habit as habituation is simply ease, deftness, and accuracy on the part of the indeed something relatively passive; we get used to our organism. They are that, of course; but the measure of the surroundings—to our clothing, our shoes, and gloves; to value of these qualities lies in the economical and effec- the atmosphere as long as it is fairly equable; to our tive control of the environment which they secure. To be daily associates, etc. Conformity to the environment, a able to walk is to have certain properties of nature at our change wrought in the organism without reference to disposal—and so with all other habits. ability to modify surroundings, is a marked trait of such Education is not infrequently defined as consisting in habituations. Aside from the fact that we are not entitled the acquisition of those habits that effect an adjustment to carry over the traits of such adjustments (which might of an individual and his environment. The definition ex- well be called accommodations, to mark them off from presses an essential phase of growth. But it is essential active adjustments) into habits of active use of our sur- that adjustment be understood in its active sense of con- roundings, two features of habituations are worth notice. trol of means for achieving ends. If we think of a habit In the first place, we get used to things by first using simply as a change wrought in the organism, ignoring them.

51 Democracy & Education Consider getting used to a strange city. At first, there is erating, putting up with things as they are, a maximum excessive stimulation and excessive and ill-adapted re- of passive acquiescence, and a minimum of active con- sponse. Gradually certain stimuli are selected because of trol, of subjection to use. A civilized people enters upon their relevancy, and others are degraded. We can say ei- the scene. It also adapts itself. It introduces irrigation; it ther that we do not respond to them any longer, or more searches the world for plants and animals that will flour- truly that we have effected a persistent response to ish under such conditions; it improves, by careful selec- them—an equilibrium of adjustment. This means, in the tion, those which are growing there. As a consequence, second place, that this enduring adjustment supplies the the wilderness blossoms as a rose. The savage is merely background upon which are made specific adjustments, habituated; the civilized man has habits which transform as occasion arises. We are never interested in changing the environment. the whole environment; there is much that we take for The significance of habit is not exhausted, however, in granted and accept just as it already is. Upon this back- its executive and motor phase. It means formation of ground our activities focus at certain points in an en- intellectual and emotional disposition as well as an in- deavor to introduce needed changes. Habituation is thus crease in ease, economy, and efficiency of action. Any our adjustment to an environment which at the time we habit marks an inclination—an active preference and are not concerned with modifying, and which supplies a choice for the conditions involved in its exercise. A habit leverage to our active habits. Adaptation, in fine, is quite does not wait, Micawber-like, for a stimulus to turn up so as much adaptation of the environment to our own ac- that it may get busy; it actively seeks for occasions to tivities as of our activities to the environment. A savage pass into full operation. If its expression is unduly blocked, tribe manages to live on a desert plain. It adapts itself. inclination shows itself in uneasiness and intense crav- But its adaptation involves a maximum of accepting, tol- ing. A habit also marks an intellectual disposition. Where

52 John Dewey there is a habit, there is acquaintance with the materials mean that something has a fixed hold upon us, instead and equipment to which action is applied. There is a defi- of our having a free hold upon things. This fact explains nite way of understanding the situations in which the two points in a common notion about habits: their iden- habit operates. Modes of thought, of observation and tification with mechanical and external modes of action reflection, enter as forms of skill and of desire into the to the neglect of mental and moral attitudes, and the habits that make a man an engineer, an architect, a phy- tendency to give them a bad meaning, an identification sician, or a merchant. In unskilled forms of labor, the with “bad habits.” Many a person would feel surprised to intellectual factors are at minimum precisely because the have his aptitude in his chosen profession called a habit, habits involved are not of a high grade. But there are and would naturally think of his use of tobacco, liquor, or habits of judging and reasoning as truly as of handling a profane language as typical of the meaning of habit. A tool, painting a picture, or conducting an experiment. habit is to him something which has a hold on him, some- Such statements are, however, understatements. The hab- thing not easily thrown off even though judgment con- its of mind involved in habits of the eye and hand supply demn it. the latter with their significance. Above all, the intellec- Habits reduce themselves to routine ways of acting, or tual element in a habit fixes the relation of the habit to degenerate into ways of action to which we are enslaved varied and elastic use, and hence to continued growth. just in the degree in which intelligence is disconnected We speak of fixed habits. Well, the phrase may mean pow- from them. Routine habits are unthinking habits: “bad” ers so well established that their possessor always has habits are habits so severed from reason that they are them as resources when needed. But the phrase is also opposed to the conclusions of conscious deliberation and used to mean ruts, routine ways, with loss of freshness, decision. As we have seen, the acquiring of habits is due open- mindedness, and originality. Fixity of habit may to an original plasticity of our natures: to our ability to

53 Democracy & Education vary responses till we find an appropriate and efficient 3. The Educational Bearings of the Conception of De- way of acting. Routine habits, and habits that possess us velopment. We have had so far but little to say in this instead of our possessing them, are habits which put an chapter about education. We have been occupied with end to plasticity. They mark the close of power to vary. the conditions and implications of growth. If our conclu- There can be no doubt of the tendency of organic plastic- sions are justified, they carry with them, however, defi- ity, of the physiological basis, to lessen with growing years. nite educational consequences. When it is said that edu- The instinctively mobile and eagerly varying action of child- cation is development, everything depends upon how de- hood, the love of new stimuli and new developments, too velopment is conceived. Our net conclusion is that life is easily passes into a “settling down,” which means aver- development, and that developing, growing, is life. Trans- sion to change and a resting on past achievements. Only lated into its educational equivalents, that means (i) that an environment which secures the full use of intelligence the educational process has no end beyond itself; it is its in the process of forming habits can counteract this ten- own end; and that (ii) the educational process is one of dency. Of course, the same hardening of the organic condi- continual reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming. tions affects the physiological structures which are involved 1. Development when it is interpreted in comparative in thinking. But this fact only indicates the need of persis- terms, that is, with respect to the special traits of child tent care to see to it that the function of intelligence is and adult life, means the direction of power into special invoked to its maximum possibility. The short-sighted channels: the formation of habits involving executive skill, method which falls back on mechanical routine and repeti- definiteness of interest, and specific objects of observation to secure external efficiency of habit, motor skill with- tion and thought. But the comparative view is not final. out accompanying thought, marks a deliberate closing in The child has specific powers; to ignore that fact is to of surroundings upon growth. stunt or distort the organs upon which his growth de-

54 John Dewey pends. The adult uses his powers to transform his envi- educational counterparts of the three fallacious ideas are ronment, thereby occasioning new stimuli which redirect first, failure to take account of the instinctive or native his powers and keep them developing. Ignoring this fact powers of the young; secondly, failure to develop initia- means arrested development, a passive accommodation. tive in coping with novel situations; thirdly, an undue Normal child and normal adult alike, in other words, are emphasis upon drill and other devices which secure auto- engaged in growing. The difference between them is not matic skill at the expense of personal perception. In all the difference between growth and no growth, but be- cases, the adult environment is accepted as a standard tween the modes of growth appropriate to different confor the child. He is to be brought up to it. ditions. With respect to the development of powers de- Natural instincts are either disregarded or treated as voted to coping with specific scientific and economic nuisances—as obnoxious traits to be suppressed, or at problems we may say the child should be growing in man- all events to be brought into conformity with external hood. With respect to sympathetic curiosity, unbiased standards. Since conformity is the aim, what is distinc- responsiveness, and openness of mind, we may say that tively individual in a young person is brushed aside, or the adult should be growing in childlikeness. One state- regarded as a source of mischief or anarchy. Conformity ment is as true as the other. is made equivalent to uniformity. Consequently, there are Three ideas which have been criticized, namely, the induced lack of interest in the novel, aversion to progress, merely privative nature of immaturity, static adjustment and dread of the uncertain and the unknown. Since the to a fixed environment, and rigidity of habit, are all con- end of growth is outside of and beyond the process of nected with a false idea of growth or development,— growing, external agents have to be resorted to to in- that it is a movement toward a fixed goal. Growth is duce movement toward it. Whenever a method of educa- regarded as having an end, instead of being an end. The tion is stigmatized as mechanical, we may be sure that

55 Democracy & Education external pressure is brought to bear to reach an external intrinsic fullness and the same absolute claims. Hence end. education means the enterprise of supplying the condi- 2. Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is tions which insure growth, or adequacy of life, irrespec- relative save more growth, there is nothing to which edu- tive of age. We first look with impatience upon immatu- cation is subordinate save more education. It is a com- rity, regarding it as something to be got over as rapidly monplace to say that education should not cease when as possible. Then the adult formed by such educative one leaves school. The point of this commonplace is that methods looks back with impatient regret upon child- the purpose of school education is to insure the continu- hood and youth as a scene of lost opportunities and wasted ance of education by organizing the powers that insure powers. This ironical situation will endure till it is recog- growth. The inclination to learn from life itself and to nized that living has its own intrinsic quality and that make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the the business of education is with that quality. Realiza- process of living is the finest product of schooling. tion that life is growth protects us from that so-called When we abandon the attempt to define immaturity by idealizing of childhood which in effect is nothing but means of fixed comparison with adult accomplishments, lazy indulgence. Life is not to be identified with every we are compelled to give up thinking of it as denoting superficial act and interest. Even though it is not always lack of desired traits. Abandoning this notion, we are easy to tell whether what appears to be mere surface also forced to surrender our habit of thinking of instruc- fooling is a sign of some nascent as yet untrained power, tion as a method of supplying this lack by pouring knowl- we must remember that manifestations are not to be ac- edge into a mental and moral hole which awaits filling. cepted as ends in themselves. They are signs of possible Since life means growth, a living creature lives as truly growth. They are to be turned into means of develop- and positively at one stage as at another, with the same ment, of carrying power forward, not indulged or culti-

56 John Dewey vated for their own sake. Excessive attention to surface the instructors, “involves at once, immense claims on phenomena (even in the way of rebuke as well as of en- the time, the thought, on the life of the teacher. It re- couragement) may lead to their fixation and thus to ar- quires time, use, insight, event, all the great lessons and rested development. What impulses are moving toward, assistances of God; and only to think of using it implies not what they have been, is the important thing for par- character and profoundness.” ent and teacher. The true principle of respect for immaturity cannot be better put than in the words of Emerson: Summary. Power to grow depends upon need for others “Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass and plasticity. Both of these conditions are at their height not on his solitude. But I hear the outcry which replies to in childhood and youth. Plasticity or the power to learn this suggestion: Would you verily throw up the reins of from experience means the formation of habits. Habits public and private discipline; would you leave the young give control over the environment, power to utilize it for child to the mad career of his own passions and whim- human purposes. Habits take the form both of habitua- sies, and call this anarchy a respect for the child’s nation, or a general and persistent balance of organic ac- ture? I answer,—Respect the child, respect him to the tivities with the surroundings, and of active capacities to end, but also respect yourself.... The two points in a boy’s readjust activity to meet new conditions. The former fur- training are, to keep his naturel and train off all but that; nishes the background of growth; the latter constitute to keep his naturel, but stop off his uproar, fooling, and growing. Active habits involve thought, invention, and horseplay; keep his nature and arm it with knowledge in initiative in applying capacities to new aims. They are the very direction in which it points.” And as Emerson opposed to routine which marks an arrest of growth. Since goes on to show this reverence for childhood and youth growth is the characteristic of life, education is all one instead of opening up an easy and easy-going path to with growing; it has no end beyond itself. The criterion

57 Democracy & Education of the value of school education is the extent in which it Chapter Five: Preparation, Unfolding, creates a desire for continued growth and supplies means and Formal Discipline for making the desire effective in fact. 1 Intimations of its significance are found in a number 1. Education as Preparation. We have laid it down that of writers, but John Fiske, in his Excursions of an Evolu- the educative process is a continuous process of growth, tionist, is accredited with its first systematic exposition. having as its aim at every stage an added capacity of 2 This conception is, of course, a logical correlate of growth. This conception contrasts sharply with other ideas the conceptions of the external relation of stimulus and which have influenced practice. By making the contrast response, considered in the last chapter, and of the nega- explicit, the meaning of the conception will be brought tive conceptions of immaturity and plasticity noted in more clearly to light. The first contrast is with the idea this chapter. that education is a process of preparation or getting ready. What is to be prepared for is, of course, the responsibilities and privileges of adult life. Children are not regarded as social members in full and regular standing. They are looked upon as candidates; they are placed on the wait- ing list. The conception is only carried a little farther when the life of adults is considered as not having meaning on its own account, but as a preparatory probation for “another life.” The idea is but another form of the notion of the negative and privative character of growth already criticized; hence we shall not repeat the criti-

58 John Dewey cisms, but pass on to the evil consequences which flow requirement for a standard which concerns the specific from putting education on this basis. In the first place, it powers of the individual under instruction. For a severe involves loss of impetus. Motive power is not utilized. and definite judgment based upon the strong and weak Children proverbially live in the present; that is not only points of the individual is substituted a vague and wa- a fact not to be evaded, but it is an excellence. The fu- vering opinion concerning what youth may be expected, ture just as future lacks urgency and body. To get ready upon the average, to become in some more or less re- for something, one knows not what nor why, is to throw mote future; say, at the end of the year, when promo- away the leverage that exists, and to seek for motive tions are to take place, or by the time they are ready to power in a vague chance. Under such circumstances, there go to college or to enter upon what, in contrast with the is, in the second place, a premium put on shilly-shallying probationary stage, is regarded as the serious business of and procrastination. The future prepared for is a long life. It is impossible to overestimate the loss which re- way off; plenty of time will intervene before it becomes a sults from the deflection of attention from the strategic present. Why be in a hurry about getting ready for it? The point to a comparatively unproductive point. It fails most temptation to postpone is much increased because the just where it thinks it is succeeding—in getting a prepa- present offers so many wonderful opportunities and prof- ration for the future. fers such invitations to adventure. Naturally attention Finally, the principle of preparation makes necessary and energy go to them; education accrues naturally as an recourse on a large scale to the use of adventitious mo- outcome, but a lesser education than if the full stress of tives of pleasure and pain. The future having no stimu- effort had been put upon making conditions as educative lating and directing power when severed from the possi- as possible. A third undesirable result is the substitution bilities of the present, something must be hitched on to of a conventional average standard of expectation and it to make it work. Promises of reward and threats of pain

59 Democracy & Education are employed. Healthy work, done for present reasons moments; it is a continuous leading into the future. If and as a factor in living, is largely unconscious. The stimu- the environment, in school and out, supplies conditions lus resides in the situation with which one is actually which utilize adequately the present capacities of the confronted. But when this situation is ignored, pupils immature, the future which grows out of the present is have to be told that if they do not follow the prescribed surely taken care of. The mistake is not in attaching im- course penalties will accrue; while if they do, they may portance to preparation for future need, but in making it expect, some time in the future, rewards for their present the mainspring of present effort. Because the need of sacrifices. Everybody knows how largely systems of pun- preparation for a continually developing life is great, it ishment have had to be resorted to by educational sys- is imperative that every energy should be bent to making tems which neglect present possibilities in behalf of prepa- the present experience as rich and significant as pos- ration for a future. Then, in disgust with the harshness sible. Then as the present merges insensibly into the fu- and impotency of this method, the pendulum swings to ture, the future is taken care of. the opposite extreme, and the dose of information required against some later day is sugar-coated, so that 2. Education as Unfolding. There is a conception of edu- pupils may be fooled into taking something which they cation which professes to be based upon the idea of de- do not care for. velopment. But it takes back with one hand what it prof- It is not of course a question whether education should fers with the other. Development is conceived not as con- prepare for the future. If education is growth, it must tinuous growing, but as the unfolding of latent powers progressively realize present possibilities, and thus make toward a definite goal. The goal is conceived of as comple- individuals better fitted to cope with later requirements. tion, -perfection. Life at any stage short of attainment of Growing is not something which is completed in odd this goal is merely an unfolding toward it. Logically the

60 John Dewey doctrine is only a variant of the preparation theory. Prac- speaking, it is unattainable. Consequently, in order to be tically the two differ in that the adherents of the latter available for present guidance it must be translated into make much of the practical and professional duties for something which stands for it. Otherwise we should be which one is preparing, while the developmental doc- compelled to regard any and every manifestation of the trine speaks of the ideal and spiritual qualities of the child as an unfolding from within, and hence sacred. principle which is unfolding. Unless we set up some definite criterion representing the The conception that growth and progress are just ap- ideal end by which to judge whether a given attitude or proximations to a final unchanging goal is the last infir- act is approximating or moving away, our sole alternative mity of the mind in its transition from a static to a dy- is to withdraw all influences of the environment lest they namic understanding of life. It simulates the style of the interfere with proper development. Since that is not prac- latter. It pays the tribute of speaking much of develop- ticable, a working substitute is set up. Usually, of course, ment, process, progress. But all of these operations are this is some idea which an adult would like to have a conceived to be merely transitional; they lack meaning child acquire. Consequently, by “suggestive questioning” on their own account. They possess significance only as or some other pedagogical device, the teacher proceeds movements toward something away from what is now to “draw out” from the pupil what is desired. If what is going on. Since growth is just a movement toward a com- desired is obtained, that is evidence that the child is pleted being, the final ideal is immobile. An abstract and unfolding properly. But as the pupil generally has no ini- indefinite future is in control with all which that con- tiative of his own in this direction, the result is a random notes in depreciation of present power and opportunity. groping after what is wanted, and the formation of hab- Since the goal of perfection, the standard of develop- its of dependence upon the cues furnished by others. ment, is very far away, it is so beyond us that, strictly Just because such methods simulate a true principle and

61 Democracy & Education claim to have its sanction they may do more harm than Whole, or perfection, sleeping within him, is awakened. would outright “telling,” where, at least, it remains with A single example may indicate the method. Every one the child how much will stick. familiar with the kindergarten is acquainted with the circle Within the sphere of philosophic thought there have in which the children gather. It is not enough that the been two typical attempts to provide a working represen- circle is a convenient way of grouping the children. It tative of the absolute goal. Both start from the concep- must be used “because it is a symbol of the collective life tion of a whole—an absolute—which is “immanent” in of mankind in general.” Froebel’s recognition of the sig- human life. The perfect or complete ideal is not a mere nificance of the native capacities of children, his loving ideal; it is operative here and now. But it is present only attention to them, and his influence in inducing others implicitly, “potentially,” or in an enfolded condition. What to study them, represent perhaps the most effective single is termed development is the gradual making explicit and force in modern educational theory in effecting wide- outward of what is thus wrapped up. Froebel and Hegel, spread acknowledgment of the idea of growth. But his the authors of the two philosophic schemes referred to, formulation of the notion of development and his organi- have different ideas of the path by which the progressive zation of devices for promoting it were badly hampered realization of manifestation of the complete principle is by the fact that he conceived development to be the effected. According to Hegel, it is worked out through a unfolding of a ready-made latent principle. He failed to series of historical institutions which embody the differ- see that growing is growth, developing is development, ent factors in the Absolute. According to Froebel, the and consequently placed the emphasis upon the com- actuating force is the presentation of symbols, largely pleted product. Thus he set up a goal which meant the mathematical, corresponding to the essential traits of arrest of growth, and a criterion which is not applicable the Absolute. When these are presented to the child, the to immediate guidance of powers, save through transla-

62 John Dewey tion into abstract and symbolic formulae. love of abstract symbolism often got the better of his A remote goal of complete unfoldedness is, in techni- sympathetic insight; and there was substituted for devel- cal philosophic language, transcendental. That is, it is opment as arbitrary and externally imposed a scheme of something apart from direct experience and perception. dictation as the history of instruction has ever seen. So far as experience is concerned, it is empty; it repre- With Hegel the necessity of finding some working con- sents a vague sentimental aspiration rather than any- crete counterpart of the inaccessible Absolute took an thing which can be intelligently grasped and stated. This institutional, rather than symbolic, form. His philosophy, vagueness must be compensated for by some a priori for- like Froebel’s, marks in one direction an indispensable mula. Froebel made the connection between the concrete contribution to a valid conception of the process of life. facts of experience and the transcendental ideal of devel- The weaknesses of an abstract individualistic philosophy opment by regarding the former as symbols of the latter. were evident to him; he saw the impossibility of making To regard known things as symbols, according to some a clean sweep of historical institutions, of treating them arbitrary a priori formula—and every a priori conception as despotisms begot in artifice and nurtured in fraud. In must be arbitrary—is an invitation to romantic fancy to his philosophy of history and society culminated the ef- seize upon any analogies which appeal to it and treat forts of a whole series of German writers—Lessing, Herder, them as laws. After the scheme of symbolism has been Kant, Schiller, Goethe—to appreciate the nurturing in- settled upon, some definite technique must be invented fluence of the great collective institutional products of by which the inner meaning of the sensible symbols used humanity. For those who learned the lesson of this move- may be brought home to children. Adults being the for- ment, it was henceforth impossible to conceive of insti- mulators of the symbolism are naturally the authors and tutions or of culture as artificial. It destroyed completely— controllers of the technique. The result was that Froebel’s in idea, not in fact —the psychology that regarded “mind”

63 Democracy & Education as a ready-made possession of a naked individual by show- “Evolution” was a force working itself out to its own ing the significance of “objective mind”—language, gov- end. As against it, or as compared with it, the conscious ernment, art, religion—in the formation of individual minds. ideas and preference of individuals are impotent. Or, rather, But since Hegel was haunted by the conception of an ab- they are but the means by which it works itself out. So- solute goal, he was obliged to arrange institutions as they cial progress is an “organic growth,” not an experimental concretely exist, on a stepladder of ascending approxima- selection. Reason is all powerful, but only Absolute Rea- tions. Each in its time and place is absolutely necessary, son has any power. because a stage in the self-realizing process of the abso- The recognition (or rediscovery, for the idea was famil- lute mind. Taken as such a step or stage, its existence is iar to the Greeks) that great historic institutions are ac- proof of its complete rationality, for it is an integral ele- tive factors in the intellectual nurture of mind was a great ment in the total, which is Reason. Against institutions as contribution to educational philosophy. It indicated a they are, individuals have no spiritual rights; personal de- genuine advance beyond Rousseau, who had marred his velopment, and nurture, consist in obedient assimilation assertion that education must be a natural development of the spirit of existing institutions. Conformity, not trans- and not something forced or grafted upon individuals from formation, is the essence of education. Institutions change without, by the notion that social conditions are not natu- as history shows; but their change, the rise and fall of ral. But in its notion of a complete and all-inclusive end states, is the work of the “world-spirit.” Individuals, save of development, the Hegelian theory swallowed up con- the great “heroes” who are the chosen organs of the world- crete individualities, though magnifying The Individual spirit, have no share or lot in it. In the later nineteenth in the abstract. Some of Hegel’s followers sought to rec- century, this type of idealism was amalgamated with the oncile the claims of the Whole and of individuality by the doctrine of biological evolution. conception of society as an organic whole, or organism.

64 John Dewey That social organization is presupposed in the adequate as the theory of “formal discipline. “It has in view a cor- exercise of individual capacity is not to be doubted. But rect ideal; one outcome of education should be the cre- the social organism, interpreted after the relation of the ation of specific powers of accomplishment. A trained organs of the body to each other and to the whole body, person is one who can do the chief things which it is means that each individual has a certain limited place important for him to do better than he could without and function, requiring to be supplemented by the place training: “better” signifying greater ease, efficiency, and functions of the other organs. As one portion of the economy, promptness, etc. That this is an outcome of bodily tissue is differentiated so that it can be the hand education was indicated in what was said about habits as and the hand only, another, the eye, and so on, all taken the product of educative development. But the theory in together making the organism, so one individual is sup- question takes, as it were, a short cut; it regards some posed to be differentiated for the exercise of the me- powers (to be presently named) as the direct and con- chanical operations of society, another for those of a scious aims of instruction, and not simply as the results statesman, another for those of a scholar, and so on. The of growth. There is a definite number of powers to be notion of “organism” is thus used to give a philosophic trained, as one might enumerate the kinds of strokes which sanction to class distinctions in social organization—a a golfer has to master. Consequently education should notion which in its educational application again means get directly at the business of training them. But this external dictation instead of growth. implies that they are already there in some untrained form; otherwise their creation would have to be an indi- 3. Education as Training of Faculties. A theory which rect product of other activities and agencies. Being there has had great vogue and which came into existence be- already in some crude form, all that remains is to exer- fore the notion of growth had much influence is known cise them in constant and graded repetitions, and they

65 Democracy & Education will inevitably be refined and perfected. In the phrase automatic skill. Even the faculty of thinking was to be “formal discipline” as applied to this conception, “disci- formed into a trained habit by repeated exercises in mak- pline” refers both to the outcome of trained power and ing and combining simple distinctions, for which, Locke to the method of training through repeated exercise. thought, mathematics affords unrivaled opportunity. The forms of powers in question are such things as the Locke’s statements fitted well into the dualism of his faculties of perceiving, retaining, recalling, associating, day. It seemed to do justice to both mind and matter, the attending, willing, feeling, imagining, thinking, etc., individual and the world. One of the two supplied the which are then shaped by exercise upon material pre- matter of knowledge and the object upon which mind sented. In its classic form, this theory was expressed by should work. The other supplied definite mental powers, Locke. On the one hand, the outer world presents the which were few in number and which might be trained by material or content of knowledge through passively re- specific exercises. The scheme appeared to give due weight ceived sensations. On the other hand, the mind has cer- to the subject matter of knowledge, and yet it insisted tain ready powers, attention, observation, retention, com- that the end of education is not the bare reception and parison, abstraction, compounding, etc. Knowledge re- storage of information, but the formation of personal sults if the mind discriminates and combines things as powers of attention, memory, observation, abstraction, they are united and divided in nature itself. But the im- and generalization. It was realistic in its emphatic asser- portant thing for education is the exercise or practice of tion that all material whatever is received from without; the faculties of the mind till they become thoroughly it was idealistic in that final stress fell upon the forma- established habitudes. The analogy constantly employed tion of intellectual powers. It was objective and imper- is that of a billiard player or gymnast, who by repeated sonal in its assertion that the individual cannot possess use of certain muscles in a uniform way at last secures or generate any true ideas on his own account; it was

66 John Dewey individualistic in placing the end of education in the per- mythological. There are no such ready-made powers wait- fecting of certain faculties possessed at the outset by ing to be exercised and thereby trained. There are, in- the individual. This kind of distribution of values expressed deed, a great number of original native tendencies, in- with nicety the state of opinion in the generations fol- stinctive modes of action, based on the original connec- lowing upon Locke. It became, without explicit reference tions of neurones in the central nervous system. There to Locke, a common-place of educational theory and of are impulsive tendencies of the eyes to follow and fixate psychology. Practically, it seemed to provide the educa- light; of the neck muscles to turn toward light and sound; tor with definite, instead of vague, tasks. It made the of the hands to reach and grasp; and turn and twist and elaboration of a technique of instruction relatively easy. thump; of the vocal apparatus to make sounds; of the All that was necessary was to provide for sufficient prac- mouth to spew out unpleasant substances; to gag and to tice of each of the powers. This practice consists in re- curl the lip, and so on in almost indefinite number. But peated acts of attending, observing, memorizing, etc. By these tendencies (a) instead of being a small number grading the difficulty of the acts, making each set of sharply marked off from one another, are of an indefinite repetitions somewhat more difficult than the set which variety, interweaving with one another in all kinds of preceded it, a complete scheme of instruction is evolved. subtle ways. (b) Instead of being latent intellectual pow- There are various ways, equally conclusive, of criticizing ers, requiring only exercise for their perfecting, they are this conception, in both its alleged foundations and in tendencies to respond in certain ways to changes in the its educational application. environment so as to bring about other changes. Some- (1) Perhaps the most direct mode of attack consists in thing in the throat makes one cough; the tendency is to pointing out that the supposed original faculties of ob- eject the obnoxious particle and thus modify the subse- servation, recollection, willing, thinking, etc., are purely quent stimulus. The hand touches a hot thing; it is im-

67 Democracy & Education pulsively, wholly unintellectually, snatched away. But the those which are specifically adapted to reaching, grasp- withdrawal alters the stimuli operating, and tends to make ing, and manipulating the object effectively are gradu- them more consonant with the needs of the organism. It ally eliminated—or else no training occurs. As we have is by such specific changes of organic activities in re- already noted, the primary reactions, with a very few ex- sponse to specific changes in the medium that that conceptions are too diffused and general to be practically of trol of the environment of which we have spoken (see much use in the case of the human infant. Hence the ante, p. 24) is effected. Now all of our first seeings and identity of training with selective response. (Compare p. hearings and touchings and smellings and tastings are of 25.) (b) Equally important is the specific coordination of this kind. In any legitimate sense of the words mental or different factors of response which takes place. There is intellectual or cognitive, they are lacking in these quali- not merely a selection of the hand reactions which effect ties, and no amount of repetitious exercise could bestow grasping, but of the particular visual stimuli which call any intellectual properties of observation, judgment, or out just these reactions and no others, and an establish- intentional action (volition) upon them. ment of connection between the two. But the coordinat- (2) Consequently the training of our original impulsive ing does not stop here. Characteristic temperature reac- activities is not a refinement and perfecting achieved by tions may take place when the object is grasped. These “exercise” as one might strengthen a muscle by practice. will also be brought in; later, the temperature reaction It consists rather (a) in selecting from the diffused re- may be connected directly with the optical stimulus, the sponses which are evoked at a given time those which hand reaction being suppressed—as a bright flame, in- are especially adapted to the utilization of the stimulus. dependent of close contact, may steer one away. Or the That is to say, among the reactions of the body in general child in handling the object pounds with it, or crumples occur upon stimulation of the eye by light, all except it, and a sound issues. The ear response is then brought

68 John Dewey into the system of response. If a certain sound (the con- words, irrespective of connection with other things (such ventional name) is made by others and accompanies the as the meaning of the words, the context in which they activity, response of both ear and the vocal apparatus are habitually used, the derivation and classification of connected with auditory stimulation will also become an the verbal form, etc.) the less likely is he to acquire an associated factor in the complex response. ability which can be used for anything except the mere (3) The more specialized the adjustment of response noting of verbal visual forms. He may not even be in- and stimulus to each other (for, taking the sequence of creasing his ability to make accurate distinctions among activities into account, the stimuli are adapted to reac- geometrical forms, to say nothing of ability to observe in tions as well as reactions to stimuli) the more rigid and general. He is merely selecting the stimuli supplied by the less generally available is the training secured. In the forms of the letters and the motor reactions of oral or equivalent language, less intellectual or educative qual- written reproduction. The scope of coordination (to use ity attaches to the training. The usual way of stating this our prior terminology) is extremely limited. The connec- fact is that the more specialized the reaction, the less is tions which are employed in other observations and rec- the skill acquired in practicing and perfecting it transfer- ollections (or reproductions) are deliberately eliminated able to other modes of behavior. According to the ortho- when the pupil is exercised merely upon forms of letters dox theory of formal discipline, a pupil in studying his and words. Having been excluded, they cannot be re- spelling lesson acquires, besides ability to spell those stored when needed. The ability secured to observe and particular words, an increase of power of observation, to recall verbal forms is not available for perceiving and attention, and recollection which may be employed when- recalling other things. In the ordinary phraseology, it is ever these powers are needed. As matter of fact, the more not transferable. But the wider the context—that is to he confines himself to noticing and fixating the forms of say, the more varied the stimuli and responses coordi-

69 Democracy & Education nated—the more the ability acquired is available for the he become expert in any one of them; and expertness in effective performance of other acts; not, strictly speak- one secures expertness in another only so far as it is ing, because there is any “transfer,” but because the wide either a sign of aptitude for fine muscular coordinations range of factors employed in the specific act is equiva- or as the same kind of coordination is involved in all of lent to a broad range of activity, to a flexible, instead of them. Moreover, the difference between the training of to a narrow and rigid, coordination. ability to spell which comes from taking visual forms in a (4) Going to the root of the matter, the fundamental narrow context and one which takes them in connection fallacy of the theory is its dualism; that is to say, its with the activities required to grasp meaning, such as separation of activities and capacities from subject mat- context, affiliations of descent, etc., may be compared ter. There is no such thing as an ability to see or hear or to the difference between exercises in the gymnasium remember in general; there is only the ability to see or with pulley weights to “develop” certain muscles, and a hear or remember something. To talk about training a game or sport. The former is uniform and mechanical; it power, mental or physical, in general, apart from the sub- is rigidly specialized. The latter is varied from moment to ject matter involved in its exercise, is nonsense. Exercise moment; no two acts are quite alike; novel emergencies may react upon circulation, breathing, and nutrition so have to be met; the coordinations forming have to be as to develop vigor or strength, but this reservoir is avail- kept flexible and elastic. Consequently, the training is able for specific ends only by use in connection with the much more “general”; that is to say, it covers a wider material means which accomplish them. Vigor will enable territory and includes more factors. Exactly the same thing a man to play tennis or golf or to sail a boat better than holds of special and general education of the mind. he would if he were weak. But only by employing ball and A monotonously uniform exercise may by practice give racket, ball and club, sail and tiller, in definite ways does great skill in one special act; but the skill is limited to

70 John Dewey that act, be it bookkeeping or calculations in logarithms we wish the pupil to become expert in observing and or experiments in hydrocarbons. One may be an authority recalling and for what purpose. And it is only repeating in a particular field and yet of more than usually poor in another form what has already been said, to declare judgment in matters not closely allied, unless the train- that the criterion here must be social. We want the per- ing in the special field has been of a kind to ramify into son to note and recall and judge those things which make the subject matter of the other fields. him an effective competent member of the group in which (5) Consequently, such powers as observation, recol- he is associated with others. Otherwise we might as well lection, judgment, esthetic taste, represent organized re- set the pupil to observing carefully cracks on the wall sults of the occupation of native active tendencies with and set him to memorizing meaningless lists of words in certain subject matters. A man does not observe closely an unknown tongue—which is about what we do in fact and fully by pressing a button for the observing faculty when we give way to the doctrine of formal discipline. If to get to work (in other words by “willing” to observe); the observing habits of a botanist or chemist or engineer but if he has something to do which can be accomplished are better habits than those which are thus formed, it is successfully only through intensive and extensive use of because they deal with subject matter which is more sig- eye and hand, he naturally observes. Observation is an nificant in life. In concluding this portion of the discus- outcome, a consequence, of the interaction of sense or- sion, we note that the distinction between special and gan and subject matter. It will vary, accordingly, with the general education has nothing to do with the transfer- subject matter employed. ability of function or power. In the literal sense, any trans- It is consequently futile to set up even the ulterior fer is miraculous and impossible. But some activities are development of faculties of observation, memory, etc., broad; they involve a coordination of many factors. Their unless we have first determined what sort of subject matter development demands continuous alternation and read-

71 Democracy & Education justment. As conditions change, certain factors are sub- the range of active responses called into play and flex- ordinated, and others which had been of minor impor- ibly integrated is much wider. Isolation of subject matter tance come to the front. There is constant redistribution from a social context is the chief obstruction in current of the focus of the action, as is seen in the illustration of practice to securing a general training of mind. Litera- a game as over against pulling a fixed weight by a series ture, art, religion, when thus dissociated, are just as nar- of uniform motions. Thus there is practice in prompt mak- rowing as the technical things which the professional ing of new combinations with the focus of activity shifted upholders of general education strenuously oppose. to meet change in subject matter. Wherever an activity is broad in scope (that is, involves the coordinating of a Summary. The conception that the result of the educa- large variety of sub-activities), and is constantly and tive process is capacity for further education stands in unexpectedly obliged to change direction in its progres- contrast with some other ideas which have profoundly sive development, general education is bound to result. influenced practice. The first contrasting conception con- For this is what “general” means; broad and flexible. In sidered is that of preparing or getting ready for some practice, education meets these conditions, and hence is future duty or privilege. Specific evil effects were pointed general, in the degree in which it takes account of social out which result from the fact that this aim diverts at- relationships. A person may become expert in technical tention of both teacher and taught from the only point philosophy, or philology, or mathematics or engineering to which it may be fruitfully directed—namely, taking or financiering, and be inept and ill-advised in his action advantage of the needs and possibilities of the immedi- and judgment outside of his specialty. If however his ate present. Consequently it defeats its own professed concern with these technical subject matters has been purpose. The notion that education is an unfolding from connected with human activities having social breadth, within appears to have more likeness to the conception

72 John Dewey of growth which has been set forth. But as worked out in matter as comparatively external and indifferent, its value the theories of Froebel and Hegel, it involves ignoring the residing simply in the fact that it may occasion exercise of interaction of present organic tendencies with the present the general powers. Criticism was directed upon this separa- environment, just as much as the notion of preparation. tion of the alleged powers from one another and from the Some implicit whole is regarded as given ready-made and material upon which they act. The outcome of the theory in the significance of growth is merely transitory; it is not an practice was shown to be an undue emphasis upon the train- end in itself, but simply a means of making explicit what is ing of narrow specialized modes of skill at the expense of already implicit. Since that which is not explicit cannot be initiative, inventiveness, and readaptability—qualities which made definite use of, something has to be found to repre- depend upon the broad and consecutive interaction of spe- sent it. According to Froebel, the mystic symbolic value of cific activities with one another. certain objects and acts (largely mathematical) stand for 1 As matter of fact, the interconnection is so great, there the Absolute Whole which is in process of unfolding. Ac- are so many paths of construction, that every stimulus cording to Hegel, existing institutions are its effective ac- brings about some change in all of the organs of response. tual representatives. Emphasis upon symbols and institu- We are accustomed however to ignore most of these modi- tions tends to divert perception from the direct growth of fications of the total organic activity, concentrating upon experience in richness of meaning. Another influential but that one which is most specifically adapted to the most defective theory is that which conceives that mind has, at urgent stimulus of the moment. birth, certain mental faculties or powers, such as perceiv- 2 This statement should be compared with what was ing, remembering, willing, judging, generalizing, attend- said earlier about the sequential ordering of responses (p. ing, etc., and that education is the training of these facul- 25). It is merely a more explicit statement of the way in ties through repeated exercise. This theory treats subject which that consecutive arrangement occurs.

73 Democracy & Education Chapter Six: Education as Conservative various qualities in reaction to the various realities which and Progressive act upon it. These qualitatively different reactions are called presentations (Vorstellungen) . Every presentation 1. Education as Formation. We now come to a type of once called into being persists; it may be driven below theory which denies the existence of faculties and em- the “threshold” of consciousness by new and stronger phasizes the unique role of subject matter in the devel- presentations, produced by the reaction of the soul to opment of mental and new material, but its activity continues by its own inher- moral disposition. according to it, education is neither ent momentum, below the surface of consciousness. What a process of unfolding from within nor is it a training of are termed faculties—attention, memory, thinking, per- faculties resident in mind itself. It is rather the forma- ception, even the sentiments, are arrangements, association of mind by setting up certain associations or con- tions, and complications, formed by the interaction of nections of content by means of a subject matter pre- these submerged presentations with one another and with sented from without. Education proceeds by instruction new presentations. Perception, for example, is the com- taken in a strictly literal sense, a building into the mind plication of presentations which result from the rise of from without. That education is formative of mind is not old presentations to greet and combine with new ones; questioned; it is the conception already propounded. But memory is the evoking of an old presentation above the formation here has a technical meaning dependent upon threshold of consciousness by getting entangled with the idea of something operating from without. Herbart is another presentation, etc. Pleasure is the result of rein- the best historical representative of this type of theory. forcement among the independent activities of presenta- He denies absolutely the existence of innate faculties. tions; pain of their pulling different ways, etc. The mind is simply endowed with the power of producing The concrete character of mind consists, then, wholly

74 John Dewey of the various arrangements formed by the various pre- (3) Certain formal steps of all method in teaching may sentations in their different qualities. The “furniture” of be laid down. Presentation of new subject matter is obvi- the mind is the mind. Mind is wholly a matter of “con- ously the central thing, but since knowing consists in tents.” The educational implications of this doctrine are the way in which this interacts with the contents already threefold. submerged below consciousness, the first thing is the (1) This or that kind of mind is formed by the use of step of “preparation,” —that is, calling into special ac- objects which evoke this or that kind of reaction and which tivity and getting above the floor of consciousness those produce this or that arrangement among the reactions called older presentations which are to assimilate the new one. out. The formation of mind is wholly a matter of the pre- Then after the presentation, follow the processes of in- sentation of the proper educational materials. teraction of new and old; then comes the application of (2) Since the earlier presentations constitute the “ap- the newly formed content to the performance of some perceiving organs” which control the assimilation of new task. Everything must go through this course; conse- presentations, their character is all important. The effect quently there is a perfectly uniform method in instruc- of new presentations is to reinforce groupings previously tion in all subjects for all pupils of all ages. formed. The business of the educator is, first, to select Herbart’s great service lay in taking the work of teach- the proper material in order to fix the nature of the origi- ing out of the region of routine and accident. He brought nal reactions, and, secondly, to arrange the sequence of it into the sphere of conscious method; it became a con- subsequent presentations on the basis of the store of scious business with a definite aim and procedure, in- ideas secured by prior transactions. The control is from stead of being a compound of casual inspiration and sub- behind, from the past, instead of, as in the unfolding servience to tradition. Moreover, everything in teaching conception, in the ultimate goal. and discipline could be specified, instead of our having

75 Democracy & Education to be content with vague and more or less mystic gener- tance of what has been taught consists in its availability alities about ultimate ideals and speculative spiritual sym- for further teaching, reflects the pedagogue’s view of life. bols. He abolished the notion of ready-made faculties, The philosophy is eloquent about the duty of the teacher which might be trained by exercise upon any sort of main instructing pupils; it is almost silent regarding his privi- terial, and made attention to concrete subject matter, to lege of learning. It emphasizes the influence of intellec- the content, all-important. Herbart undoubtedly has had tual environment upon the mind; it slurs over the fact a greater influence in bringing to the front questions that the environment involves a personal sharing in com- connected with the material of study than any other edu- mon experiences. It exaggerates beyond reason the pos- cational philosopher. He stated problems of method from sibilities of consciously formulated and used methods, the standpoint of their connection with subject matter: and underestimates the role of vital, unconscious, atti- method having to do with the manner and sequence of tudes. It insists upon the old, the past, and passes lightly presenting new subject matter to insure its proper inter- over the operation of the genuinely novel and unforesee- action with old. able. It takes, in brief, everything educational into ac- The fundamental theoretical defect of this view lies in count save its essence,—vital energy seeking opportu- ignoring the existence in a living being of active and nity for effective exercise. All education forms character, specific functions which are developed in the redirection mental and moral, but formation consists in the selec- and combination which occur as they are occupied with tion and coordination of native activities so that they their environment. The theory represents the Schoolmas- may utilize the subject matter of the social environment. ter come to his own. This fact expresses at once its Moreover, the formation is not only a formation of native strength and its weakness. The conception that the mind activities, but it takes place through them. It is a process consists of what has been taught, and that the impor- of reconstruction, reorganization.

76 John Dewey 2. Education as Recapitulation and Retrospection. A terial—especially the literary material of myths, folk-tale, peculiar combination of the ideas of development and and song—produced by humanity in the analogous stage. formation from without has given rise to the recapitula- Then the child passes on to something corresponding, tion theory of education, biological and cultural. The in- say, to the pastoral stage, and so on till at the time when dividual develops, but his proper development consists he is ready to take part in contemporary life, he arrives in repeating in orderly stages the past evolution of ani- at the present epoch of culture. mal life and human history. The former recapitulation In this detailed and consistent form, the theory, out- occurs physiologically; the latter should be made to oc- side of a small school in Germany (followers of Herbart cur by means of education. The alleged biological truth for the most part) , has had little currency. But the idea that the individual in his growth from the simple embryo which underlies it is that education is essentially retro- to maturity repeats the history of the evolution of animal spective; that it looks primarily to the past and espe- life in the progress of forms from the simplest to the cially to the literary products of the past, and that mind most complex (or expressed technically, that ontogen- is adequately formed in the degree in which it is pat- esis parallels phylogenesis) does not concern us, save as terned upon the spiritual heritage of the past. This idea it is supposed to afford scientific foundation for cultural has had such immense influence upon higher instruction recapitulation of the past. Cultural recapitulation says, especially, that it is worth examination in its extreme first, that children at a certain age are in the mental and formulation. moral condition of savagery; their instincts are vagrant In the first place, its biological basis is fallacious. and predatory because their ancestors at one time lived Embyronic growth of the human infant preserves, with- such a life. Consequently (so it is concluded) the proper out doubt, some of the traits of lower forms of life. But in subject matter of their education at this time is the ma- no respect is it a strict traversing of past stages. If there

77 Democracy & Education were any strict “law” of repetition, evolutionary develop- stitute for the ancestral method a more direct method. “ ment would clearly not have taken place. Each new gen- Surely it would be foolish if education did not deliber- eration would simply have repeated its predecessors’ ex- ately attempt to facilitate similar efforts in conscious istence. Development, in short, has taken place by the experience so that they become increasingly successful. entrance of shortcuts and alterations in the prior scheme The two factors of truth in the conception may easily be of growth. And this suggests that the aim of education is disentangled from association with the false context which to facilitate such short-circuited growth. The great ad- perverts them. On the biological side we have simply the vantage of immaturity, educationally speaking, is that it fact that any infant starts with precisely the assortment of enables us to emancipate the young from the need of impulsive activities with which he does start, they being dwelling in an outgrown past. The business of education blind, and many of them conflicting with one another, ca- is rather to liberate the young from reviving and sual, sporadic, and unadapted to their immediate environ- retraversing the past than to lead them to a recapitula- ment. The other point is that it is a part of wisdom to tion of it. The social environment of the young is consti- utilize the products of past history so far as they are of tuted by the presence and action of the habits of think- help for the future. Since they represent the results of ing and feeling of civilized men. To ignore the directive prior experience, their value for future experience may, of influence of this present environment upon the young is course, be indefinitely great. Literatures produced in the simply to abdicate the educational function. A biologist past are, so far as men are now in possession and use of has said: “The history of development in different ani- them, a part of the present environment of individuals; mals . . . offers to us . . . a series of ingenious, deter- but there is an enormous difference between availing our- mined, varied but more or less unsuccessful efforts to selves of them as present resources and taking them as escape from the necessity of recapitulating, and to sub- standards and patterns in their retrospective character.

78 John Dewey (1) The distortion of the first point usually comes about favorable conditions. Obviously he cannot utilize what is through misuse of the idea of heredity. It is assumed not there; neither can the educator. In this sense, hered- that heredity means that past life has somehow prede- ity is a limit of education. Recognition of this fact pre- termined the main traits of an individual, and that they vents the waste of energy and the irritation that ensue are so fixed that little serious change can be introduced from the too prevalent habit of trying to make by instruc- into them. Thus taken, the influence of heredity is op- tion something out of an individual which he is not natu- posed to that of the environment, and the efficacy of the rally fitted to become. But the doctrine does not deter- latter belittled. But for educational purposes heredity mine what use shall be made of the capacities which means neither more nor less than the original endow- exist. And, except in the case of the imbecile, these origi- ment of an individual. Education must take the being as nal capacities are much more varied and potential, even he is; that a particular individual has just such and such in the case of the more stupid, than we as yet know an equipment of native activities is a basic fact. That properly how to utilize. Consequently, while a careful study they were produced in such and such a way, or that they of the native aptitudes and deficiencies of an individual are derived from one’s ancestry, is not especially impor- is always a preliminary necessity, the subsequent and im- tant for the educator, however it may be with the biolo- portant step is to furnish an environment which will ad- gist, as compared with the fact that they now exist. Sup- equately function whatever activities are present. The pose one had to advise or direct a person regarding his relation of heredity and environment is well expressed in inheritance of property. The fallacy of assuming that the the case of language. If a being had no vocal organs from fact it is an inheritance, predetermines its future use, is which issue articulate sounds, if he had no auditory or obvious. The advisor is concerned with making the best other sense-receptors and no connections between the use of what is there—putting it at work under the most two sets of apparatus, it would be a sheer waste of time

79 Democracy & Education to try to teach him to converse. He is born short in that literatures which were produced in the culture epoch which respect, and education must accept the limitation. But if is supposed to correspond with the stage of development he has this native equipment, its possession in no way of those taught) affords another instance of that divorce guarantees that he will ever talk any language or what between the process and product of growth which has language he will talk. The environment in which his ac- been criticized. To keep the process alive, to keep it alive tivities occur and by which they are carried into execu- in ways which make it easier to keep it alive in the fu- tion settles these things. If he lived in a dumb unsocial ture, is the function of educational subject matter. But environment where men refused to talk to one another an individual can live only in the present. The present is and used only that minimum of gestures without which not just something which comes after the past; much they could not get along, vocal language would be as less something produced by it. It is what life is in leaving unachieved by him as if he had no vocal organs. If the the past behind it. The study of past products will not sounds which he makes occur in a medium of persons help us understand the present, because the present is speaking the Chinese language, the activities which make not due to the products, but to the life of which they like sounds will be selected and coordinated. This illus- were the products. A knowledge of the past and its heri- tration may be applied to the entire range of the educa- tage is of great significance when it enters into the bility of any individual. It places the heritage from the present, hut not otherwise. And the mistake of making past in its right connection with the demands and oppor- the records and remains of the past the main material of tunities of the present. education is that it cuts the vital connection of present (2) The theory that the proper subject matter of in- and past, and tends to make the past a rival of the present struction is found in the culture-products of past ages and the present a more or less futile imitation of the (either in general, or more specifically in the particular past. Under such circumstances, culture becomes an or-

80 John Dewey nament and solace; a refuge and an asylum. Men escape for interest in the background of the present, and will from the crudities of the present to live in its imagined never have to hunt for a way back because it will never refinements, instead of using what the past offers as an have lost connection. agency for ripening these crudities. The present, in short, generates the problems which lead us to search the past 3. Education as Reconstruction. In its contrast with the for suggestion, and which supplies meaning to what we ideas both of unfolding of latent powers from within, find when we search. The past is the past precisely be- and of the formation from without, whether by physical cause it does not include what is characteristic in the nature or by the cultural products of the past, the ideal present. The moving present includes the past on condi- of growth results in the conception that education is a tion that it uses the past to direct its own movement. constant reorganizing or reconstructing of experience. It The past is a great resource for the imagination; it adds a has all the time an immediate end, and so far as activity new dimension to life, but OD condition that it be seen is educative, it reaches that end—the direct transforma- as the past of the present, and not as another and dis- tion of the quality of experience. Infancy, youth, adult connected world. The principle which makes little of the life,—all stand on the same educative level in the sense present act of living and operation of growing, the only that what is really learned at any and every stage of thing always present, naturally looks to the past because experience constitutes the value of that experience, and the future goal which it sets up is remote and empty. But in the sense that it is the chief business of life at every having turned its back upon the present, it has no way of point to make living thus contribute to an enrichment of returning to it laden with the spoils of the past. A mind its own perceptible meaning. that is adequately sensitive to the needs and occasions We thus reach a technical definition of education: It is of the present actuality will have the liveliest of motives that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which

81 Democracy & Education adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases them; he can intend consequences instead of just letting ability to direct the course of subsequent experience. them happen—all synonymous ways of saying the same (1) The increment of meaning corresponds to the in- thing. At the same stroke, the flame has gained in mean- creased perception of the connections and continuities ing; all that is known about combustion, oxidation, about of the activities in which we are engaged. The activity light and temperature, may become an intrinsic part of begins in an impulsive form; that is, it is blind. It does its intellectual content. not know what it is about; that is to say, what are its (2) The other side of an educative experience is an interactions with other activities. An activity which brings added power of subsequent direction or control. To say education or instruction with it makes one aware of some that one knows what he is about, or can intend certain of the connections which had been imperceptible. To re- consequences, is to say, of course, that he can better cur to our simple example, a child who reaches for a bright anticipate what is going to happen; that he can, there- light gets burned. Henceforth he knows that a certain act fore, get ready or prepare in advance so as to secure of touching in connection with a certain act of vision beneficial consequences and avert undesirable ones. A (and vice-versa) means heat and pain; or, a certain light genuinely educative experience, then, one in which in- means a source of heat. The acts by which a scientific struction is conveyed and ability increased, is man in his laboratory learns more about flame differ no contradistinguished from a routine activity on one hand, whit in principle. By doing certain things, he makes per- and a capricious activity on the other. (a) In the latter ceptible certain connections of heat with other things, one “does not care what happens”; one just lets himself which had been previously ignored. Thus his acts in rela- go and avoids connecting the consequences of one’s act tion to these things get more meaning; he knows better (the evidences of its connections with other things) with what he is doing or “is about” when he has to do with the act. It is customary to frown upon such aimless ran-

82 John Dewey dom activity, treating it as willful mischief or careless- cious, and leads to capricious habits. (b) Routine action, ness or lawlessness. But there is a tendency to seek the action which is automatic, may increase skill to do a par- cause of such aimless activities in the youth’s own dispo- ticular thing. In so far, it might be said to have an edu- sition, isolated from everything else. But in fact such cative effect. But it does not lead to new perceptions of activity is explosive, and due to maladjustment with sur- bearings and connections; it limits rather than widens roundings. Individuals act capriciously whenever they act the meaning-horizon. And since the environment changes under external dictation, or from being told, without hav- and our way of acting has to be modified in order suc- ing a purpose of their own or perceiving the bearing of cessfully to keep a balanced connection with things, an the deed upon other acts. One may learn by doing some- isolated uniform way of acting becomes disastrous at some thing which he does not understand; even in the most critical moment. The vaunted “skill” turns out gross in- intelligent action, we do much which we do not mean, eptitude. because the largest portion of the connections of the act The essential contrast of the idea of education as con- we consciously intend are not perceived or anticipated. tinuous reconstruction with the other one-sided concep- But we learn only because after the act is performed we tions which have been criticized in this and the previous note results which we had not noted before. But much chapter is that it identifies the end (the result) and the work in school consists in setting up rules by which pu- process. This is verbally self-contradictory, but only ver- pils are to act of such a sort that even after pupils have bally. It means that experience as an active process oc- acted, they are not led to see the connection between cupies time and that its later period completes its earlier the result—say the answer—and the method pursued. portion; it brings to light connections involved, but hith- So far as they are concerned, the whole thing is a trick erto unperceived. The later outcome thus reveals the and a kind of miracle. Such action is essentially capri- meaning of the earlier, while the experience as a whole

83 Democracy & Education establishes a bent or disposition toward the things pos- starting the young on paths which shall not produce these sessing this meaning. Every such continuous experience ills, and some idea of the extent in which education may or activity is educative, and all education resides in hav- be made an instrument of realizing the better hopes of ing such experiences. men. But we are doubtless far from realizing the poten- It remains only to point out (what will receive more tial efficacy of education as a constructive agency of im- ample attention later) that the reconstruction of experi- proving society, from realizing that it represents not only ence may be social as well as personal. For purposes of a development of children and youth but also of the fu- simplification we have spoken in the earlier chapters ture society of which they will be the constituents. somewhat as if the education of the immature which fills them with the spirit of the social group to which they Summary. Education may be conceived either retrospec- belong, were a sort of catching up of the child with the tively or prospectively. That is to say, it may be treated aptitudes and resources of the adult group. In static so- as process of accommodating the future to the past, or cieties, societies which make the maintenance of estab- as an utilization of the past for a resource in a develop- lished custom their measure of value, this conception ing future. The former finds its standards and patterns in applies in the main. But not in progressive communities. what has gone before. The mind may be regarded as a They endeavor to shape the experiences of the young so group of contents resulting from having certain things that instead of reproducing current habits, better habits presented. In this case, the earlier presentations consti- shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an tute the material to which the later are to be assimi- improvement on their own. Men have long had some in- lated. Emphasis upon the value of the early experiences timation of the extent to which education may be con- of immature beings is most important, especially because sciously used to eliminate obvious social evils through of the tendency to regard them as of little account. But

84 John Dewey these experiences do not consist of externally presented Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception material, but of interaction of native activities with the in Education environment which progressively modifies both the activities and the environment. The defect of the Herbartian For the most part, save incidentally, we have hitherto theory of formation through presentations consists in been concerned with education as it may exist in any slighting this constant interaction and change. The same social group. We have now to make explicit the differ- principle of criticism applies to theories which find the ences in the spirit, material, and method of education as primary subject matter of study in the cultural products it operates in different types of community life. To say —especially the literary products—of man’s history. Iso- that education is a social function, securing direction lated from their connection with the present environ- and development in the immature through their partici- ment in which individuals have to act, they become a pation in the life of the group to which they belong, is to kind of rival and distracting environment. Their value lies say in effect that education will vary with the quality of in their use to increase the meaning of the things with life which prevails in a group. Particularly is it true that which we have actively to do at the present time. The a society which not only changes but-which has the ideal idea of education advanced in these chapters is formally of such change as will improve it, will have different stan- summed up in the idea of continuous reconstruction of dards and methods of education from one which aims experience, an idea which is marked off from education simply at the perpetuation of its own customs. To make as preparation for a remote future, as unfolding, as ex- the general ideas set forth applicable to our own educa- ternal formation, and as recapitulation of the past. tional practice, it is, therefore, necessary to come to closer quarters with the nature of present social life.

85 Democracy & Education 1. The Implications of Human Association. Society is tive sense; a meaning de jure and a meaning de facto. In one word, but many things. Men associate together in all social philosophy, the former connotation is almost al- kinds of ways and for all kinds of purposes. One man is ways uppermost. Society is conceived as one by its very concerned in a multitude of diverse groups, in which his nature. The qualities which accompany this unity, praise- associates may be quite different. It often seems as if worthy community of purpose and welfare, loyalty to public they had nothing in common except that they are modes ends, mutuality of sympathy, are emphasized. But when of associated life. Within every larger social organization we look at the facts which the term denotes instead of there are numerous minor groups: not only political sub- confining our attention to its intrinsic connotation, we divisions, but industrial, scientific, religious, associations. find not unity, but a plurality of societies, good and bad. There are political parties with differing aims, social sets, Men banded together in a criminal conspiracy, business cliques, gangs, corporations, partnerships, groups bound aggregations that prey upon the public while serving it, closely together by ties of blood, and so on in endless political machines held together by the interest of plun- variety. In many modern states and in some ancient, there der, are included. If it is said that such organizations are is great diversity of populations, of varying languages, not societies because they do not meet the ideal require- religions, moral codes, and traditions. From this stand- ments of the notion of society, the answer, in part, is point, many a minor political unit, one of our large cit- that the conception of society is then made so “ideal” as ies, for example, is a congeries of loosely associated so- to be of no use, having no reference to facts; and in part, cieties, rather than an inclusive and permeating commu- that each of these organizations, no matter how opposed nity of action and thought. (See ante, p. 20.) to the interests of other groups, has something of the The terms society, community, are thus ambiguous. They praiseworthy qualities of “Society” which hold it together. have both a eulogistic or normative sense, and a descrip- There is honor among thieves, and a band of robbers has

86 John Dewey a common interest as respects its members. Gangs are certain amount of interaction and cooperative intercourse marked by fraternal feeling, and narrow cliques by in- with other groups. From these two traits we derive our tense loyalty to their own codes. Family life may be marked standard. How numerous and varied are the interests which by exclusiveness, suspicion, and jealousy as to those with- are consciously shared? How full and free is the interplay out, and yet be a model of amity and mutual aid within. with other forms of association? If we apply these con- Any education given by a group tends to socialize its siderations to, say, a criminal band, we find that the ties members, but the quality and value of the socialization which consciously hold the members together are few in depends upon the habits and aims of the group. Hence, number, reducible almost to a common interest in plun- once more, the need of a measure for the worth of any der; and that they are of such a nature as to isolate the given mode of social life. In seeking this measure, we group from other groups with respect to give and take of have to avoid two extremes. We cannot set up, out of our the values of life. Hence, the education such a society heads, something we regard as an ideal society. We must gives is partial and distorted. If we take, on the other base our conception upon societies which actually exist, hand, the kind of family life which illustrates the stan- in order to have any assurance that our ideal is a practi- dard, we find that there are material, intellectual, aes- cable one. But, as we have just seen, the ideal cannot thetic interests in which all participate and that the simply repeat the traits which are actually found. The progress of one member has worth for the experience of problem is to extract the desirable traits of forms of com- other members—it is readily communicable—and that munity life which actually exist, and employ them to criti- the family is not an isolated whole, but enters intimately cize undesirable features and suggest improvement. Now into relationships with business groups, with schools, with in any social group whatever, even in a gang of thieves, all the agencies of culture, as well as with other similar we find some interest held in common, and we find a groups, and that it plays a due part in the political orga-

87 Democracy & Education nization and in return receives support from it. In short, uct of calling the impulse of fear into play as is coward- there are many interests consciously communicated and ice and abject submission. The real difficulty is that the shared; and there are varied and free points of contact appeal to fear is isolated. In evoking dread and hope of with other modes of association. specific tangible reward—say comfort and ease—many I. Let us apply the first element in this criterion to a other capacities are left untouched. Or rather, they are despotically governed state. It is not true there is no affected, but in such a way as to pervert them. Instead common interest in such an organization between gov- of operating on their own account they are reduced to erned and governors. The authorities in command must mere servants of attaining pleasure and avoiding pain. make some appeal to the native activities of the sub- This is equivalent to saying that there is no extensive jects, must call some of their powers into play. Talleyrand number of common interests; there is no free play back said that a government could do everything with bayo- and forth among the members of the social group. Stimu- nets except sit on them. This cynical declaration is at lation and response are exceedingly one-sided. In order least a recognition that the bond of union is not merely to have a large number of values in common, all the one of coercive force. It may be said, however, that the members of the group must have an equable opportunity activities appealed to are themselves unworthy and de- to receive and to take from others. There must be a large grading—that such a government calls into functioning variety of shared undertakings and experiences. Other- activity simply capacity for fear. In a way, this statement wise, the influences which educate some into masters, is true. But it overlooks the fact that fear need not be an educate others into slaves. And the experience of each undesirable factor in experience. Caution, circumspection, party loses in meaning, when the free interchange of prudence, desire to foresee future events so as to avert varying modes of life-experience is arrested. A separa- what is harmful, these desirable traits are as much a prod- tion into a privileged and a subject-class prevents social

88 John Dewey endosmosis. The evils thereby affecting the superior class have no personal interest in. Much is said about scien- are less material and less perceptible, but equally real. tific management of work. It is a narrow view which re- Their culture tends to be sterile, to be turned back to stricts the science which secures efficiency of operation feed on itself; their art becomes a showy display and to movements of the muscles. The chief opportunity for artificial; their wealth luxurious; their knowledge over- science is the discovery of the relations of a man to his specialized; their manners fastidious rather than humane. work—including his relations to others who take part— Lack of the free and equitable intercourse which springs which will enlist his intelligent interest in what he is from a variety of shared interests makes intellectual stimu- doing. Efficiency in production often demands division lation unbalanced. Diversity of stimulation means nov- of labor. But it is reduced to a mechanical routine unless elty, and novelty means challenge to thought. The more workers see the technical, intellectual, and social rela- activity is restricted to a few definite lines—as it is when tionships involved in what they do, and engage in their there are rigid class lines preventing adequate interplay work because of the motivation furnished by such per- of experiences—the more action tends to become rou- ceptions. The tendency to reduce such things as efficiency tine on the part of the class at a disadvantage, and capri- of activity and scientific management to purely technical cious, aimless, and explosive on the part of the class externals is evidence of the one-sided stimulation of having the materially fortunate position. Plato defined a thought given to those in control of industry —those slave as one who accepts from another the purposes which who supply its aims. Because of their lack of all-round control his conduct. This condition obtains even where and well-balanced social interest, there is not sufficient there is no slavery in the legal sense. It is found wher- stimulus for attention to the human factors and relation- ever men are engaged in activity which is socially ser- ships in industry. Intelligence is narrowed to the factors viceable, but whose service they do not understand and concerned with technical production and marketing of

89 Democracy & Education goods. No doubt, a very acute and intense intelligence in group. That savage tribes regard aliens and enemies as these narrow lines can be developed, but the failure to synonymous is not accidental. It springs from the fact take into account the significant social factors means that they have identified their experience with rigid ad- none the less an absence of mind, and a corresponding herence to their past customs. On such a basis it is wholly distortion of emotional life. logical to fear intercourse with others, for such contact II. This illustration (whose point is to be extended to might dissolve custom. It would certainly occasion re- all associations lacking reciprocity of interest) brings us construction. It is a commonplace that an alert and ex- to our second point. The isolation and exclusiveness of a panding mental life depends upon an enlarging range of gang or clique brings its antisocial spirit into relief. But contact with the physical environment. But the principle this same spirit is found wherever one group has inter- applies even more significantly to the field where we are ests “of its own” which shut it out from full interaction apt to ignore it—the sphere of social contacts. Every with other groups, so that its prevailing purpose is the expansive era in the history of mankind has coincided protection of what it has got, instead of reorganization with the operation of factors which have tended to elimi- and progress through wider relationships. It marks na- nate distance between peoples and classes previously tions in their isolation from one another; families which hemmed off from one another. Even the alleged benefits seclude their domestic concerns as if they had no con- of war, so far as more than alleged, spring from the fact nection with a larger life; schools when separated from that conflict of peoples at least enforces intercourse be- the interest of home and community; the divisions of tween them and thus accidentally enables them to learn rich and poor; learned and unlearned. The essential point from one another, and thereby to expand their horizons. is that isolation makes for rigidity and formal institu- Travel, economic and commercial tendencies, have at tionalizing of life, for static and selfish ideals within the present gone far to break down external barriers; to bring

90 John Dewey peoples and classes into closer and more perceptible con- cause to be in deliberate and systematic education. The nection with one another. It remains for the most part to devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. secure the intellectual and emotional significance of this The superficial explanation is that a government resting physical annihilation of space. upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. 2. The Democratic Ideal. The two elements in our crite- Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of rion both point to democracy. The first signifies not only external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary more numerous and more varied points of shared common disposition and interest; these can be created only by interest, but greater reliance upon the recognition of mu- education. But there is a deeper explanation. A democ- tual interests as a factor in social control. The second means racy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a not only freer interaction between social groups (once iso- mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated ex- lated so far as intention could keep up a separation) but perience. The extension in space of the number of indi- change in social habit—its continuous readjustment viduals who participate in an interest so that each has to through meeting the new situations produced by varied refer his own action to that of others, and to consider intercourse. And these two traits are precisely what char- the action of others to give point and direction to his acterize the democratically constituted society. own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers Upon the educational side, we note first that the real- of class, race, and national territory which kept men from ization of a form of social life in which interests are mu- perceiving the full import of their activity. These more tually interpenetrating, and where progress, or readjust- numerous and more varied points of contact denote a ment, is an important consideration, makes a democratic greater diversity of stimuli to which an individual has to community more interested than other communities have respond; they consequently put a premium on variation

91 Democracy & Education in his action. They secure a liberation of powers which a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its mem- remain suppressed as long as the incitations to action bers are educated to personal initiative and adaptability. are partial, as they must be in a group which in its exclu- Otherwise, they will be overwhelmed by the changes in siveness shuts out many interests. which they are caught and whose significance or connec- The widening of the area of shared concerns, and the tions they do not perceive. The result will be a confusion liberation of a greater diversity of personal capacities in which a few will appropriate to themselves the results which characterize a democracy, are not of course the of the blind and externally directed activities of others. product of deliberation and conscious effort. On the contrary, they were caused by the development of modes of 3. The Platonic Educational Philosophy. Subsequent manufacture and commerce, travel, migration, and inter- chapters will be devoted to making explicit the implica- communication which flowed from the command of sci- tions of the democratic ideas in education. In the re- ence over natural energy. But after greater individualiza- maining portions of this chapter, we shall consider the tion on one hand, and a broader community of interest educational theories which have been evolved in three on the other have come into existence, it is a matter of epochs when the social import of education was espe- deliberate effort to sustain and extend them. Obviously a cially conspicuous. The first one to be considered is that society to which stratification into separate classes would of Plato. No one could better express than did he the fact be fatal, must see to it that intellectual opportunities that a society is stably organized when each individual is are accessible to all on equable and easy terms. A society doing that for which he has aptitude by nature in such a marked off into classes need he specially attentive only way as to be useful to others (or to contribute to the to the education of its ruling elements. A society which whole to which he belongs); and that it is the business is mobile, which is full of channels for the distribution of of education to discover these aptitudes and progres-

92 John Dewey sively to train them for social use. Much which has been is not possible save in a just and harmonious social or- said so far is borrowed from what Plato first consciously der. Everywhere else the mind is distracted and misled by taught the world. But conditions which he could not in- false valuations and false perspectives. A disorganized tellectually control led him to restrict these ideas in their and factional society sets up a number of different mod- application. He never got any conception of the indefi- els and standards. Under such conditions it is impossible nite plurality of activities which may characterize an infor the individual to attain consistency of mind. Only a dividual and a social group, and consequently limited his complete whole is fully self-consistent. A society which view to a limited number of classes of capacities and of rests upon the supremacy of some factor over another social arrangements. Plato’s starting point is that the or- irrespective of its rational or proportionate claims, inevi- ganization of society depends ultimately upon knowledge tably leads thought astray. It puts a premium on certain of the end of existence. If we do not know its end, we things and slurs over others, and creates a mind whose shall be at the mercy of accident and caprice. Unless we seeming unity is forced and distorted. Education proceeds know the end, the good, we shall have no criterion for ultimately from the patterns furnished by institutions, rationally deciding what the possibilities are which should customs, and laws. Only in a just state will these be such be promoted, nor how social arrangements are to be or- as to give the right education; and only those who have dered. We shall have no conception of the proper limits rightly trained minds will be able to recognize the end, and distribution of activities—what he called justice— and ordering principle of things. We seem to be caught in as a trait of both individual and social organization. But a hopeless circle. However, Plato suggested a way out. A how is the knowledge of the final and permanent good to few men, philosophers or lovers of wisdom—or truth— be achieved? In dealing with this question we come upon may by study learn at least in outline the proper patterns the seemingly insuperable obstacle that such knowledge of true existence. If a powerful ruler should form a state

93 Democracy & Education after these patterns, then its regulations could be pre- or wealth or any conventional status, but by his own served. An education could be given which would sift nature as discovered in the process of education, he had individuals, discovering what they were good for, and no perception of the uniqueness of individuals. For him supplying a method of assigning each to the work in life they fall by nature into classes, and into a very small for which his nature fits him. Each doing his own part, number of classes at that. Consequently the testing and and never transgressing, the order and unity of the whole sifting function of education only shows to which one of would be maintained. three classes an individual belongs. There being no rec- It would be impossible to find in any scheme of philo- ognition that each individual constitutes his own class, sophic thought a more adequate recognition on one hand there could be no recognition of the infinite diversity of of the educational significance of social arrangements active tendencies and combinations of tendencies of which and, on the other, of the dependence of those arrange- an individual is capable. There were only three types of ments upon the means used to educate the young. It faculties or powers in the individual’s constitution. Hence would be impossible to find a deeper sense of the func- education would soon reach a static limit in each class, tion of education in discovering and developing personal for only diversity makes change and progress. capacities, and training them so that they would connect In some individuals, appetites naturally dominate; they with the activities of others. Yet the society in which the are assigned to the laboring and trading class, which ex- theory was propounded was so undemocratic that Plato presses and supplies human wants. Others reveal, upon could not work out a solution for the problem whose terms education, that over and above appetites, they have a he clearly saw. generous, outgoing, assertively courageous disposition. While he affirmed with emphasis that the place of the They become the citizen-subjects of the state; its de- individual in society should not be determined by birth fenders in war; its internal guardians in peace. But their

94 John Dewey limit is fixed by their lack of reason, which is a capacity that original capacities are indefinitely numerous and to grasp the universal. Those who possess this are ca- variable. It is but the other side of this fact to say that in pable of the highest kind of education, and become in the degree in which society has become democratic, so- time the legislators of the state—for laws are the univer- cial organization means utilization of the specific and sals which control the particulars of experience. Thus it variable qualities of individuals, not stratification by is not true that in intent, Plato subordinated the indi- classes. Although his educational philosophy was revolu- vidual to the social whole. But it is true that lacking the tionary, it was none the less in bondage to static ideals. perception of the uniqueness of every individual, his in- He thought that change or alteration was evidence of commensurability with others, and consequently not rec- lawless flux; that true reality was unchangeable. Hence ognizing that a society might change and yet be stable, while he would radically change the existing state of so- his doctrine of limited powers and classes came in net ciety, his aim was to construct a state in which change effect to the idea of the subordination of individuality. would subsequently have no place. The final end of life is We cannot better Plato’s conviction that an individual is fixed; given a state framed with this end in view, not happy and society well organized when each individual even minor details are to be altered. Though they might engages in those activities for which he has a natural not be inherently important, yet if permitted they would equipment, nor his conviction that it is the primary of- inure the minds of men to the idea of change, and hence fice of education to discover this equipment to its pos- be dissolving and anarchic. The breakdown of his phi- sessor and train him for its effective use. But progress in losophy is made apparent in the fact that he could not knowledge has made us aware of the superficiality of trust to gradual improvements in education to bring about Plato’s lumping of individuals and their original powers a better society which should then improve education, into a few sharply marked-off classes; it has taught us and so on indefinitely. Correct education could not come

95 Democracy & Education into existence until an ideal state existed, and after that themselves. Nevertheless, these statements convey only education would be devoted simply to its conservation. an inadequate idea of the true significance of the move- For the existence of this state he was obliged to trust to ment. In reality its chief interest was in progress and in some happy accident by which philosophic wisdom should social progress. The seeming antisocial philosophy was a happen to coincide with possession of ruling power in somewhat transparent mask for an impetus toward a wider the state. and freer society—toward cosmopolitanism. The positive ideal was humanity. In membership in humanity, as dis- 4. The “Individualistic” Ideal of the Eighteenth Century. tinct from a state, man’s capacities would be liberated; In the eighteenth-century philosophy we find ourselves while in existing political organizations his powers were in a very different circle of ideas. “Nature” still means hampered and distorted to meet the requirements and self- something antithetical to existing social organization; ish interests of the rulers of the state. The doctrine of Plato exercised a great influence upon Rousseau. But the extreme individualism was but the counterpart, the ob- voice of nature now speaks for the diversity of individual verse, of ideals of the indefinite perfectibility of man and talent and for the need of free development of individu- of a social organization having a scope as wide as human- ality in all its variety. Education in accord with nature ity. The emancipated individual was to become the organ furnishes the goal and the method of instruction and and agent of a comprehensive and progressive society. discipline. Moreover, the native or original endowment The heralds of this gospel were acutely conscious of was conceived, in extreme cases, as nonsocial or even as the evils of the social estate in which they found them- antisocial. Social arrangements were thought of as mere selves. They attributed these evils to the limitations im- external expedients by which these nonsocial individuals posed upon the free powers of man. Such limitation was might secure a greater amount of private happiness for both distorting and corrupting. Their impassioned devo-

96 John Dewey tion to emancipation of life from external restrictions was to emancipate them from the internal chains of false which operated to the exclusive advantage of the class beliefs and ideals. What was called social life, existing to whom a past feudal system consigned power, found institutions, were too false and corrupt to be intrusted intellectual formulation in a worship of nature. To give with this work. How could it be expected to undertake it “nature” full swing was to replace an artificial, corrupt, when the undertaking meant its own destruction? “Na- and inequitable social order by a new and better kingdom ture” must then be the power to which the enterprise of humanity. Unrestrained faith in Nature as both a model was to be left. Even the extreme sensationalistic theory and a working power was strengthened by the advances of knowledge which was current derived itself from this of natural science. Inquiry freed from prejudice and arti- conception. To insist that mind is originally passive and ficial restraints of church and state had revealed that the empty was one way of glorifying the possibilities of edu- world is a scene of law. The Newtonian solar system, which cation. If the mind was a wax tablet to be written upon expressed the reign of natural law, was a scene of won- by objects, there were no limits to the possibility of edu- derful harmony, where every force balanced with every cation by means of the natural environment. And since other. Natural law would accomplish the same result in the natural world of objects is a scene of harmonious human relations, if men would only get rid of the artifi- “truth,” this education would infallibly produce minds cial man-imposed coercive restrictions. filled with the truth. Education in accord with nature was thought to be the first step in insuring this more social society. It was plainly 5. Education as National and as Social. As soon as the seen that economic and political limitations were ulti- first enthusiasm for freedom waned, the weakness of the mately dependent upon limitations of thought and feel- theory upon the constructive side became obvious. Merely ing. The first step in freeing men from external chains to leave everything to nature was, after all, but to ne-

97 Democracy & Education gate the very idea of education; it was to trust to the of incalculable significance for subsequent movements. accidents of circumstance. Not only was some method Under the influence of German thought in particular, edu- required but also some positive organ, some administra- cation became a civic function and the civic function was tive agency for carrying on the process of instruction. identified with the realization of the ideal of the national The “complete and harmonious development of all pow- state. The “state” was substituted for humanity; cosmo- ers,” having as its social counterpart an enlightened and politanism gave way to nationalism. To form the citizen, progressive humanity, required definite organization for not the “man,” became the aim of education. 1 The his- its realization. Private individuals here and there could toric situation to which reference is made is the after- proclaim the gospel; they could not execute the work. A effects of the Napoleonic conquests, especially in Ger- Pestalozzi could try experiments and exhort philanthropi- many. The German states felt (and subsequent events dem- cally inclined persons having wealth and power to follow onstrate the correctness of the belief) that systematic his example. But even Pestalozzi saw that any effective attention to education was the best means of recovering pursuit of the new educational ideal required the support and maintaining their political integrity and power. Ex- of the state. The realization of the new education des- ternally they were weak and divided. Under the leader- tined to produce a new society was, after all, dependent ship of Prussian statesmen they made this condition a upon the activities of existing states. The movement for stimulus to the development of an extensive and thor- the democratic idea inevitably became a movement for oughly grounded system of public education. publicly conducted and administered schools. This change in practice necessarily brought about a So far as Europe was concerned, the historic situation change in theory. The individualistic theory receded into identified the movement for a state-supported education the background. The state furnished not only the instru- with the nationalistic movement in political life—a fact mentalities of public education but also its goal. When

98 John Dewey the actual practice was such that the school system, from form of the conception of the “organic” character of the the elementary grades through the university faculties, state. The individual in his isolation is nothing; only in supplied the patriotic citizen and soldier and the future and through an absorption of the aims and meaning of state official and administrator and furnished the means organized institutions does he attain true personality. for military, industrial, and political defense and expan- What appears to be his subordination to political author- sion, it was impossible for theory not to emphasize the ity and the demand for sacrifice of himself to the com- aim of social efficiency. And with the immense impor- mands of his superiors is in reality but making his own tance attached to the nationalistic state, surrounded by the objective reason manifested in the state—the only other competing and more or less hostile states, it was way in which he can become truly rational. The notion of equally impossible to interpret social efficiency in terms development which we have seen to be characteristic of of a vague cosmopolitan humanitarianism. Since the institutional idealism (as in the Hegelian philosophy) was maintenance of a particular national sovereignty required just such a deliberate effort to combine the two ideas of subordination of individuals to the superior interests of complete realization of personality and thoroughgoing the state both in military defense and in struggles for “disciplinary” subordination to existing institutions. The international supremacy in commerce, social efficiency extent of the transformation of educational philosophy was understood to imply a like subordination. The educa- which occurred in Germany in the generation occupied tional process was taken to be one of disciplinary train- by the struggle against Napoleon for national indepen- ing rather than of personal development. Since, however, dence, may be gathered from Kant, who well expresses the ideal of culture as complete development of person- the earlier individual-cosmopolitan ideal. In his treatise ality persisted, educational philosophy attempted a rec- on Pedagogics, consisting of lectures given in the later onciliation of the two ideas. The reconciliation took the years of the eighteenth century, he defines education as

99 Democracy & Education the process by which man becomes man. Mankind begins lightened men in their private capacity. “All culture be- its history submerged in nature—not as Man who is a gins with private men and spreads outward from them. creature of reason, while nature furnishes only instinct Simply through the efforts of persons of enlarged incli- and appetite. Nature offers simply the germs which edu- nations, who are capable of grasping the ideal of a future cation is to develop and perfect. The peculiarity of truly better condition, is the gradual approximation of human human life is that man has to create himself by his own nature to its end possible. Rulers are simply interested in voluntary efforts; he has to make himself a truly moral, such training as will make their subjects better tools for rational, and free being. This creative effort is carried on their own intentions.” Even the subsidy by rulers of pri- by the educational activities of slow generations. Its ac- vately conducted schools must be carefully safeguarded. celeration depends upon men consciously striving to edu- For the rulers’ interest in the welfare of their own nation cate their successors not for the existing state of affairs instead of in what is best for humanity, will make them, but so as to make possible a future better humanity. But if they give money for the schools, wish to draw their there is the great difficulty. Each generation is inclined plans. We have in this view an express statement of the to educate its young so as to get along in the present points characteristic of the eighteenth century individu- world instead of with a view to the proper end of educa- alistic cosmopolitanism. The full development of private tion: the promotion of the best possible realization of personality is identified with the aims of humanity as a humanity as humanity. Parents educate their children so whole and with the idea of progress. In addition we have that they may get on; princes educate their subjects as an explicit fear of the hampering influence of a state- instruments of their own purposes. conducted and state-regulated education upon the at- Who, then, shall conduct education so that humanity tainment of these ideas. But in less than two decades may improve? We must depend upon the efforts of en- after this time, Kant’s philosophic successors, Fichte and

100 John Dewey Hegel, elaborated the idea that the chief function of the was highly individualistic in form, but this form was in- state is educational; that in particular the regeneration spired by a noble and generous social ideal: that of a of Germany is to be accomplished by an education car- society organized to include humanity, and providing for ried on in the interests of the state, and that the private the indefinite perfectibility of mankind. The idealistic individual is of necessity an egoistic, irrational being, philosophy of Germany in the early nineteenth century enslaved to his appetites and to circumstances unless he endeavored again to equate the ideals of a free and com- submits voluntarily to the educative discipline of state plete development of cultured personality with social dis- institutions and laws. In this spirit, Germany was the cipline and political subordination. It made the national first country to undertake a public, universal, and com- state an intermediary between the realization of private pulsory system of education extending from the primary personality on one side and of humanity on the other. school through the university, and to submit to jealous Consequently, it is equally possible to state its animating state regulation and supervision all private educational principle with equal truth either in the classic terms of enterprises. Two results should stand out from this brief “harmonious development of all the powers of personal- historical survey. The first is that such terms as the indi- ity” or in the more recent terminology of “social effi- vidual and the social conceptions of education are quite ciency.” All this reinforces the statement which opens meaningless taken at large, or apart from their context. this chapter: The conception of education as a social pro- Plato had the ideal of an education which should equate cess and function has no definite meaning until we de- individual realization and social coherency and stability. fine the kind of society we have in mind. These consider- His situation forced his ideal into the notion of a society ations pave the way for our second conclusion. One of organized in stratified classes, losing the individual in the fundamental problems of education in and for a demo- the class. The eighteenth century educational philosophy cratic society is set by the conflict of a nationalistic and

101 Democracy & Education a wider social aim. The earlier cosmopolitan and “humani- that each has interests which are exclusively its own. To tarian” conception suffered both from vagueness and from question this is to question the very idea of national lack of definite organs of execution and agencies of ad- sovereignty which is assumed to be basic to political prac- ministration. In Europe, in the Continental states particu- tice and political science. This contradiction (for it is larly, the new idea of the importance of education for hu- nothing less) between the wider sphere of associated and man welfare and progress was captured by national inter- mutually helpful social life and the narrower sphere of ests and harnessed to do a work whose social aim was exclusive and hence potentially hostile pursuits and pur- definitely narrow and exclusive. The social aim of educa- poses, exacts of educational theory a clearer conception tion and its national aim were identified, and the result of the meaning of “social” as a function and test of edu- was a marked obscuring of the meaning of a social aim. cation than has yet been attained. Is it possible for an This confusion corresponds to the existing situation of educational system to be conducted by a national state human intercourse. On the one hand, science, commerce, and yet the full social ends of the educative process not and art transcend national boundaries. They are largely be restricted, constrained, and corrupted? Internally, the international in quality and method. They involve inter- question has to face the tendencies, due to present eco- dependencies and cooperation among the peoples inhab- nomic conditions, which split society into classes some iting different countries. At the same time, the idea of of which are made merely tools for the higher culture of national sovereignty has never been as accentuated in others. Externally, the question is concerned with the politics as it is at the present time. Each nation lives in a reconciliation of national loyalty, of patriotism, with su- state of suppressed hostility and incipient war with its perior devotion to the things which unite men in com- neighbors. Each is supposed to be the supreme judge of mon ends, irrespective of national political boundaries. its own interests, and it is assumed as matter of course Neither phase of the problem can be worked out by merely

102 John Dewey negative means. It is not enough to see to it that educa- is not enough to teach the horrors of war and to avoid tion is not actively used as an instrument to make easier everything which would stimulate international jealousy the exploitation of one class by another. School facilities and animosity. The emphasis must be put upon whatever must be secured of such amplitude and efficiency as will binds people together in cooperative human pursuits and in fact and not simply in name discount the effects of results, apart from geographical limitations. The second- economic inequalities, and secure to all the wards of the ary and provisional character of national sovereignty in nation equality of equipment for their future careers. Ac- respect to the fuller, freer, and more fruitful association complishment of this end demands not only adequate and intercourse of all human beings with one another administrative provision of school facilities, and such must be instilled as a working disposition of mind. If supplementation of family resources as will enable youth these applications seem to be remote from a consider- to take advantage of them, but also such modification of ation of the philosophy of education, the impression shows traditional ideals of culture, traditional subjects of study that the meaning of the idea of education previously de- and traditional methods of teaching and discipline as veloped has not been adequately grasped. This conclu- will retain all the youth under educational influences until sion is bound up with the very idea of education as a they are equipped to be masters of their own economic freeing of individual capacity in a progressive growth di- and social careers. The ideal may seem remote of execu- rected to social aims. Otherwise a democratic criterion of tion, but the democratic ideal of education is a farcical education can only be inconsistently applied. yet tragic delusion except as the ideal more and more dominates our public system of education. The same prin- Summary. Since education is a social process, and there ciple has application on the side of the considerations are many kinds of societies, a criterion for educational which concern the relations of one nation to another. It criticism and construction implies a particular social ideal.

103 Democracy & Education The two points selected by which to measure the worth was found to involve the notion of a society as broad as of a form of social life are the extent in which the inter- humanity, of whose progress the individual was to be the ests of a group are shared by all its members, and the organ. But it lacked any agency for securing the develop- fullness and freedom with which it interacts with other ment of its ideal as was evidenced in its falling back groups. An undesirable society, in other words, is one upon Nature. The institutional idealistic philosophies of which internally and externally sets up barriers to free the nineteenth century supplied this lack by making the intercourse and communication of experience. A society national state the agency, but in so doing narrowed the which makes provision for participation in its good of all conception of the social aim to those who were members its members on equal terms and which secures flexible of the same political unit, and reintroduced the idea of readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the subordination of the individual to the institution. 1 the different forms of associated life is in so far demo- There is a much neglected strain in Rousseau tending cratic. Such a society must have a type of education which intellectually in this direction. He opposed the existing gives individuals a personal interest in social relation- state of affairs on the ground that it formed neither the ships and control, and the habits of mind which secure citizen nor the man. Under existing conditions, he pre- social changes without introducing disorder. Three typi- ferred to try for the latter rather than for the former. But cal historic philosophies of education were considered there are many sayings of his which point to the forma- from this point of view. The Platonic was found to have tion of the citizen as ideally the higher, and which indi- an ideal formally quite similar to that stated, but which cate that his own endeavor, as embodied in the Emile, was compromised in its working out by making a class was simply the best makeshift the corruption of the times rather than an individual the social unit. The so-called permitted him to sketch. individualism of the eighteenth-century enlightenment

104 John Dewey Chapter Eight: Aims in Education state of affairs must obtain when social relationships are not equitably balanced. For in that case, some portions 1. The Nature of an Aim. The account of education given of the whole social group will find their aims determined in our earlier chapters virtually anticipated the results by an external dictation; their aims will not arise from reached in a discussion of the purport of education in a the free growth of their own experience, and their nomi- democratic community. For it assumed that the aim of nal aims will be means to more ulterior ends of others education is to enable individuals to continue their edu- rather than truly their own. cation—or that the object and reward of learning is con- Our first question is to define the nature of an aim so tinued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be ap- far as it falls within an activity, instead of being fur- plied to all the members of a society except where inter- nished from without. We approach the definition by a course of man with man is mutual, and except where contrast of mere results with ends. Any exhibition of there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of so- energy has results. The wind blows about the sands of cial habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation the desert; the position of the grains is changed. Here arising from equitably distributed interests. And this is a result, an effect, but not an end. For there is noth- means a democratic society. In our search for aims in ing in the outcome which completes or fulfills what went education, we are not concerned, therefore, with finding before it. There is mere spatial redistribution. One state an end outside of the educative process to which educa- of affairs is just as good as any other. Consequently tion is subordinate. Our whole conception forbids. We are there is no basis upon which to select an earlier state of rather concerned with the contrast which exists when affairs as a beginning, a later as an end, and to con- aims belong within the process in which they operate sider what intervenes as a process of transformation and and when they are set up from without. And the latter realization.

105 Democracy & Education Consider for example the activities of bees in contrast the first thing to look to when it is a question of aims, is with the changes in the sands when the wind blows them whether the work assigned possesses intrinsic continu- about. The results of the bees’ actions may be called ends ity. Or is it a mere serial aggregate of acts, first doing not because they are designed or consciously intended, one thing and then another? To talk about an educa- but because they are true terminations or completions of tional aim when approximately each act of a pupil is dic- what has preceded. When the bees gather pollen and make tated by the teacher, when the only order in the sequence wax and build cells, each step prepares the way for the of his acts is that which comes from the assignment of next. When cells are built, the queen lays eggs in them; lessons and the giving of directions by another, is to talk when eggs are laid, they are sealed and bees brood them nonsense. It is equally fatal to an aim to permit capri- and keep them at a temperature required to hatch them. cious or discontinuous action in the name of spontane- When they are hatched, bees feed the young till they can ous self- expression. An aim implies an orderly and or- take care of themselves. Now we are so familiar with such dered activity, one in which the order consists in the facts, that we are apt to dismiss them on the ground that progressive completing of a process. Given an activity life and instinct are a kind of miraculous thing anyway. having a time span and cumulative growth within the Thus we fail to note what the essential characteristic of time succession, an aim means foresight in advance of the event is; namely, the significance of the temporal the end or possible termination. If bees anticipated the place and order of each element; the way each prior event consequences of their activity, if they perceived their leads into its successor while the successor takes up what end in imaginative foresight, they would have the pri- is furnished and utilizes it for some other stage, until we mary element in an aim. Hence it is nonsense to talk arrive at the end, which, as it were, summarizes and fin- about the aim of education—or any other undertaking— ishes off the process. Since aims relate always to results, where conditions do not permit of foresight of results,

106 John Dewey and do not stimulate a person to look ahead to see what We intervene to bring about this result or that. the outcome of a given activity is to be. In the next Of course these three points are closely connected with place the aim as a foreseen end gives direction to the one another. We can definitely foresee results only as we activity; it is not an idle view of a mere spectator, but make careful scrutiny of present conditions, and the im- influences the steps taken to reach the end. The fore- portance of the outcome supplies the motive for obser- sight functions in three ways. In the first place, it in- vations. The more adequate our observations, the more volves careful observation of the given conditions to see varied is the scene of conditions and obstructions that what are the means available for reaching the end, and presents itself, and the more numerous are the alterna- to discover the hindrances in the way. In the second place, tives between which choice may be made. In turn, the it suggests the proper order or sequence in the use of more numerous the recognized possibilities of the situa- means. It facilitates an economical selection and arrange- tion, or alternatives of action, the more meaning does ment. In the third place, it makes choice of alternatives the chosen activity possess, and the more flexibly con- possible. If we can predict the outcome of acting this trollable is it. Where only a single outcome has been way or that, we can then compare the value of the two thought of, the mind has nothing else to think of; the courses of action; we can pass judgment upon their rela- meaning attaching to the act is limited. One only steams tive desirability. If we know that stagnant water breeds ahead toward the mark. Sometimes such a narrow course mosquitoes and that they are likely to carry disease, we may be effective. But if unexpected difficulties offer them- can, disliking that anticipated result, take steps to avert selves, one has not as many resources at command as if it. Since we do not anticipate results as mere intellectual he had chosen the same line of action after a broader onlookers, but as persons concerned in the outcome, we survey of the possibilities of the field. He cannot make are partakers in the process which produces the result. needed readjustments readily.

107 Democracy & Education The net conclusion is that acting with an aim is all one is needful, just taking a chance with his luck, or when he with acting intelligently. To foresee a terminus of an act forms plans apart from study of the actual conditions, is to have a basis upon which to observe, to select, and including his own capacities. Such relative absence of to order objects and our own capacities. To do these things mind means to make our feelings the measure of what is means to have a mind—for mind is precisely intentional to happen. To be intelligent we must “stop, look, listen” purposeful activity controlled by perception of facts and in making the plan of an activity. their relationships to one another. To have a mind to do To identify acting with an aim and intelligent activity a thing is to foresee a future possibility; it is to have a is enough to show its value—its function in experience. plan for its accomplishment; it is to note the means which We are only too given to making an entity out of the make the plan capable of execution and the obstructions abstract noun “consciousness. “ We forget that it comes in the way,—or, if it is really a mind to do the thing and from the adjective “conscious.” To be conscious is to be not a vague aspiration—it is to have a plan which takes aware of what we are about; conscious signifies the de- account of resources and difficulties. Mind is capacity to liberate, observant, planning traits of activity. Conscious- refer present conditions to future results, and future con- ness is nothing which we have which gazes idly on the sequences to present conditions. And these traits are just scene around one or which has impressions made upon it what is meant by having an aim or a purpose. A man is by physical things; it is a name for the purposeful quality stupid or blind or unintelligent—lacking in mind—just of an activity, for the fact that it is directed by an aim. in the degree in which in any activity he does not know Put the other way about, to have an aim is to act with what he is about, namely, the probable consequences of meaning, not like an automatic machine; it is to mean to his acts. A man is imperfectly intelligent when he con- do something and to perceive the meaning of things in tents himself with looser guesses about the outcome than the light of that intent.

108 John Dewey 2. The Criteria of Good Aims. We may apply the results formed prior to the attempt to realize them. This impres- of our discussion to a consideration of the criteria in- sion must now be qualified. The aim as it first emerges is volved in a correct establishing of aims. (1) The aim set a mere tentative sketch. The act of striving to realize it up must be an outgrowth of existing conditions. It must tests its worth. If it suffices to direct activity success- be based upon a consideration of what is already going fully, nothing more is required, since its whole function on; upon the resources and difficulties of the situation. is to set a mark in advance; and at times a mere hint may Theories about the proper end of our activities—educa- suffice. But usually—at least in complicated situations— tional and moral theories—often violate this principle. acting upon it brings to light conditions which had been They assume ends lying outside our activities; ends for- overlooked. This calls for revision of the original aim; it eign to the concrete makeup of the situation; ends which has to be added to and subtracted from. An aim must, issue from some outside source. Then the problem is to then, be flexible; it must be capable of alteration to meet bring our activities to bear upon the realization of these circumstances. An end established externally to the pro- externally supplied ends. They are something for which cess of action is always rigid. Being inserted or imposed we ought to act. In any case such “aims” limit intelli- from without, it is not supposed to have a working rela- gence; they are not the expression of mind in foresight, tionship to the concrete conditions of the situation. What observation, and choice of the better among alternative happens in the course of action neither confirms, refutes, possibilities. They limit intelligence because, given ready- nor alters it. Such an end can only be insisted upon. The made, they must be imposed by some authority external failure that results from its lack of adaptation is attrib- to intelligence, leaving to the latter nothing but a me- uted simply to the perverseness of conditions, not to the chanical choice of means. fact that the end is not reasonable under the circum- (2) We have spoken as if aims could be completely stances. The value of a legitimate aim, on the contrary,

109 Democracy & Education lies in the fact that we can use it to change conditions. which the mind specifies the activity one desires to carry It is a method for dealing with conditions so as to effect out. Strictly speaking, not the target but hitting the target desirable alterations in them. A farmer who should pas- is the end in view; one takes aim by means of the target, sively accept things just as he finds them would make as but also by the sight on the gun. The different objects great a mistake as he who framed his plans in complete which are thought of are means of directing the activity. disregard of what soil, climate, etc., permit. One of the Thus one aims at, say, a rabbit; what he wants is to shoot evils of an abstract or remote external aim in education straight: a certain kind of activity. Or, if it is the rabbit he is that its very inapplicability in practice is likely to react wants, it is not rabbit apart from his activity, but as a into a haphazard snatching at immediate conditions. A factor in activity; he wants to eat the rabbit, or to show it good aim surveys the present state of experience of pu- as evidence of his marksmanship—he wants to do some- pils, and forming a tentative plan of treatment, keeps thing with it. The doing with the thing, not the thing in the plan constantly in view and yet modifies it as condi- isolation, is his end. The object is but a phase of the actions develop. The aim, in short, is experimental, and tive end,—continuing the activity successfully. This is what hence constantly growing as it is tested in action. is meant by the phrase, used above, “freeing activity.” (3) The aim must always represent a freeing of activi- In contrast with fulfilling some process in order that ties. The term end in view is suggestive, for it puts before activity may go on, stands the static character of an end the mind the termination or conclusion of some process. which is imposed from without the activity. It is always The only way in which we can define an activity is by conceived of as fixed; it is something to be attained and putting before ourselves the objects in which it termi- possessed. When one has such a notion, activity is a mere nates—as one’s aim in shooting is the target. But we unavoidable means to something else; it is not signifi- must remember that the object is only a mark or sign by cant or important on its own account. As compared with

110 John Dewey the end it is but a necessary evil; something which must value. He has the experience of realizing his end at every be gone through before one can reach the object which stage; the postponed aim, or end in view, being merely a is alone worth while. In other words, the external idea of sight ahead by which to keep his activity going fully and the aim leads to a separation of means from end, while freely. For if he does not look ahead, he is more likely to an end which grows up within an activity as plan for its find himself blocked. The aim is as definitely a means of direction is always both ends and means, the distinction action as is any other portion of an activity. being only one of convenience. Every means is a temporary end until we have attained it. Every end becomes a 3. Applications in Education. There is nothing peculiar means of carrying activity further as soon as it is achieved. about educational aims. They are just like aims in any We call it end when it marks off the future direction of directed occupation. The educator, like the farmer, has the activity in which we are engaged; means when it certain things to do, certain resources with which to do, marks off the present direction. Every divorce of end from and certain obstacles with which to contend. The condi- means diminishes by that much the significance of the tions with which the farmer deals, whether as obstacles activity and tends to reduce it to a drudgery from which or resources, have their own structure and operation in- one would escape if he could. A farmer has to use plants dependently of any purpose of his. Seeds sprout, rain and animals to carry on his farming activities. It cer- falls, the sun shines, insects devour, blight comes, the tainly makes a great difference to his life whether he is seasons change. His aim is simply to utilize these various fond of them, or whether he regards them merely as means conditions; to make his activities and their energies work which he has to employ to get something else in which together, instead of against one another. It would be alone he is interested. In the former case, his entire course absurd if the farmer set up a purpose of farming, without of activity is significant; each phase of it has its own any reference to these conditions of soil, climate, char-

111 Democracy & Education acteristic of plant growth, etc. His purpose is simply a And it is well to remind ourselves that education as foresight of the consequences of his energies connected such has no aims. Only persons, parents, and teachers, with those of the things about him, a foresight used to etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education. And direct his movements from day to day. Foresight of pos- consequently their purposes are indefinitely varied, dif- sible consequences leads to more careful and extensive fering with different children, changing as children grow observation of the nature and performances of the things and with the growth of experience on the part of the one he had to do with, and to laying out a plan—that is, of a who teaches. Even the most valid aims which can be put certain order in the acts to be performed. in words will, as words, do more harm than good unless It is the same with the educator, whether parent or one recognizes that they are not aims, but rather sugges- teacher. It is as absurd for the latter to set up his “own” tions to educators as to how to observe, how to look aims as the proper objects of the growth of the children ahead, and how to choose in liberating and directing the as it would be for the farmer to set up an ideal of farming energies of the concrete situations in which they find irrespective of conditions. Aims mean acceptance of re- themselves. As a recent writer has said: “To lead this boy sponsibility for the observations, anticipations, and ar- to read Scott’s novels instead of old Sleuth’s stories; to rangements required in carrying on a function—whether teach this girl to sew; to root out the habit of bullying farming or educating. Any aim is of value so far as it from John’s make-up; to prepare this class to study medi- assists observation, choice, and planning in carrying on cine,—these are samples of the millions of aims we have activity from moment to moment and hour to hour; if it actually before us in the concrete work of education.” gets in the way of the individual’s own common sense (as Bearing these qualifications in mind, we shall proceed to it will surely do if imposed from without or accepted on state some of the characteristics found in all good edu- authority) it does harm. cational aims.

112 John Dewey (1) An educational aim must be founded upon the in- language, we should not be able to see the import of the trinsic activities and needs (including original instincts babbling impulses of infancy. But it is one thing to use and acquired habits) of the given individual to be edu- adult accomplishments as a context in which to place cated. The tendency of such an aim as preparation is, as and survey the doings of childhood and youth; it is quite we have seen, to omit existing powers, and find the aim another to set them up as a fixed aim without regard to in some remote accomplishment or responsibility. In gen- the concrete activities of those educated. eral, there is a disposition to take considerations which (2) An aim must be capable of translation into a method are dear to the hearts of adults and set them up as ends of cooperating with the activities of those undergoing irrespective of the capacities of those educated. There is instruction. It must suggest the kind of environment also an inclination to propound aims which are so uni- needed to liberate and to organize their capacities. Un- form as to neglect the specific powers and requirements less it lends itself to the construction of specific proce- of an individual, forgetting that all learning is something dures, and unless these procedures test, correct, and which happens to an individual at a given time and place. amplify the aim, the latter is worthless. Instead of help- The larger range of perception of the adult is of great ing the specific task of teaching, it prevents the use of value in observing the abilities and weaknesses of the ordinary judgment in observing and sizing up the situa- young, in deciding what they may amount to. Thus the tion. It operates to exclude recognition of everything artistic capacities of the adult exhibit what certain ten- except what squares up with the fixed end in view. Every dencies of the child are capable of; if we did not have the rigid aim just because it is rigidly given seems to render adult achievements we should be without assurance as to it unnecessary to give careful attention to concrete con- the significance of the drawing, reproducing, modeling, ditions. Since it must apply anyhow, what is the use of coloring activities of childhood. So if it were not for adult noting details which do not count?

113 Democracy & Education The vice of externally imposed ends has deep roots. that are alleged to be general and ultimate. Every activ- Teachers receive them from superior authorities; these ity, however specific, is, of course, general in its ramified authorities accept them from what is current in the com- connections, for it leads out indefinitely into other things. munity. The teachers impose them upon children. As a So far as a general idea makes us more alive to these first consequence, the intelligence of the teacher is not connections, it cannot be too general. But “general” also free; it is confined to receiving the aims laid down from means “abstract,” or detached from all specific context. above. Too rarely is the individual teacher so free from And such abstractness means remoteness, and throws us the dictation of authoritative supervisor, textbook on back, once more, upon teaching and learning as mere methods, prescribed course of study, etc., that he can let means of getting ready for an end disconnected from the his mind come to close quarters with the pupil’s mind means. That education is literally and all the time its and the subject matter. This distrust of the teacher’s ex- own reward means that no alleged study or discipline is perience is then reflected in lack of confidence in the educative unless it is worth while in its own immediate responses of pupils. The latter receive their aims through having. A truly general aim broadens the outlook; it stimu- a double or treble external imposition, and are constantly lates one to take more consequences (connections) into confused by the conflict between the aims which are natu- account. This means a wider and more flexible observa- ral to their own experience at the time and those in which tion of means. The more interacting forces, for example, they are taught to acquiesce. Until the democratic crite- the farmer takes into account, the more varied will be his rion of the intrinsic significance of every growing experi- immediate resources. He will see a greater number of ence is recognized, we shall be intellectually confused by possible starting places, and a greater number of ways of the demand for adaptation to external aims. getting at what he wants to do. The fuller one’s concep- (3) Educators have to be on their guard against ends tion of possible future achievements, the less his present

114 John Dewey activity is tied down to a small number of alternatives. If different way, one statement of an end may suggest cer- one knew enough, one could start almost anywhere and tain questions and observations, and another statement sustain his activities continuously and fruitfully. another set of questions, calling for other observations. Understanding then the term general or comprehensive Then the more general ends we have, the better. One aim simply in the sense of a broad survey of the field of statement will emphasize what another slurs over. What present activities, we shall take up some of the larger a plurality of hypotheses does for the scientific investi- ends which have currency in the educational theories of gator, a plurality of stated aims may do for the instructor. the day, and consider what light they throw upon the immediate concrete and diversified aims which are al- Summary. An aim denotes the result of any natural pro- ways the educator’s real concern. We premise (as indeed cess brought to consciousness and made a factor in de- immediately follows from what has been said) that there termining present observation and choice of ways of act- is no need of making a choice among them or regarding ing. It signifies that an activity has become intelligent. them as competitors. When we come to act in a tangible Specifically it means foresight of the alternative conse- way we have to select or choose a particular act at a quences attendant upon acting in a given situation in particular time, but any number of comprehensive ends different ways, and the use of what is anticipated to di- may exist without competition, since they mean simply rect observation and experiment. A true aim is thus op- different ways of looking at the same scene. One cannot posed at every point to an aim which is imposed upon a climb a number of different mountains simultaneously, process of action from without. The latter is fixed and but the views had when different mountains are ascended rigid; it is not a stimulus to intelligence in the given supplement one another: they do not set up incompat- situation, but is an externally dictated order to do such ible, competing worlds. Or, putting the matter in a slightly and such things. Instead of connecting directly with

115 Democracy & Education present activities, it is remote, divorced from the means Chapter Nine: Natural Development and by which it is to be reached. Instead of suggesting a Social Efficiency as Aims freer and better balanced activity, it is a limit set to activity. In education, the currency of these externally 1. Nature as Supplying the Aim. We have just pointed out imposed aims is responsible for the emphasis put upon the futility of trying to establish the aim of education— the notion of preparation for a remote future and for some one final aim which subordinates all others to it- rendering the work of both teacher and pupil mechanical self. We have indicated that since general aims are but and slavish. prospective points of view from which to survey the existing conditions and estimate their possibilities, we might have any number of them, all consistent with one another. As matter of fact, a large number have been stated at different times, all having great local value. For the statement of aim is a matter of emphasis at a given time. And we do not emphasize things which do not require emphasis—that is, such things as are taking care of themselves fairly well. We tend rather to frame our statement on the basis of the defects and needs of the contemporary situation; we take for granted, without explicit statement which would be of no use, whatever is right or approximately so. We frame our explicit aims in terms of some alteration to be brought about. It is, then, DO para-

116 John Dewey dox requiring explanation that a given epoch or genera- cial (See ante, p. 91); and then pass over to the anti- tion tends to emphasize in its conscious projections just thetical conception of social efficiency, which often op- the things which it has least of in actual fact. A time of poses social to natural. domination by authority will call out as response the de- (1) Educational reformers disgusted with the conven- sirability of great individual freedom; one of disorganized tionality and artificiality of the scholastic methods they individual activities the need of social control as an edu- find about them are prone to resort to nature as a stan- cational aim. dard. Nature is supposed to furnish the law and the end The actual and implicit practice and the conscious or of development; ours it is to follow and conform to her stated aim thus balance each other. At different times ways. The positive value of this conception lies in the such aims as complete living, better methods of language forcible way in which it calls attention to the wrongness study, substitution of things for words, social efficiency, of aims which do not have regard to the natural endow- personal culture, social service, complete development ment of those educated. Its weakness is the ease with of personality, encyclopedic knowledge, discipline, a es- which natural in the sense of normal is confused with the thetic contemplation, utility, etc., have served. The fol- physical. The constructive use of intelligence in foresight, lowing discussion takes up three statements of recent and contriving, is then discounted; we are just to get out influence; certain others have been incidentally discussed of the way and allow nature to do the work. Since no one in the previous chapters, and others will be considered has stated in the doctrine both its truth and falsity bet- later in a discussion of knowledge and of the values of ter than Rousseau, we shall turn to him. studies. We begin with a consideration that education is “Education,” he says, “we receive from three sources— a process of development in accordance with nature, tak- Nature, men, and things. The spontaneous development ing Rousseau’s statement, which opposed natural to so- of our organs and capacities constitutes the education of

117 Democracy & Education Nature. The use to which we are taught to put this devel- of these organs are put under the influence of other per- opment constitutes that education given us by Men. The sons; (c) their direct interaction with the environment. acquirement of personal experience from surrounding ob- This statement certainly covers the ground. His other two jects constitutes that of things. Only when these three propositions are equally sound; namely, (a) that only when kinds of education are consonant and make for the same the three factors of education are consonant and coop- end, does a man tend towards his true goal. If we are erative does adequate development of the individual oc- asked what is this end, the answer is that of Nature. For cur, and (b) that the native activities of the organs, be- since the concurrence of the three kinds of education is ing original, are basic in conceiving consonance. But it necessary to their completeness, the kind which is entirely requires but little reading between the lines, supplemented independent of our control must necessarily regulate us in by other statements of Rousseau, to perceive that in- determining the other two.” Then he defines Nature to stead of regarding these three things as factors which mean the capacities and dispositions which are inborn, must work together to some extent in order that any one “as they exist prior to the modification due to constrain- of them may proceed educatively, he regards them as ing habits and the influence of the opinion of others.” separate and independent operations. Especially does he The wording of Rousseau will repay careful study. It believe that there is an independent and, as he says, contains as fundamental truths as have been uttered about “spontaneous” development of the native organs and fac- education in conjunction with a curious twist. It would ulties. He thinks that this development can go on irre- be impossible to say better what is said in the first sen- spective of the use to which they are put. And it is to tences. The three factors of educative development are this separate development that education coming from (a) the native structure of our bodily organs and their social contact is to be subordinated. Now there is an functional activities; (b) the uses to which the activities immense difference between a use of native activities in

118 John Dewey accord with those activities themselves—as distinct from they supply not only the conditions but also the ends of forcing them and perverting them—and supposing that their development. As matter of fact, the native activi- they have a normal development apart from any use, which ties develop, in contrast with random and capricious ex- development furnishes the standard and norm of all learn- ercise, through the uses to which they are put. And the ing by use. To recur to our previous illustration, the pro- office of the social medium is, as we have seen, to direct cess of acquiring language is a practically perfect model growth through putting powers to the best possible use. of proper educative growth. The start is from native ac- The instinctive activities may be called, metaphorically, tivities of the vocal apparatus, organs of hearing, etc. spontaneous, in the sense that the organs give a strong But it is absurd to suppose that these have an indepen- bias for a certain sort of operation,—a bias so strong dent growth of their own, which left to itself would evolve that we cannot go contrary to it, though by trying to go a perfect speech. Taken literally, Rousseau’s principle contrary we may pervert, stunt, and corrupt them. But would mean that adults should accept and repeat the the notion of a spontaneous normal development of these babblings and noises of children not merely as the begin- activities is pure mythology. The natural, or native, pow- nings of the development of articulate speech—which ers furnish the initiating and limiting forces in all educa- they are—but as furnishing language itself—the stan- tion; they do not furnish its ends or aims. There is no dard for all teaching of language. learning except from a beginning in unlearned powers, The point may be summarized by saying that Rousseau but learning is not a matter of the spontaneous overflow was right, introducing a much-needed reform into educa- of the unlearned powers. Rousseau’s contrary opinion is tion, in holding that the structure and activities of the doubtless due to the fact that he identified God with organs furnish the conditions of all teaching of the use Nature; to him the original powers are wholly good, com- of the organs; but profoundly wrong in intimating that ing directly from a wise and good creator. To paraphrase

119 Democracy & Education the old saying about the country and the town, God made ous development,” but to provide an environment which the original human organs and faculties, man makes the shall organize them. uses to which they are put. Consequently the develop- Returning to the elements of truth contained in ment of the former furnishes the standard to which the Rousseau’s statements, we find that natural development, latter must be subordinated. When men attempt to de- as an aim, enables him to point the means of correcting termine the uses to which the original activities shall be many evils in current practices, and to indicate a number put, they interfere with a divine plan. The interference of desirable specific aims. (1) Natural development as an by social arrangements with Nature, God’s work, is the aim fixes attention upon the bodily organs and the need primary source of corruption in individuals. of health and vigor. The aim of natural development says Rousseau’s passionate assertion of the intrinsic good- to parents and teachers: Make health an aim; normal de- ness of all natural tendencies was a reaction against the velopment cannot be had without regard to the vigor of prevalent notion of the total depravity of innate human the body—an obvious enough fact and yet one whose nature, and has had a powerful influence in modifying due recognition in practice would almost automatically the attitude towards children’s interests. But it is hardly revolutionize many of our educational practices. “Nature” necessary to say that primitive impulses are of them- is indeed a vague and metaphorical term, but one thing selves neither good nor evil, but become one or the other that “Nature” may be said to utter is that there are con- according to the objects for which they are employed. ditions of educational efficiency, and that till we have That neglect, suppression, and premature forcing of some learned what these conditions are and have learned to instincts at the expense of others, are responsible for make our practices accord with them, the noblest and many avoidable ills, there can be no doubt. But the moral most ideal of our aims are doomed to suffer—are verbal is not to leave them alone to follow their own “spontane- and sentimental rather than efficacious.

120 John Dewey (2) The aim of natural development translates into the on the same exercises; their education destroys the spe- aim of respect for physical mobility. In Rousseau’s words: cial bent and leaves a dull uniformity. Therefore after we “Children are always in motion; a sedentary life is injuri- have wasted our efforts in stunting the true gifts of na- ous.” When he says that “Nature’s intention is to ture we see the short-lived and illusory brilliance we have strengthen the body before exercising the mind” he hardly substituted die away, while the natural abilities we have states the fact fairly. But if he had said that nature’s crushed do not revive.” “intention” (to adopt his poetical form of speech) is to Lastly, the aim of following nature means to note the develop the mind especially by exercise of the muscles of origin, the waxing, and waning, of preferences and inter- the body he would have stated a positive fact. In other ests. Capacities bud and bloom irregularly; there is no words, the aim of following nature means, in the con- even four-abreast development. We must strike while the crete, regard for the actual part played by use of the iron is hot. Especially precious are the first dawnings of bodily organs in explorations, in handling of materials, power. More than we imagine, the ways in which the ten- in plays and games. (3) The general aim translates into dencies of early childhood are treated fix fundamental the aim of regard for individual differences among chil- dispositions and condition the turn taken by powers that dren. Nobody can take the principle of consideration of show themselves later. Educational concern with the early native powers into account without being struck by the years of life—as distinct from inculcation of useful arts fact that these powers differ in different individuals. The —dates almost entirely from the time of the emphasis by difference applies not merely to their intensity, but even Pestalozzi and Froebel, following Rousseau, of natural more to their quality and arrangement. As Rouseau said: principles of growth. The irregularity of growth and its “Each individual is born with a distinctive temperament. significance is indicated in the following passage of a We indiscriminately employ children of different bents student of the growth of the nervous system. “While

121 Democracy & Education growth continues, things bodily and mental are lopsided, dencies that trouble parents when they appear are likely for growth is never general, but is accentuated now at to be transitory, and sometimes too much direct atten- one spot, now at another. The methods which shall rection to them only fixes a child’s attention upon them. At ognize in the presence of these enormous differences of all events, adults too easily assume their own habits and endowment the dynamic values of natural inequalities of wishes as standards, and regard all deviations of children’s growth, and utilize them, preferring irregularity to the impulses as evils to be eliminated. That artificiality against rounding out gained by pruning will most closely follow which the conception of following nature is so largely a that which takes place in the body and thus prove most protest, is the outcome of attempts to force children di- effective. “ rectly into the mold of grown-up standards. 1 Observation of natural tendencies is difficult under In conclusion, we note that the early history of the conditions of restraint. They show themselves most readily idea of following nature combined two factors which had in a child’s spontaneous sayings and doings,—that is, in no inherent connection with one another. Before the time those he engages in when not put at set tasks and when of Rousseau educational reformers had been inclined to not aware of being under observation. It does not follow urge the importance of education by ascribing practically that these tendencies are all desirable because they are unlimited power to it. All the differences between peoples natural; but it does follow that since they are there, they and between classes and persons among the same people are operative and must be taken account of. We must see were said to be due to differences of training, of exer- to it that the desirable ones have an environment which cise, and practice. Originally, mind, reason, understand- keeps them active, and that their activity shall control ing is, for all practical purposes, the same in all. This the direction the others take and thereby induce the dis- essential identity of mind means the essential equality of use of the latter because they lead to nothing. Many ten- all and the possibility of bringing them all to the same

122 John Dewey level. As a protest against this view, the doctrine of ac- And again he says: “Natural man has an absolute value; he cord with nature meant a much less formal and abstract is a numerical unit, a complete integer and has no relation view of mind and its powers. It substituted specific in- save to himself and to his fellow man. Civilized man is stincts and impulses and physiological capacities, differ- only a relative unit, the numerator of a fraction whose ing from individual to individual (just as they differ, as value depends upon its dominator, its relation to the inte- Rousseau pointed out, even in dogs of the same litter), gral body of society. Good political institutions are those for abstract faculties of discernment, memory, and gen- which make a man unnatural.” It is upon this conception eralization. Upon this side, the doctrine of educative ac- of the artificial and harmful character of organized social cord with nature has been reinforced by the development life as it now exists that he rested the notion that nature of modern biology, physiology, and psychology. It means, not merely furnishes prime forces which initiate growth in effect, that great as is the significance of nurture, of but also its plan and goal. That evil institutions and cus- modification, and transformation through direct educa- toms work almost automatically to give a wrong education tional effort, nature, or unlearned capacities, affords the which the most careful schooling cannot offset is true foundation and ultimate resources for such nurture. On enough; but the conclusion is not to education apart from the other hand, the doctrine of following nature was a the environment, but to provide an environment in which political dogma. It meant a rebellion against existing native powers will be put to better uses. social institutions, customs, and ideals (See ante, p. 91). Rousseau’s statement that everything is good as it comes 2. Social Efficiency as Aim. A conception which made from the hands of the Creator has its signification only in nature supply the end of a true education and society the its contrast with the concluding part of the same sen- end of an evil one, could hardly fail to call out a protest. tence: “Everything degenerates in the hands of man.” The opposing emphasis took the form of a doctrine that

123 Democracy & Education the business of education is to supply precisely what na- the relationships of persons to one another. If an indi- ture fails to secure; namely, habituation of an individual vidual is not able to earn his own living and that of the to social control; subordination of natural powers to so- children dependent upon him, he is a drag or parasite cial rules. It is not surprising to find that the value in the upon the activities of others. He misses for himself one idea of social efficiency resides largely in its protest of the most educative experiences of life. If he is not against the points at which the doctrine of natural devel- trained in the right use of the products of industry, there opment went astray; while its misuse comes when it is is grave danger that he may deprave himself and injure employed to slur over the truth in that conception. It is others in his possession of wealth. No scheme of educa- a fact that we must look to the activities and achieve- tion can afford to neglect such basic considerations. Yet ments of associated life to find what the development of in the name of higher and more spiritual ideals, the ar- power—that is to say, efficiency—means. The error is in rangements for higher education have often not only ne- implying that we must adopt measures of subordination glected them, but looked at them with scorn as beneath rather than of utilization to secure efficiency. The doc- the level of educative concern. With the change from an trine is rendered adequate when we recognize that social oligarchical to a democratic society, it is natural that the efficiency is attained not by negative constraint but by significance of an education which should have as a re- positive use of native individual capacities in occupa- sult ability to make one’s way economically in the world, tions having a social meaning. (1) Translated into spe- and to manage economic resources usefully instead of for cific aims, social efficiency indicates the importance of mere display and luxury, should receive emphasis. industrial competency. Persons cannot live without means There is, however, grave danger that in insisting upon of subsistence; the ways in which these means are em- this end, existing economic conditions and standards will ployed and consumed have a profound influence upon all be accepted as final. A democratic criterion requires us

124 John Dewey to develop capacity to the point of competency to choose quo. Differences of economic opportunity then dictate and make its own career. This principle is violated when what the future callings of individuals are to be. We have the attempt is made to fit individuals in advance for defi- an unconscious revival of the defects of the Platonic nite industrial callings, selected not on the basis of trained scheme (ante, p. 89) without its enlightened method of original capacities, but on that of the wealth or social selection. status of parents. As a matter of fact, industry at the (2) Civic efficiency, or good citizenship. It is, of course, present time undergoes rapid and abrupt changes through arbitrary to separate industrial competency from capac- the evolution of new inventions. New industries spring ity in good citizenship. But the latter term may be used up, and old ones are revolutionized. Consequently an at- to indicate a number of qualifications which are vaguer tempt to train for too specific a mode of efficiency de- than vocational ability. These traits run from whatever feats its own purpose. When the occupation changes its make an individual a more agreeable companion to citi- methods, such individuals are left behind with even less zenship in the political sense: it denotes ability to judge ability to readjust themselves than if they had a less men and measures wisely and to take a determining part definite training. But, most of all, the present industrial in making as well as obeying laws. The aim of civic effi- constitution of society is, like every society which has ciency has at least the merit of protecting us from the ever existed, full of inequities. It is the aim of progres- notion of a training of mental power at large. It calls sive education to take part in correcting unfair privilege attention to the fact that power must be relative to do- and unfair deprivation, not to perpetuate them. Wher- ing something, and to the fact that the things which ever social control means subordination of individual ac- most need to be done are things which involve one’s tivities to class authority, there is danger that industrial relationships with others. education will be dominated by acceptance of the status Here again we have to be on guard against understand-

125 Democracy & Education ing the aim too narrowly. An over-definite interpretation its chief constituent (because its only guarantee) is omit- would at certain periods have excluded scientific discov- ted, —intelligent sympathy or good will. For sympathy eries, in spite of the fact that in the last analysis security as a desirable quality is something more than mere feel- of social progress depends upon them. For scientific men ing; it is a cultivated imagination for what men have in would have been thought to be mere theoretical dream- common and a rebellion at whatever unnecessarily di- ers, totally lacking in social efficiency. It must be borne vides them. What is sometimes called a benevolent inter- in mind that ultimately social efficiency means neither est in others may be but an unwitting mask for an at- more nor less than capacity to share in a give and take of tempt to dictate to them what their good shall be, in- experience. It covers all that makes one’s own experience stead of an endeavor to free them so that they may seek more worth while to others, and all that enables one to and find the good of their own choice. Social efficiency, participate more richly in the worthwhile experiences of even social service, are hard and metallic things when others. Ability to produce and to enjoy art, capacity for severed from an active acknowledgment of the diversity recreation, the significant utilization of leisure, are more of goods which life may afford to different persons, and important elements in it than elements conventionally from faith in the social utility of encouraging every indi- associated oftentimes with citizenship. In the broadest vidual to make his own choice intelligent. sense, social efficiency is nothing less than that socialization of mind which is actively concerned in making 3. Culture as Aim. Whether or not social efficiency is an experiences more communicable; in breaking down the aim which is consistent with culture turns upon these barriers of social stratification which make individuals considerations. Culture means at least something culti- impervious to the interests of others. When social effi- vated, something ripened; it is opposed to the raw and ciency is confined to the service rendered by overt acts, crude. When the “natural” is identified with this rawness,

126 John Dewey culture is opposed to what is called natural development. rior. The latter are supposed to have time and opportu- Culture is also something personal; it is cultivation with nity to develop themselves as human beings; the former respect to appreciation of ideas and art and broad human are confined to providing external products. When social interests. When efficiency is identified with a narrow range efficiency as measured by product or output is urged as of acts, instead of with the spirit and meaning of activ- an ideal in a would-be democratic society, it means that ity, culture is opposed to efficiency. Whether called cul- the depreciatory estimate of the masses characteristic of ture or complete development of personality, the out- an aristocratic community is accepted and carried over. come is identical with the true meaning of social effi- But if democracy has a moral and ideal meaning, it is ciency whenever attention is given to what is unique in that a social return be demanded from all and that op- an individual—and he would not be an individual if there portunity for development of distinctive capacities be were not something incommensurable about him. Its op- afforded all. The separation of the two aims in education posite is the mediocre, the average. Whenever distinctive is fatal to democracy; the adoption of the narrower mean- quality is developed, distinction of personality results, ing of efficiency deprives it of its essential justification. and with it greater promise for a social service which The aim of efficiency (like any educational aim) must goes beyond the supply in quantity of material commodi- be included within the process of experience. When it is ties. For how can there be a society really worth serving measured by tangible external products, and not by the unless it is constituted of individuals of significant per- achieving of a distinctively valuable experience, it be- sonal qualities? comes materialistic. Results in the way of commodities The fact is that the opposition of high worth of person- which may be the outgrowth of an efficient personality ality to social efficiency is a product of a feudally orga- are, in the strictest sense, by-products of education: by- nized society with its rigid division of inferior and supe- products which are inevitable and important, but never-

127 Democracy & Education theless by-products. To set up an external aim strength- things for others, or sacrificing them to pursuit of his ens by reaction the false conception of culture which own exclusive ends, whether the saving of his own soul identifies it with something purely “inner.” And the idea or the building of an inner spiritual life and personality? of perfecting an “inner” personality is a sure sign of so- What happens is that since neither of these things is cial divisions. What is called inner is simply that which persistently possible, we get a compromise and an alter- does not connect with others—which is not capable of nation. One tries each course by turns. There is no greater free and full communication. What is termed spiritual tragedy than that so much of the professedly spiritual culture has usually been futile, with something rotten and religious thought of the world has emphasized the about it, just because it has been conceived as a thing two ideals of self-sacrifice and spiritual self-perfecting which a man might have internally—and therefore exclu- instead of throwing its weight against this dualism of sively. What one is as a person is what one is as associ- life. The dualism is too deeply established to be easily ated with others, in a free give and take of intercourse. overthrown; for that reason, it is the particular task of This transcends both the efficiency which consists in sup- education at the present time to struggle in behalf of an plying products to others and the culture which is an aim in which social efficiency and personal culture are exclusive refinement and polish. synonyms instead of antagonists. Any individual has missed his calling, farmer, physician, teacher, student, who does not find that the ac- Summary. General or comprehensive aims are points of complishments of results of value to others is an accom- view for surveying the specific problems of education. paniment of a process of experience inherently worth Consequently it is a test of the value of the manner in while. Why then should it be thought that one must take which any large end is stated to see if it will translate his choice between sacrificing himself to doing useful readily and consistently into the procedures which are

128 John Dewey suggested by another. We have applied this test to three without culture, while it brings a reward in culture, be- general aims: Development according to nature, social cause one cannot share in intercourse with others with- efficiency, and culture or personal mental enrichment. In out learning—without getting a broader point of view each case we have seen that the aims when partially and perceiving things of which one would otherwise be stated come into conflict with each other. The partial ignorant. And there is perhaps no better definition of statement of natural development takes the primitive culture than that it is the capacity for constantly ex- powers in an alleged spontaneous development as the panding the range and accuracy of one’s perception of end-all. From this point of view training which renders meanings. them useful to others is an abnormal constraint; one which profoundly modifies them through deliberate nurture is 1 Donaldson, Growth of Brain, p. 356. corrupting. But when we recognize that natural activities mean native activities which develop only through 2 We must not forget that Rousseau had the idea of a the uses in which they are nurtured, the conflict disap- radically different sort of society, a fraternal society whose pears. Similarly a social efficiency which is defined in end should be identical with the good of all its members, terms of rendering external service to others is of neces- which he thought to be as much better than existing sity opposed to the aim of enriching the meaning of ex- states as these are worse than the state of nature. perience, while a culture which is taken to consist in an internal refinement of a mind is opposed to a socialized disposition. But social efficiency as an educational purpose should mean cultivation of power to join freely and fully in shared or common activities. This is impossible

129 Democracy & Education Chapter Ten: Interest and Discipline intervene even more directly. The attitude of a participant in the course of affairs is thus a double one: there is 1. The Meaning of the Terms. We have already noticed solicitude, anxiety concerning future consequences, and the difference in the attitude of a spectator and of an a tendency to act to assure better, and avert worse, con- agent or participant. The former is indifferent to what is sequences. There are words which denote this attitude: going on; one result is just as good as another, since concern, interest. These words suggest that a person is each is just something to look at. The latter is bound up bound up with the possibilities inhering in objects; that with what is going on; its outcome makes a difference to he is accordingly on the lookout for what they are likely him. His fortunes are more or less at stake in the issue of to do to him; and that, on the basis of his expectation or events. Consequently he does whatever he can to influ- foresight, he is eager to act so as to give things one turn ence the direction present occurrences take. One is like a rather than another. Interest and aims, concern and pur- man in a prison cell watching the rain out of the window; pose, are necessarily connected. Such words as aim, in- it is all the same to him. The other is like a man who has tent, end, emphasize the results which are wanted and planned an outing for the next day which continuing rain striven for; they take for granted the personal attitude of will frustrate. He cannot, to be sure, by his present reac- solicitude and attentive eagerness. Such words as inter- tions affect to-morrow’s weather, but he may take some est, affection, concern, motivation, emphasize the bear- steps which will influence future happenings, if only to ing of what is foreseen upon the individual’s fortunes, postpone the proposed picnic. If a man sees a carriage and his active desire to act to secure a possible result. coming which may run over him, if he cannot stop its They take for granted the objective changes. But the dif- movement, he can at least get out of the way if he fore- ference is but one of emphasis; the meaning that is shaded sees the consequence in time. In many instances, he can in one set of words is illuminated in the other. What is

130 John Dewey anticipated is objective and impersonal; to-morrow’s rain; tions, and affections are but various ways in which our the possibility of being run over. But for an active being, doings are tied up with the doings of things and persons a being who partakes of the consequences instead of about us. Instead of marking a purely personal or subjec- standing aloof from them, there is at the same time a tive realm, separated from the objective and impersonal, personal response. The difference imaginatively foreseen they indicate the non-existence of such a separate world. makes a present difference, which finds expression in They afford convincing evidence that changes in things solicitude and effort. While such words as affection, con- are not alien to the activities of a self, and that the cern, and motive indicate an attitude of personal prefer- career and welfare of the self are bound up with the move- ence, they are always attitudes toward objects—toward ment of persons and things. Interest, concern, mean that what is foreseen. We may call the phase of objective fore- self and world are engaged with each other in a develop- sight intellectual, and the phase of personal concern ing situation. emotional and volitional, but there is no separation in The word interest, in its ordinary usage, expresses (i) the facts of the situation. the whole state of active development, (ii) the objective Such a separation could exist only if the personal atti- results that are foreseen and wanted, and (iii) the per- tudes ran their course in a world by themselves. But they sonal emotional inclination. are always responses to what is going on in the situation (i) An occupation, employment, pursuit, business is of which they are a part, and their successful or unsuc- often referred to as an interest. Thus we say that a man’s cessful expression depends upon their interaction with interest is politics, or journalism, or philanthropy, or ar- other changes. Life activities flourish and fail only in chaeology, or collecting Japanese prints, or banking. connection with changes of the environment. They are (ii) By an interest we also mean the point at which an literally bound up with these changes; our desires, emo- object touches or engages a man; the point where it in-

131 Democracy & Education fluences him. In some legal transactions a man has to of pleasure or pain. Educationally, it then follows that to prove “interest” in order to have a standing at court. He attach importance to interest means to attach some fea- has to show that some proposed step concerns his af- ture of seductiveness to material otherwise indifferent; fairs. A silent partner has an interest in a business, al- to secure attention and effort by offering a bribe of plea- though he takes no active part in its conduct because its sure. This procedure is properly stigmatized as “soft” peda- prosperity or decline affects his profits and liabilities. gogy; as a “soup-kitchen” theory of education. (iii) When we speak of a man as interested in this or But the objection is based upon the fact—or assump- that the emphasis falls directly upon his personal atti- tion—that the forms of skill to be acquired and the sub- tude. To be interested is to be absorbed in, wrapped up ject matter to be appropriated have no interest on their in, carried away by, some object. To take an interest is to own account: in other words, they are supposed to be be on the alert, to care about, to be attentive. We say of irrelevant to the normal activities of the pupils. The rem- an interested person both that he has lost himself in edy is not in finding fault with the doctrine of interest, some affair and that he has found himself in it. Both any more than it is to search for some pleasant bait that terms express the engrossment of the self in an object. may be hitched to the alien material. It is to discover When the place of interest in education is spoken of in objects and modes of action, which are connected with a depreciatory way, it will be found that the second of present powers. The function of this material in engag- the meanings mentioned is first exaggerated and then ing activity and carrying it on consistently and continu- isolated. Interest is taken to mean merely the effect of ously is its interest. If the material operates in this way, an object upon personal advantage or disadvantage, suc- there is no call either to hunt for devices which will make cess or failure. Separated from any objective develop- it interesting or to appeal to arbitrary, semi-coerced ef- ment of affairs, these are reduced to mere personal states fort.

132 John Dewey The word interest suggests, etymologically, what is be- interesting, it signifies that as presented, it lacks con- tween, —that which connects two things otherwise dis- nection with purposes and present power: or that if the tant. In education, the distance covered may be looked connection be there, it is not perceived. To make it inter- at as temporal. The fact that a process takes time to esting by leading one to realize the connection that ex- mature is so obvious a fact that we rarely make it exists is simply good sense; to make it interesting by extra- plicit. We overlook the fact that in growth there is ground neous and artificial inducements deserves all the bad to be covered between an initial stage of process and the names which have been applied to the doctrine of inter- completing period; that there is something intervening. est in education. In learning, the present powers of the pupil are the ini- So much for the meaning of the term interest. Now for tial stage; the aim of the teacher represents the remote that of discipline. Where an activity takes time, where limit. Between the two lie means—that is middle condi- many means and obstacles lie between its initiation and tions:—acts to be performed; difficulties to be overcome; completion, deliberation and persistence are required. It appliances to be used. Only through them, in the literal is obvious that a very large part of the everyday meaning time sense, will the initial activities reach a satisfactory of will is precisely the deliberate or conscious disposition consummation. to persist and endure in a planned course of action in These intermediate conditions are of interest precisely spite of difficulties and contrary solicitations. A man of because the development of existing activities into the strong will, in the popular usage of the words, is a man foreseen and desired end depends upon them. To be means who is neither fickle nor half-hearted in achieving cho- for the achieving of present tendencies, to be “between” sen ends. His ability is executive; that is, he persistently the agent and his end, to be of interest, are different and energetically strives to execute or carry out his aims. names for the same thing. When material has to be made A weak will is unstable as water.

133 Democracy & Education Clearly there are two factors in will. One has to do with begin to act, the disagreeable results they ignored begin the foresight of results, the other with the depth of hold to show themselves. They are discouraged, or complain the foreseen outcome has upon the person. of being thwarted in their good purpose by a hard fate, (I) Obstinacy is persistence but it is not strength of and shift to some other line of action. That the primary volition. Obstinacy may be mere animal inertia and indifference between strong and feeble volition is intellec- sensitiveness. A man keeps on doing a thing just because tual, consisting in the degree of persistent firmness and he has got started, not because of any clearly thought- fullness with which consequences are thought out, can- out purpose. In fact, the obstinate man generally denot be over-emphasized. clines (although he may not be quite aware of his re- (II) There is, of course, such a thing as a speculative fusal) to make clear to himself what his proposed end is; tracing out of results. Ends are then foreseen, but they do he has a feeling that if he allowed himself to get a clear not lay deep hold of a person. They are something to look and full idea of it, it might not be worth while. Stubborn- at and for curiosity to play with rather than something to ness shows itself even more in reluctance to criticize ends achieve. There is no such thing as over-intellectuality, but which present themselves than it does in persistence and there is such a thing as a one-sided intellectuality. A per- energy in use of means to achieve the end. The really son “takes it out” as we say in considering the conse- executive man is a man who ponders his ends, who makes quences of proposed lines of action. A certain flabbiness his ideas of the results of his actions as clear and full as of fiber prevents the contemplated object from gripping possible. The people we called weak-willed or self-indul- him and engaging him in action. And most persons are gent always deceive themselves as to the consequences naturally diverted from a proposed course of action by of their acts. They pick out some feature which is agree- unusual, unforeseen obstacles, or by presentation of in- able and neglect all attendant circumstances. When they ducements to an action that is directly more agreeable.

134 John Dewey A person who is trained to consider his actions, to un- liberation will be perfunctory and superficial where there dertake them deliberately, is in so far forth disciplined. is no interest. Parents and teachers often complain—and Add to this ability a power to endure in an intelligently correctly—that children “do not want to hear, or want to chosen course in face of distraction, confusion, and dif- understand.” Their minds are not upon the subject pre- ficulty, and you have the essence of discipline. Discipline cisely because it does not touch them; it does not enter means power at command; mastery of the resources avail- into their concerns. This is a state of things that needs able for carrying through the action undertaken. To know to be remedied, but the remedy is not in the use of meth- what one is to do and to move to do it promptly and by ods which increase indifference and aversion. Even pun- use of the requisite means is to be disciplined, whether ishing a child for inattention is one way of trying to we are thinking of an army or a mind. Discipline is posi- make him realize that the matter is not a thing of com- tive. To cow the spirit, to subdue inclination, to compel plete unconcern; it is one way of arousing “interest,” or obedience, to mortify the flesh, to make a subordinate bringing about a sense of connection. In the long run, perform an uncongenial task—these things are or are its value is measured by whether it supplies a mere physical not disciplinary according as they do or do not tend to excitation to act in the way desired by the adult or whether the development of power to recognize what one is about it leads the child “to think”—that is, to reflect upon his and to persistence in accomplishment. acts and impregnate them with aims. It is hardly necessary to press the point that interest (ii) That interest is requisite for executive persistence and discipline are connected, not opposed. is even more obvious. Employers do not advertise for work- (i) Even the more purely intellectual phase of trained men who are not interested in what they are doing. If power —apprehension of what one is doing as exhibited one were engaging a lawyer or a doctor, it would never in consequences —is not possible without interest. De- occur to one to reason that the person engaged would

135 Democracy & Education stick to his work more conscientiously if it was so uncon- value to the philosophy of education. Rightly understood, genial to him that he did it merely from a sense of obli- they put us on our guard against certain conceptions of gation. Interest measures—or rather is—the depth of mind and of subject matter which have had great vogue the grip which the foreseen end has upon one m moving in philosophic thought in the past, and which exercise a one to act for its realization. serious hampering influence upon the conduct of instruction and discipline. Too frequently mind is set over the 2. The Importance of the Idea of Interest in Education. world of things and facts to be known; it is regarded as Interest represents the moving force of objects—whether something existing in isolation, with mental states and perceived or presented in imagination—in any experi- operations that exist independently. Knowledge is then ence having a purpose. In the concrete, the value of rec- regarded as an external application of purely mental ex- ognizing the dynamic place of interest in an educative istences to the things to be known, or else as a result of development is that it leads to considering individual the impressions which this outside subject matter makes children in their specific capabilities, needs, and prefer- on mind, or as a combination of the two. Subject matter ences. One who recognizes the importance of interest is then regarded as something complete in itself; it is will not assume that all minds work in the same way just something to be learned or known, either by the because they happen to have the same teacher and text- voluntary application of mind to it or through the im- book. Attitudes and methods of approach and response pressions it makes on mind. vary with the specific appeal the same material makes, The facts of interest show that these conceptions are this appeal itself varying with difference of natural apti- mythical. Mind appears in experience as ability to re- tude, of past experience, of plan of life, and so on. But spond to present stimuli on the basis of anticipation of the facts of interest also supply considerations of general future possible consequences, and with a view to con-

136 John Dewey trolling the kind of consequences that are to take place. existing facts because and in so far as they are factors in The things, the subject matter known, consist of what- the achievement of the result intended. You have to find ever is recognized as having a bearing upon the antici- out what your resources are, what conditions are at com- pated course of events, whether assisting or retarding it. mand, and what the difficulties and obstacles are. This These statements are too formal to be very intelligible. foresight and this survey with reference to what is fore- An illustration may clear up their significance. You are seen constitute mind. Action that does not involve such engaged in a certain occupation, say writing with a type- a forecast of results and such an examination of means writer. If you are an expert, your formed habits take care and hindrances is either a matter of habit or else it is of the physical movements and leave your thoughts free blind. In neither case is it intelligent. To be vague and to consider your topic. Suppose, however, you are not uncertain as to what is intended and careless in observa- skilled, or that, even if you are, the machine does not tion of conditions of its realization is to be, in that de- work well. You then have to use intelligence. You do not gree, stupid or partially intelligent. wish to strike the keys at random and let the consequences If we recur to the case where mind is not concerned be what they may; you wish to record certain words in a with the physical manipulation of the instruments but given order so as to make sense. You attend to the keys, with what one intends to write, the case is the same. to what you have written, to your movements, to the There is an activity in process; one is taken up with the ribbon or the mechanism of the machine. Your attention development of a theme. Unless one writes as a phono- is not distributed indifferently and miscellaneously to graph talks, this means intelligence; namely, alertness in any and every detail. It is centered upon whatever has a foreseeing the various conclusions to which present data bearing upon the effective pursuit of your occupation. and considerations are tending, together with continu- Your look is ahead, and you are concerned to note the ally renewed observation and recollection to get hold of

137 Democracy & Education the subject matter which bears upon the conclusions to cooperate and hinder. The individual’s act may be initial be reached. The whole attitude is one of concern with in a course of events, but the outcome depends upon the what is to be, and with what is so far as the latter enters interaction of his response with energies supplied by other into the movement toward the end. Leave out the direc- agencies. Conceive mind as anything but one factor par- tion which depends upon foresight of possible future re- taking along with others in the production of conse- sults, and there is no intelligence in present behavior. quences, and it becomes meaningless. Let there be imaginative forecast but no attention to the The problem of instruction is thus that of finding mate- conditions upon which its attainment depends, and there rial which will engage a person in specific activities hav- is self-deception or idle dreaming—abortive intelligence. ing an aim or purpose of moment or interest to him, and If this illustration is typical, mind is not a name for dealing with things not as gymnastic appliances but as something complete by itself; it is a name for a course of conditions for the attainment of ends. The remedy for action in so far as that is intelligently directed; in so far, the evils attending the doctrine of formal discipline pre- that is to say, as aims, ends, enter into it, with selection viously spoken of, is not to be found by substituting a of means to further the attainment of aims. Intelligence doctrine of specialized disciplines, but by reforming the is not a peculiar possession which a person owns; but a notion of mind and its training. Discovery of typical modes person is intelligent in so far as the activities in which of activity, whether play or useful occupations, in which he plays a part have the qualities mentioned. Nor are the individuals are concerned, in whose outcome they recog- activities in which a person engages, whether intelligently nize they have something at stake, and which cannot be or not, exclusive properties of himself; they are some- carried through without reflection and use of judgment thing in which he engages and partakes. Other things, to select material of observation and recollection, is the the independent changes of other things and persons, remedy. In short, the root of the error long prevalent in

138 John Dewey the conception of training of mind consists in leaving more discipline, and thus afforded a reason for retaining out of account movements of things to future results in the old methods. The responsibility was transferred from which an individual shares, and in the direction of which the educator to the pupil because the material did not observation, imagination, and memory are enlisted. It have to meet specific tests; it did not have to be shown consists in regarding mind as complete in itself, ready to that it fulfilled any particular need or served any specific be directly applied to a present material. end. It was designed to discipline in general, and if it In historic practice the error has cut two ways. On one failed, it was because the individual was unwilling to be hand, it has screened and protected traditional studies disciplined. In the other direction, the tendency was to- and methods of teaching from intelligent criticism and wards a negative conception of discipline, instead of an needed revisions. To say that they are “disciplinary” has identification of it with growth in constructive power of safeguarded them from all inquiry. It has not been enough achievement. As we have already seen, will means an to show that they were of no use in life or that they did attitude toward the future, toward the production of pos- not really contribute to the cultivation of the self. That sible consequences, an attitude involving effort to fore- they were “disciplinary” stifled every question, subdued see clearly and comprehensively the probable results of every doubt, and removed the subject from the realm of ways of acting, and an active identification with some rational discussion. By its nature, the allegation could anticipated consequences. Identification of will, or ef- not be checked up. Even when discipline did not accrue fort, with mere strain, results when a mind is set up, as matter of fact, when the pupil even grew in laxity of endowed with powers that are only to be applied to ex- application and lost power of intelligent self-direction, isting material. A person just either will or will not apply the fault lay with him, not with the study or the methods himself to the matter in hand. The more indifferent the of teaching. His failure was but proof that he needed subject matter, the less concern it has for the habits and

139 Democracy & Education preferences of the individual, the more demand there is facts; algebra another; geography another, and so on till for an effort to bring the mind to bear upon it—and we have run through the entire curriculum. Having a ready- hence the more discipline of will. To attend to material made existence on their own account, their relation to because there is something to be done in which the per- mind is exhausted in what they furnish it to acquire. This son is concerned is not disciplinary in this view; not even idea corresponds to the conventional practice in which the if it results in a desirable increase of constructive power. program of school work, for the day, month, and succes- Application just for the sake of application, for the sake sive years, consists of “studies” all marked off from one of training, is alone disciplinary. This is more likely to another, and each supposed to be complete by itself—for occur if the subject matter presented is uncongenial, for educational purposes at least. then there is no motive (so it is supposed) except the Later on a chapter is devoted to the special consider- acknowledgment of duty or the value of discipline. The ation of the meaning of the subject matter of instruc- logical result is expressed with literal truth in the words tion. At this point, we need only to say that, in contrast of an American humorist: “It makes no difference what with the traditional theory, anything which intelligence you teach a boy so long as he doesn’t like it.” studies represents things in the part which they play in The counterpart of the isolation of mind from activities the carrying forward of active lines of interest. Just as dealing with objects to accomplish ends is isolation of the one “studies” his typewriter as part of the operation of subject matter to be learned. In the traditional schemes of putting it to use to effect results, so with any fact or education, subject matter means so much material to be truth. It becomes an object of study—that is, of inquiry studied. Various branches of study represent so many inde- and reflection—when it figures as a factor to be reck- pendent branches, each having its principles of arrange- oned with in the completion of a course of events in ment complete within itself. History is one such group of which one is engaged and by whose outcome one is af-

140 John Dewey fected. Numbers are not objects of study just because confined to the theoretical conviction of educators will they are numbers already constituting a branch of learn- not remove the difficulties, though it should render more ing called mathematics, but because they represent quali- effective efforts to modify social conditions. Men’s fun- ties and relations of the world in which our action goes damental attitudes toward the world are fixed by the scope on, because they are factors upon which the accomplish- and qualities of the activities in which they partake. The ment of our purposes depends. Stated thus broadly, the ideal of interest is exemplified in the artistic attitude. formula may appear abstract. Translated into details, it Art is neither merely internal nor merely external; merely means that the act of learning or studying is artificial mental nor merely physical. Like every mode of action, it and ineffective in the degree in which pupils are merely brings about changes in the world. The changes made by presented with a lesson to be learned. Study is effectual some actions (those which by contrast may be called me- in the degree in which the pupil realizes the place of the chanical) are external; they are shifting things about. No numerical truth he is dealing with in carrying to fruition ideal reward, no enrichment of emotion and intellect, activities in which he is concerned. This connection of accompanies them. Others contribute to the maintenance an object and a topic with the promotion of an activity of life, and to its external adornment and display. Many having a purpose is the first and the last word of a genu- of our existing social activities, industrial and political, ine theory of interest in education. fall in these two classes. Neither the people who engage in them, nor those who are directly affected by them, are 3. Some Social Aspects of the Question. While the theo- capable of full and free interest in their work. Because of retical errors of which we have been speaking have their the lack of any purpose in the work for the one doing it, expressions in the conduct of schools, they are them- or because of the restricted character of its aim, intelli- selves the outcome of conditions of social life. A change gence is not adequately engaged. The same conditions

141 Democracy & Education force many people back upon themselves. They take ref- nized on a basis of division between laboring classes and uge in an inner play of sentiment and fancies. They are leisure classes. The intelligence of those who do things aesthetic but not artistic, since their feelings and ideas becomes hard in the unremitting struggle with things; are turned upon themselves, instead of being methods in that of those freed from the discipline of occupation be- acts which modify conditions. Their mental life is senti- comes luxurious and effeminate. Moreover, the majority mental; an enjoyment of an inner landscape. Even the of human beings still lack economic freedom. Their pur- pursuit of science may become an asylum of refuge from suits are fixed by accident and necessity of circumstance; the hard conditions of life—not a temporary retreat for they are not the normal expression of their own powers the sake of recuperation and clarification in future deal- interacting with the needs and resources of the environ- ings with the world. The very word art may become asso- ment. Our economic conditions still relegate many men ciated not with specific transformation of things, making to a servile status. As a consequence, the intelligence of them more significant for mind, but with stimulations of those in control of the practical situation is not liberal. eccentric fancy and with emotional indulgences. The sepa- Instead of playing freely upon the subjugation of the ration and mutual contempt of the “practical” man and world for human ends, it is devoted to the manipulation the man of theory or culture, the divorce of fine and of other men for ends that are non-human in so far as industrial arts, are indications of this situation. Thus in- they are exclusive. terest and mind are either narrowed, or else made per- This state of affairs explains many things in our his- verse. Compare what was said in an earlier chapter about toric educational traditions. It throws light upon the clash the one-sided meanings which have come to attach to of aims manifested in different portions of the school the ideas of efficiency and of culture. system; the narrowly utilitarian character of most elemen- This state of affairs must exist so far as society is orga- tary education, and the narrowly disciplinary or cultural

142 John Dewey character of most higher education. It accounts for the tion, and the use of a constructive imagination, is what tendency to isolate intellectual matters till knowledge is most needs to be done to improve social conditions. To scholastic, academic, and professionally technical, and oscillate between drill exercises that strive to attain effi- for the widespread conviction that liberal education is ciency in outward doing without the use of intelligence, opposed to the requirements of an education which shall and an accumulation of knowledge that is supposed to count in the vocations of life. But it also helps define the be an ultimate end in itself, means that education ac- peculiar problem of present education. The school can- cepts the present social conditions as final, and thereby not immediately escape from the ideals set by prior so- takes upon itself the responsibility for perpetuating them. cial conditions. But it should contribute through the type A reorganization of education so that learning takes place of intellectual and emotional disposition which it forms in connection with the intelligent carrying forward of to the improvement of those conditions. And just here purposeful activities is a slow work. It can only be ac- the true conceptions of interest and discipline are full of complished piecemeal, a step at a time. But this is not a significance. Persons whose interests have been enlarged reason for nominally accepting one educational philoso- and intelligence trained by dealing with things and facts phy and accommodating ourselves in practice to another. in active occupations having a purpose (whether in play It is a challenge to undertake the task of reorganization or work) will be those most likely to escape the alterna- courageously and to keep at it persistently. tives of an academic and aloof knowledge and a hard, narrow, and merely “practical” practice. To organize edu- Summary. Interest and discipline are correlative aspects cation so that natural active tendencies shall be fully of activity having an aim. Interest means that one is enlisted in doing something, while seeing to it that the identified with the objects which define the activity and doing requires observation, the acquisition of informa- which furnish the means and obstacles to its realization.

143 Democracy & Education Any activity with an aim implies a distinction between lated and independent. It shows that subject matter of an earlier incomplete phase and later completing phase; learning is identical with all the objects, ideas, and prin- it implies also intermediate steps. To have an interest is ciples which enter as resources or obstacles into the con- to take things as entering into such a continuously de- tinuous intentional pursuit of a course of action. The veloping situation, instead of taking them in isolation. developing course of action, whose end and conditions The time difference between the given incomplete state are perceived, is the unity which holds together what are of affairs and the desired fulfillment exacts effort in trans- often divided into an independent mind on one side and formation, it demands continuity of attention and endur- an independent world of objects and facts on the other. ance. This attitude is what is practically meant by will. Discipline or development of power of continuous attention is its fruit. The significance of this doctrine for the theory of education is twofold. On the one hand it protects us from the notion that mind and mental states are something complete in themselves, which then happen to be applied to some ready-made objects and topics so that knowledge results. It shows that mind and intelligent or purposeful engagement in a course of action into which things enter are identical. Hence to develop and train mind is to provide an environment which induces such activity. On the other side, it protects us from the notion that subject matter on its side is something iso-

144 John Dewey Chapter Eleven: Experience and Thinking with significance. We learn something. It is not experience when a child merely sticks his finger into a flame; it 1. The Nature of Experience. The nature of experience is experience when the movement is connected with the can be understood only by noting that it includes an pain which he undergoes in consequence. Henceforth the active and a passive element peculiarly combined. On sticking of the finger into flame means a burn. Being the active hand, experience is trying—a meaning which burned is a mere physical change, like the burning of a is made explicit in the connected term experiment. On stick of wood, if it is not perceived as a consequence of the passive, it is undergoing. When we experience some- some other action. Blind and capricious impulses hurry thing we act upon it, we do something with it; then we us on heedlessly from one thing to another. So far as this suffer or undergo the consequences. We do something to happens, everything is writ in water. There is none of the thing and then it does something to us in return: that cumulative growth which makes an experience in such is the peculiar combination. The connection of these any vital sense of that term. On the other hand, many two phases of experience measures the fruitfulness or things happen to us in the way of pleasure and pain value of the experience. Mere activity does not consti- which we do not connect with any prior activity of our tute experience. It is dispersive, centrifugal, dissipating. own. They are mere accidents so far as we are concerned. Experience as trying involves change, but change is mean- There is no before or after to such experience; no retro- ingless transition unless it is consciously connected with spect nor outlook, and consequently no meaning. We get the return wave of consequences which flow from it. When nothing which may be carried over to foresee what is an activity is continued into the undergoing of conse- likely to happen next, and no gain in ability to adjust quences, when the change made by action is reflected ourselves to what is coming—no added control. Only by back into a change made in us, the mere flux is loaded courtesy can such an experience be called experience. To

145 Democracy & Education ‘learn from experience” is to make a backward and for- ity. The former is then thought to be purely intellectual ward connection between what we do to things and what and cognitive; the latter to be an irrelevant and intrud- we enjoy or suffer from things in consequence. Under ing physical factor. The intimate union of activity and such conditions, doing becomes a trying; an experiment undergoing its consequences which leads to recognition with the world to find out what it is like; the undergoing of meaning is broken; instead we have two fragments: becomes instruction—discovery of the connection of mere bodily action on one side, and meaning directly things. grasped by “spiritual” activity on the other. Two conclusions important for education follow. (1) Ex- It would be impossible to state adequately the evil re- perience is primarily an active-passive affair; it is not sults which have flowed from this dualism of mind and primarily cognitive. But (2) the measure of the value of body, much less to exaggerate them. Some of the more an experience lies in the perception of relationships or striking effects, may, however, be enumerated. (a) In part continuities to which it leads up. It includes cognition in bodily activity becomes an intruder. Having nothing, so the degree in which it is cumulative or amounts to some- it is thought, to do with mental activity, it becomes a thing, or has meaning. In schools, those under instruc- distraction, an evil to be contended with. For the pupil tion are too customarily looked upon as acquiring knowl- has a body, and brings it to school along with his mind. edge as theoretical spectators, minds which appropriate And the body is, of necessity, a wellspring of energy; it knowledge by direct energy of intellect. The very word has to do something. But its activities, not being uti- pupil has almost come to mean one who is engaged not lized in occupation with things which yield significant in having fruitful experiences but in absorbing knowl- results, have to be frowned upon. They lead the pupil edge directly. Something which is called mind or con- away from the lesson with which his “mind” ought to be sciousness is severed from the physical organs of activ- occupied; they are sources of mischief. The chief source

146 John Dewey of the “problem of discipline” in schools is that the teacher ing their instincts and active tendencies suppressed, in- has often to spend the larger part of the time in sup- stead of in a positive one of constructive planning and pressing the bodily activities which take the mind away execution; they are thus educated not into responsibility from its material. A premium is put on physical quietude; for the significant and graceful use of bodily powers, but on silence, on rigid uniformity of posture and movement; into an enforced duty not to give them free play. It may upon a machine-like simulation of the attitudes of intel- be seriously asserted that a chief cause for the remark- ligent interest. The teachers’ business is to hold the pu- able achievements of Greek education was that it was pils up to these requirements and to punish the inevi- never misled by false notions into an attempted separa- table deviations which occur. tion of mind and body. The nervous strain and fatigue which result with both (b) Even, however, with respect to the lessons which teacher and pupil are a necessary consequence of the have to be learned by the application of “mind,” some abnormality of the situation in which bodily activity is bodily activities have to be used. The senses—especially divorced from the perception of meaning. Callous indif- the eye and ear—have to be employed to take in what ference and explosions from strain alternate. The neglected the book, the map, the blackboard, and the teacher say. body, having no organized fruitful channels of activity, The lips and vocal organs, and the hands, have to be breaks forth, without knowing why or how, into mean- used to reproduce in speech and writing what has been ingless boisterousness, or settles into equally meaning- stowed away. The senses are then regarded as a kind of less fooling—both very different from the normal play of mysterious conduit through which information is con- children. Physically active children become restless and ducted from the external world into the mind; they are unruly; the more quiescent, socalled conscientious ones spoken of as gateways and avenues of knowledge. To keep spend what energy they have in the negative task of keep- the eyes on the book and the ears open to the teacher’s

147 Democracy & Education words is a mysterious source of intellectual grace. More- they are used in doing something with a purpose. The over, reading, writing, and figuring—important school qualities of seen and touched things have a bearing on arts—demand muscular or motor training. The muscles what is done, and are alertly perceived; they have a mean- of eye, hand, and vocal organs accordingly have to be ing. But when pupils are expected to use their eyes to trained to act as pipes for carrying knowledge back out note the form of words, irrespective of their meaning, in of the mind into external action. For it happens that order to reproduce them in spelling or reading, the re- using the muscles repeatedly in the same way fixes in sulting training is simply of isolated sense organs and them an automatic tendency to repeat. muscles. It is such isolation of an act from a purpose The obvious result is a mechanical use of the bodily which makes it mechanical. It is customary for teachers activities which (in spite of the generally obtrusive and to urge children to read with expression, so as to bring interfering character of the body in mental action) have out the meaning. But if they originally learned the sen- to be employed more or less. For the senses and muscles sory- motor technique of reading—the ability to identify are used not as organic participants in having an instruc- forms and to reproduce the sounds they stand for—by tive experience, but as external inlets and outlets of mind. methods which did not call for attention to meaning, a Before the child goes to school, he learns with his hand, mechanical habit was established which makes it diffi- eye, and ear, because they are organs of the process of cult to read subsequently with intelligence. The vocal doing something from which meaning results. The boy organs have been trained to go their own way automati- flying a kite has to keep his eye on the kite, and has to cally in isolation; and meaning cannot be tied on at will. note the various pressures of the string on his hand. His Drawing, singing, and writing may be taught in the same senses are avenues of knowledge not because external mechanical way; for, we repeat, any way is mechanical facts are somehow “conveyed” to the brain, but because which narrows down the bodily activity so that a separa-

148 John Dewey tion of body from mind—that is, from recognition of various isolated qualities, but only by bringing these quali- meaning—is set up. Mathematics, even in its higher ties into connection with something else—the purpose branches, when undue emphasis is put upon the tech- which makes it a chair and not a table; or its difference nique of calculation, and science, when laboratory exer- from the kind of chair we are accustomed to, or the “pe- cises are given for their own sake, suffer from the same riod” which it represents, and so on. A wagon is not per- evil. ceived when all its parts are summed up; it is the charac- (c) On the intellectual side, the separation of “mind” teristic connection of the parts which makes it a wagon. from direct occupation with things throws emphasis on And these connections are not those of mere physical things at the expense of relations or connections. It is juxtaposition; they involve connection with the animals altogether too common to separate perceptions and even that draw it, the things that are carried on it, and so on. ideas from judgments. The latter are thought to come Judgment is employed in the perception; otherwise the after the former in order to compare them. It is alleged perception is mere sensory excitation or else a recogni- that the mind perceives things apart from relations; that tion of the result of a prior judgment, as in the case of it forms ideas of them in isolation from their connec- familiar objects. tions—with what goes before and comes after. Then judg- Words, the counters for ideals, are, however, easily taken ment or thought is called upon to combine the separated for ideas. And in just the degree in which mental activity items of “knowledge” so that their resemblance or causal is separated from active concern with the world, from connection shall be brought out. As matter of fact, every doing something and connecting the doing with what is perception and every idea is a sense of the bearings, use, undergone, words, symbols, come to take the place of and cause, of a thing. We do not really know a chair or ideas. The substitution is the more subtle because some have an idea of it by inventorying and enumerating its meaning is recognized. But we are very easily trained to

149 Democracy & Education be content with a minimum of meaning, and to fail to because it is only in experience that any theory has vital note how restricted is our perception of the relations and verifiable significance. An experience, a very humble which confer significance. We get so thoroughly used to experience, is capable of generating and carrying any a kind of pseudo-idea, a half perception, that we are not amount of theory (or intellectual content), but a theory aware how half-dead our mental action is, and how much apart from an experience cannot be definitely grasped keener and more extensive our observations and ideas even as theory. It tends to become a mere verbal for- would be if we formed them under conditions of a vital mula, a set of catchwords used to render thinking, or experience which required us to use judgment: to hunt genuine theorizing, unnecessary and impossible. Because for the connections of the thing dealt with. There is no of our education we use words, thinking they are ideas, difference of opinion as to the theory of the matter. All to dispose of questions, the disposal being in reality simply authorities agree that that discernment of relationships such an obscuring of perception as prevents us from see- is the genuinely intellectual matter; hence, the educa- ing any longer the difficulty. tive matter. The failure arises in supposing that relationships can become perceptible without experience—with- 2. Reflection in Experience. Thought or reflection, as out that conjoint trying and undergoing of which we have we have already seen virtually if not explicitly, is the spoken. It is assumed that “mind” can grasp them if it discernment of the relation between what we try to do will only give attention, and that this attention may be and what happens in consequence. No experience having given at will irrespective of the situation. Hence the del- a meaning is possible without some element of thought. uge of half-observations, of verbal ideas, and But we may contrast two types of experience according unassimilated “knowledge” which afflicts the world. An to the proportion of reflection found in them. All our ounce of experience is better than a ton of theory simply experiences have a phase of “cut and try” in them—what

150 John Dewey psychologists call the method of trial and error. We sim- ing, we may, if we know what the needed antecedents for ply do something, and when it fails, we do something an effect are, set to work to supply them; or, if they are else, and keep on trying till we hit upon something which such as to produce undesirable effects as well, we may works, and then we adopt that method as a rule of thumb eliminate some of the superfluous causes and economize measure in subsequent procedure. Some experiences have effort. very little else in them than this hit and miss or succeed In discovery of the detailed connections of our activi- process. We see that a certain way of acting and a certain ties and what happens in consequence, the thought im- consequence are connected, but we do not see how they plied in cut and try experience is made explicit. Its quan- are. We do not see the details of the connection; the tity increases so that its proportionate value is very dif- links are missing. Our discernment is very gross. In other ferent. Hence the quality of the experience changes; the cases we push our observation farther. We analyze to see change is so significant that we may call this type of just what lies between so as to bind together cause and experience reflective—that is, reflective par excellence. effect, activity and consequence. This extension of our The deliberate cultivation of this phase of thought con- insight makes foresight more accurate and comprehen- stitutes thinking as a distinctive experience. Thinking, sive. The action which rests simply upon the trial and in other words, is the intentional endeavor to discover error method is at the mercy of circumstances; they may specific connections between something which we do and change so that the act performed does not operate in the the consequences which result, so that the two become way it was expected to. But if we know in detail upon continuous. Their isolation, and consequently their purely what the result depends, we can look to see whether the arbitrary going together, is canceled; a unified develop- required conditions are there. The method extends our ing situation takes its place. The occurrence is now un- practical control. For if some of the conditions are miss- derstood; it is explained; it is reasonable, as we say, that

151 Democracy & Education the thing should happen as it does. the environment. It says, virtually, “things are to be just Thinking is thus equivalent to an explicit rendering of as I happen to like them at this instant, “ as routine says the intelligent element in our experience. It makes it in effect “let things continue just as I have found them possible to act with an end in view. It is the condition of in the past.” Both refuse to acknowledge responsibility our having aims. As soon as an infant begins to expect for the future consequences which flow from present ac- he begins to use something which is now going on as a tion. Reflection is the acceptance of such responsibility. sign of something to follow; he is, in however simple a The starting point of any process of thinking is some- fashion, judging. For he takes one thing as evidence of thing going on, something which just as it stands is in- something else, and so recognizes a relationship. Any complete or unfulfilled. Its point, its meaning lies liter- future development, however elaborate it may be, is only ally in what it is going to be, in how it is going to turn an extending and a refining of this simple act of infer- out. As this is written, the world is filled with the clang ence. All that the wisest man can do is to observe what is of contending armies. For an active participant in the going on more widely and more minutely and then select war, it is clear that the momentous thing is the issue, the more carefully from what is noted just those factors which future consequences, of this and that happening. He is point to something to happen. The opposites, once more, identified, for the time at least, with the issue; his fate to thoughtful action are routine and capricious behavior. hangs upon the course things are taking. But even for an The former accepts what has been customary as a full onlooker in a neutral country, the significance of every measure of possibility and omits to take into account the move made, of every advance here and retreat there, lies connections of the particular things done. The latter makes in what it portends. To think upon the news as it comes the momentary act a measure of value, and ignores the to us is to attempt to see what is indicated as probable connections of our personal action with the energies of or possible regarding an outcome. To fill our heads, like a

152 John Dewey scrapbook, with this and that item as a finished and done- dency to identify ourselves with one possible course of for thing, is not to think. It is to turn ourselves into a events, and to reject the other as foreign. If we cannot piece of registering apparatus. To consider the bearing of take sides in overt action, and throw in our little weight the occurrence upon what may be, but is not yet, is to to help determine the final balance, we take sides emo- think. Nor will the reflective experience be different in tionally and imaginatively. We desire this or that out- kind if we substitute distance in time for separation in come. One wholly indifferent to the outcome does not space. Imagine the war done with, and a future historian follow or think about what is happening at all. From this giving an account of it. The episode is, by assumption, dependence of the act of thinking upon a sense of shar- past. But he cannot give a thoughtful account of the war ing in the consequences of what goes on, flows one of save as he preserves the time sequence; the meaning of the chief paradoxes of thought. Born in partiality, in or- each occurrence, as he deals with it, lies in what was der to accomplish its tasks it must achieve a certain de- future for it, though not for the historian. To take it by tached impartiality. The general who allows his hopes itself as a complete existence is to take it unreflectively. and desires to affect his observations and interpretations Reflection also implies concern with the issue—a certain of the existing situation will surely make a mistake in sympathetic identification of our own destiny, if only dra- calculation. While hopes and fears may be the chief mo- matic, with the outcome of the course of events. For the tive for a thoughtful following of the war on the part of general in the war, or a common soldier, or a citizen of an onlooker in a neutral country, he too will think inef- one of the contending nations, the stimulus to thinking fectively in the degree in which his preferences modify is direct and urgent. For neutrals, it is indirect and de- the stuff of his observations and reasonings. There is, pendent upon imagination. But the flagrant partisanship however, no incompatibility between the fact that the of human nature is evidence of the intensity of the ten- occasion of reflection lies in a personal sharing in what

153 Democracy & Education is going on and the fact that the value of the reflection ary, and instrumental to the act of inquiring. It is seeking, lies upon keeping one’s self out of the data. The almost a quest, for something that is not at hand. We sometimes insurmountable difflculty of achieving this detachment talk as if “original research” were a peculiar prerogative of is evidence that thinking originates in situations where scientists or at least of advanced students. But all think- the course of thinking is an actual part of the course of ing is research, and all research is native, original, with events and is designed to influence the result. Only gradu- him who carries it on, even if everybody else in the world ally and with a widening of the area of vision through a already is sure of what he is still looking for. growth of social sympathies does thinking develop to It also follows that all thinking involves a risk. Cer- include what lies beyond our direct interests: a fact of tainty cannot be guaranteed in advance. The invasion of great significance for education. the unknown is of the nature of an adventure; we cannot To say that thinking occurs with reference to situations be sure in advance. The conclusions of thinking, till con- which are still going on, and incomplete, is to say that firmed by the event, are, accordingly, more or less tenta- thinking occurs when things are uncertain or doubtful or tive or hypothetical. Their dogmatic assertion as final is problematic. Only what is finished, completed, is wholly unwarranted, short of the issue, in fact. The Greeks acutely assured. Where there is reflection there is suspense. The raised the question: How can we learn? For either we object of thinking is to help reach a conclusion, to project know already what we are after, or else we do not know. a possible termination on the basis of what is already In neither case is learning possible; on the first alterna- given. Certain other facts about thinking accompany this tive because we know already; on the second, because feature. Since the situation in which thinking occurs is a we do not know what to look for, nor if, by chance, we doubtful one, thinking is a process of inquiry, of looking find it can we tell that it is what we were after. The into things, of investigating. Acquiring is always second- dilemma makes no provision for coming to know, for learn-

154 John Dewey ing; it assumes either complete knowledge or complete ing, to discovery. To recur to our illustration. A com- ignorance. Nevertheless the twilight zone of inquiry, of manding general cannot base his actions upon either thinking, exists. The possibility of hypothetical conclu- absolute certainty or absolute ignorance. He has a cer- sions, of tentative results, is the fact which the Greek tain amount of information at hand which is, we will dilemma overlooked. The perplexities of the situation assume, reasonably trustworthy. He then infers certain suggest certain ways out. We try these ways, and either prospective movements, thus assigning meaning to the push our way out, in which case we know we have found bare facts of the given situation. His inference is more or what we were looking for, or the situation gets darker less dubious and hypothetical. But he acts upon it. He and more confused—in which case, we know we are still develops a plan of procedure, a method of dealing with ignorant. Tentative means trying out, feeling one’s way the situation. The consequences which directly follow from along provisionally. Taken by itself, the Greek argument his acting this way rather than that test and reveal the is a nice piece of formal logic. But it is also true that as worth of his reflections. What he already knows functions long as men kept a sharp disjunction between knowledge and has value in what he learns. But will this account and ignorance, science made only slow and accidental apply in the case of the one in a neutral country who is advance. Systematic advance in invention and discovery thoughtfully following as best he can the progress of began when men recognized that they could utilize doubt events? In form, yes, though not of course in content. It for purposes of inquiry by forming conjectures to guide is self-evident that his guesses about the future indi- action in tentative explorations, whose development would cated by present facts, guesses by which he attempts to confirm, refute, or modify the guiding conjecture. While supply meaning to a multitude of disconnected data, can- the Greeks made knowledge more than learning, modern not be the basis of a method which shall take effect in science makes conserved knowledge only a means to learn- the campaign. That is not his problem. But in the degree

155 Democracy & Education in which he is actively thinking, and not merely passively globe. In any case, some active steps are taken which following the course of events, his tentative inferences actually change some physical conditions. And apart from will take effect in a method of procedure appropriate to such steps and the consequent modification of the situa- his situation. He will anticipate certain future moves, tion, there is no completion of the act of thinking. It and will be on the alert to see whether they happen or remains suspended. Knowledge, already attained knowl- not. In the degree in which he is intellectually concerned, edge, controls thinking and makes it fruitful. or thoughtful, he will be actively on the lookout; he will So much for the general features of a reflective experi- take steps which although they do not affect the cam- ence. They are (i) perplexity, confusion, doubt, due to paign, modify in some degree his subsequent actions. the fact that one is implicated in an incomplete situa- Otherwise his later “I told you so” has no intellectual tion whose full character is not yet determined; (ii) a quality at all; it does not mark any testing or verification conjectural anticipation—a tentative interpretation of the of prior thinking, but only a coincidence that yields emo- given elements, attributing to them a tendency to effect tional satisfaction—and includes a large factor of self- certain consequences; (iii) a careful survey (examination, deception. The case is comparable to that of an astrono- inspection, exploration, analysis) of all attainable con- mer who from given data has been led to foresee (infer) sideration which will define and clarify the problem in a future eclipse. No matter how great the mathematical hand; (iv) a consequent elaboration of the tentative hy- probability, the inference is hypothetical—a matter of pothesis to make it more precise and more consistent, probability. 1 The hypothesis as to the date and position because squaring with a wider range of facts; (v) taking of the anticipated eclipse becomes the material of form- one stand upon the projected hypothesis as a plan of ing a method of future conduct. Apparatus is arranged; action which is applied to the existing state of affairs: possibly an expedition is made to some far part of the doing something overtly to bring about the anticipated

156 John Dewey result, and thereby testing the hypothesis. It is the ex- is done and its consequences. It notes not only that they tent and accuracy of steps three and four which mark off are connected, but the details of the connection. It makes a distinctive refiective experience from one on the trial connecting links explicit in the form of relationships. The and error plane. They make thinking itself into an experi- stimulus to thinking is found when we wish to determine ence. Nevertheless, we never get wholly beyond the trial the significance of some act, performed or to be per- and error situation. Our most elaborate and rationally formed. Then we anticipate consequences. This implies consistent thought has to be tried in the world and thereby that the situation as it stands is, either in fact or to us, tried out. And since it can never take into account all the incomplete and hence indeterminate. The projection of connections, it can never cover with perfect accuracy all consequences means a proposed or tentative solution. To the consequences. Yet a thoughtful survey of conditions perfect this hypothesis, existing conditions have to be is so careful, and the guessing at results so controlled, carefully scrutinized and the implications of the hypoth- that we have a right to mark off the reflective experience esis developed—an operation called reasoning. Then the from the grosser trial and error forms of action. suggested solution—the idea or theory—has to be tested by acting upon it. If it brings about certain consequences, Summary. In determining the place of thinking in expe- certain determinate changes, in the world, it is accepted rience we first noted that experience involves a connec- as valid. Otherwise it is modified, and another trial made. tion of doing or trying with something which is under- Thinking includes all of these steps,—the sense of a prob- gone in consequence. A separation of the active doing lem, the observation of conditions, the formation and phase from the passive undergoing phase destroys the rational elaboration of a suggested conclusion, and the vital meaning of an experience. Thinking is the accurate active experimental testing. While all thinking results in and deliberate instituting of connections between what knowledge, ultimately the value of knowledge is subordi-

157 Democracy & Education nate to its use in thinking. For we live not in a settled Chapter Twelve: Thinking in Education and finished world, but in one which is going on, and where our main task is prospective, and where retrospect— 1. The Essentials of Method. No one doubts, theoreti- and all knowledge as distinct from thought is retrospect— cally, the importance of fostering in school good habits is of value in the solidity, security, and fertility it affords of thinking. But apart from the fact that the acknowledg- our dealings with the future. ment is not so great in practice as in theory, there is not adequate theoretical recognition that all which the school 1 It is most important for the practice of science that can or need do for pupils, so far as their minds are con- men in many cases can calculate the degree of probabil- cerned (that is, leaving out certain specialized muscular ity and the amount of probable error involved, but that abilities), is to develop their ability to think. The parcel- does alter the features of the situation as described. It ing out of instruction among various ends such as acqui- refines them. sition of skill (in reading, spelling, writing, drawing, reciting); acquiring information (in history and geography), and training of thinking is a measure of the ineffective way in which we accomplish all three. Thinking which is not connected with increase of efficiency in action, and with learning more about ourselves and the world in which we live, has something the matter with it just as thought (See ante, p. 147). And skill obtained apart from thinking is not connected with any sense of the purposes for which it is to be used. It consequently leaves a man at

158 John Dewey the mercy of his routine habits and of the authoritative in philosophic theory and in educational practice as some- control of others, who know what they are about and thing cut off from experience, and capable of being culti- who are not especially scrupulous as to their means of vated in isolation. In fact, the inherent limitations of achievement. And information severed from thoughtful experience are often urged as the sufficient ground for action is dead, a mind-crushing load. Since it simulates attention to thinking. Experience is then thought to be knowledge and thereby develops the poison of conceit, it confined to the senses and appetites; to a mere material is a most powerful obstacle to further growth in the grace world, while thinking proceeds from a higher faculty (of of intelligence. The sole direct path to enduring improve- reason), and is occupied with spiritual or at least literary ment in the methods of instruction and learning consists things. So, oftentimes, a sharp distinction is made be- in centering upon the conditions which exact, promote, tween pure mathematics as a peculiarly fit subject mat- and test thinking. Thinking is the method of intelligent ter of thought (since it has nothing to do with physical learning, of learning that employs and rewards mind. We existences) and applied mathematics, which has utilitar- speak, legitimately enough, about the method of think- ian but not mental value. ing, but the important thing to bear in mind about method Speaking generally, the fundamental fallacy in meth- is that thinking is method, the method of intelligent ex- ods of instruction lies in supposing that experience on perience in the course which it takes. the part of pupils may be assumed. What is here insisted upon is the necessity of an actual empirical situation as I. The initial stage of that developing experience which the initiating phase of thought. Experience is here taken is called thinking is experience. This remark may sound as previously defined: trying to do something and having like a silly truism. It ought to be one; but unfortunately the thing perceptibly do something to one in return. The it is not. On the contrary, thinking is often regarded both fallacy consists in supposing that we can begin with ready-

159 Democracy & Education made subject matter of arithmetic, or geography, or what- rience, or empirical situation, means, we have to call to ever, irrespective of some direct personal experience of a mind the sort of situation that presents itself outside of situation. Even the kindergarten and Montessori tech- school; the sort of occupations that interest and en- niques are so anxious to get at intellectual distinctions, gage activity in ordinary life. And careful inspection of without “waste of time,” that they tend to ignore—or methods which are permanently successful in formal edu- reduce —the immediate crude handling of the familiar cation, whether in arithmetic or learning to read, or material of experience, and to introduce pupils at once to studying geography, or learning physics or a foreign lan- material which expresses the intellectual distinctions guage, will reveal that they depend for their efficiency which adults have made. But the first stage of contact upon the fact that they go back to the type of the situ- with any new material, at whatever age of maturity, must ation which causes reflection out of school in ordinary inevitably be of the trial and error sort. An individual life. They give the pupils something to do, not some- must actually try, in play or work, to do something with thing to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to material in carrying out his own impulsive activity, and demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connec- then note the interaction of his energy and that of the tions; learning naturally results. material employed. This is what happens when a child at That the situation should be of such a nature as to first begins to build with blocks, and it is equally what arouse thinking means of course that it should suggest happens when a scientific man in his laboratory begins something to do which is not either routine or capri- to experiment with unfamiliar objects. cious—something, in other words, presenting what is new Hence the first approach to any subject in school, if (and hence uncertain or problematic) and yet sufficiently thought is to be aroused and not words acquired, should connected with existing habits to call out an effective be as unscholastic as possible. To realize what an expe- response. An effective response means one which accom-

160 John Dewey plishes a perceptible result, in distinction from a purely cannot get the required mark or be promoted or win the haphazard activity, where the consequences cannot be teacher’s approval, unless he deals with it? Obviously, mentally connected with what is done. The most signifi- these two questions overlap. They are two ways of get- cant question which can be asked, accordingly, about ting at the same point: Is the experience a personal thing any situation or experience proposed to induce learning of such a nature as inherently to stimulate and direct is what quality of problem it involves. observation of the connections involved, and to lead to At first thought, it might seem as if usual school meth- inference and its testing? Or is it imposed from without, ods measured well up to the standard here set. The giv- and is the pupil’s problem simply to meet the external ing of problems, the putting of questions, the assigning requirement? Such questions may give us pause in decid- of tasks, the magnifying of difficulties, is a large part of ing upon the extent to which current practices are adapted school work. But it is indispensable to discriminate be- to develop reflective habits. The physical equipment and tween genuine and simulated or mock problems. The fol- arrangements of the average schoolroom are hostile to lowing questions may aid in making such discrimination. the existence of real situations of experience. What is (a) Is there anything but a problem? Does the question there similar to the conditions of everyday life which will naturally suggest itself within some situation or personal generate difficulties? Almost everything testifies to the experience? Or is it an aloof thing, a problem only for the great premium put upon listening, reading, and the re- purposes of conveying instruction in some school topic? production of what is told and read. It is hardly possible Is it the sort of trying that would arouse observation and to overstate the contrast between such conditions and engage experimentation outside of school? (b) Is it the the situations of active contact with things and persons pupil’s own problem, or is it the teacher’s or textbook’s in the home, on the playground, in fulfilling of ordinary problem, made a problem for the pupil only because he responsibilities of life. Much of it is not even comparable

161 Democracy & Education with the questions which may arise in the mind of a boy occupations which generate real problems, the pupil’s or girl in conversing with others or in reading books out- problems are not his; or, rather, they are his only as a side of the school. No one has ever explained why chil- pupil, not as a human being. Hence the lamentable waste dren are so full of questions outside of the school (so in carrying over such expertness as is achieved in dealing that they pester grown-up persons if they get any en- with them to the affairs of life beyond the schoolroom. A couragement), and the conspicuous absence of display of pupil has a problem, but it is the problem of meeting the curiosity about the subject matter of school lessons. Re- peculiar requirements set by the teacher. His problem flection on this striking contrast will throw light upon becomes that of finding out what the teacher wants, what the question of how far customary school conditions sup- will satisfy the teacher in recitation and examination and ply a context of experience in which problems naturally outward deportment. Relationship to subject matter is suggest themselves. No amount of improvement in the no longer direct. The occasions and material of thought personal technique of the instructor will wholly remedy are not found in the arithmetic or the history or geogra- this state of things. There must be more actual material, phy itself, but in skillfully adapting that material to the more stuff, more appliances, and more opportunities for teacher’s requirements. The pupil studies, but uncon- doing things, before the gap can be overcome. And where sciously to himself the objects of his study are the con- children are engaged in doing things and in discussing ventions and standards of the school system and school what arises in the course of their doing, it is found, even authority, not the nominal “studies. “ The thinking thus with comparatively indifferent modes of instruction, that evoked is artificially one-sided at the best. At its worst, children’s inquiries are spontaneous and numerous, and the problem of the pupil is not how to meet the require- the proposals of solution advanced, varied, and ingenious. ments of school life, but how to seem to meet them—or, As a consequence of the absence of the materials and how to come near enough to meeting them to slide along

162 John Dewey without an undue amount of friction. The type of judg- merge and discourage. The perplexing situation must be ment formed by these devices is not a desirable addition sufficiently like situations which have already been dealt to character. If these statements give too highly colored with so that pupils will have some control of the mean- a picture of usual school methods, the exaggeration may ings of handling it. A large part of the art of instruction at least serve to illustrate the point: the need of active lies in making the difficulty of new problems large enough pursuits, involving the use of material to accomplish pur- to challenge thought, and small enough so that, in addi- poses, if there are to be situations which normally gener- tion to the confusion naturally attending the novel ele- ate problems occasioning thoughtful inquiry. ments, there shall be luminous familiar spots from which helpful suggestions may spring. II. There must be data at command to supply the consid- In one sense, it is a matter of indifference by what erations required in dealing with the specific difficulty psychological means the subject matter for reflection is which has presented itself. Teachers following a “devel- provided. Memory, observation, reading, communication, oping” method sometimes tell children to think things are all avenues for supplying data. The relative propor- out for themselves as if they could spin them out of their tion to be obtained from each is a matter of the specific own heads. The material of thinking is not thoughts, but features of the particular problem in hand. It is foolish to actions, facts, events, and the relations of things. In other insist upon observation of objects presented to the senses words, to think effectively one must have had, or now if the student is so familiar with the objects that he could have, experiences which will furnish him resources for just as well recall the facts independently. It is possible coping with the difficulty at hand. A difficulty is an in- to induce undue and crippling dependence upon sense- dispensable stimulus to thinking, but not all difficulties presentations. No one can carry around with him a mu- call out thinking. Sometimes they overwhelm and sub- seum of all the things whose properties will assist the

163 Democracy & Education conduct of thought. A well-trained mind is one that has a is usually both too much and too little information sup- maximum of resources behind it, so to speak, and that is plied by others. The accumulation and acquisition of in- accustomed to go over its past experiences to see what formation for purposes of reproduction in recitation and they yield. On the other hand, a quality or relation of examination is made too much of. “Knowledge,” in the even a familiar object may previously have been passed sense of information, means the working capital, the in- over, and be just the fact that is helpful in dealing with dispensable resources, of further inquiry; of finding out, the question. In this case direct observation is called for. or learning, more things. Frequently it is treated as an The same principle applies to the use to be made of ob- end itself, and then the goal becomes to heap it up and servation on one hand and of reading and “telling” on display it when called for. This static, cold-storage ideal the other. Direct observation is naturally more vivid and of knowledge is inimical to educative development. It vital. But it has its limitations; and in any case it is a not only lets occasions for thinking go unused, but it necessary part of education that one should acquire the swamps thinking. No one could construct a house on ability to supplement the narrowness of his immediately ground cluttered with miscellaneous junk. Pupils who have personal experiences by utilizing the experiences of oth- stored their “minds” with all kinds of material which they ers. Excessive reliance upon others for data (whether got have never put to intellectual uses are sure to be ham- from reading or listening) is to be depreciated. Most ob- pered when they try to think. They have no practice in jectionable of all is the probability that others, the book selecting what is appropriate, and no criterion to go by; or the teacher, will supply solutions ready-made, instead everything is on the same dead static level. On the other of giving material that the student has to adapt and ap- hand, it is quite open to question whether, if information ply to the question in hand for himself. actually functioned in experience through use in applica- There is no inconsistency in saying that in schools there tion to the student’s own purposes, there would not be

164 John Dewey need of more varied resources in books, pictures, and must, indeed, be familiar in some context; the novelty, talks than are usually at command. the inventive devising, clings to the new light in which it is seen, the different use to which it is put. When New- III. The correlate in thinking of facts, data, knowledge ton thought of his theory of gravitation, the creative already acquired, is suggestions, inferences, conjectured aspect of his thought was not found in its materials. They meanings, suppositions, tentative explanations:—ideas, were familiar; many of them commonplaces —sun, moon, in short. Careful observation and recollection determine planets, weight, distance, mass, square of numbers. These what is given, what is already there, and hence assured. were not original ideas; they were established facts. His They cannot furnish what is lacking. They define, clarify, originality lay in the use to which these familiar acquain- and locate the question; they cannot supply its answer. tances were put by introduction into an unfamiliar con- Projection, invention, ingenuity, devising come in for that text. The same is true of every striking scientific discov- purpose. The data arouse suggestions, and only by refer- ery, every great invention, every admirable artistic pro- ence to the specific data can we pass upon the appropri- duction. Only silly folk identify creative originality with ateness of the suggestions. But the suggestions run be- the extraordinary and fanciful; others recognize that its yond what is, as yet, actually given in experience. They measure lies in putting everyday things to uses which forecast possible results, things to do, not facts (things had not occurred to others. The operation is novel, not already done). Inference is always an invasion of the un- the materials out of which it is constructed. known, a leap from the known. The educational conclusion which follows is that all In this sense, a thought (what a thing suggests but is thinking is original in a projection of considerations which not as it is presented) is creative,—an incursion into the have not been previously apprehended. The child of three novel. It involves some inventiveness. What is suggested who discovers what can be done with blocks, or of six

165 Democracy & Education who finds out what he can make by putting five cents cation may stimulate the other person to realize the ques- and five cents together, is really a discoverer, even though tion for himself and to think out a like idea, or it may everybody else in the world knows it. There is a genuine smother his intellectual interest and suppress his dawn- increment of experience; not another item mechanically ing effort at thought. But what he directly gets cannot added on, but enrichment by a new quality. The charm be an idea. Only by wrestling with the conditions of the which the spontaneity of little children has for sympa- problem at first hand, seeking and finding his own way thetic observers is due to perception of this intellectual out, does he think. When the parent or teacher has pro- originality. The joy which children themselves experience vided the conditions which stimulate thinking and has is the joy of intellectual constructiveness—of creative- taken a sympathetic attitude toward the activities of the ness, if the word may be used without misunderstanding. learner by entering into a common or conjoint experi- The educational moral I am chiefly concerned to draw is ence, all has been done which a second party can do to not, however, that teachers would find their own work instigate learning. The rest lies with the one directly con- less of a grind and strain if school conditions favored cerned. If he cannot devise his own solution (not of course learning in the sense of discovery and not in that of in isolation, but in correspondence with the teacher and storing away what others pour into them; nor that it other pupils) and find his own way out he will not learn, would be possible to give even children and youth the not even if he can recite some correct answer with one delights of personal intellectual productiveness—true and hundred per cent accuracy. We can and do supply ready- important as are these things. It is that no thought, no made “ideas” by the thousand; we do not usually take idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one per- much pains to see that the one learning engages in sig- son to another. When it is told, it is, to the one to whom nificant situations where his own activities generate, it is told, another given fact, not an idea. The communi- support, and clinch ideas—that is, perceived meanings

166 John Dewey or connections. This does not mean that the teacher is to ing rock. But it is not easy to secure conditions which stand off and look on; the alternative to furnishing ready- will make the getting of an idea identical with having an made subject matter and listening to the accuracy with experience which widens and makes more precise our con- which it is reproduced is not quiescence, but participa- tact with the environment. Activity, even self-activity, is tion, sharing, in an activity. In such shared activity, the too easily thought of as something merely mental, cooped teacher is a learner, and the learner is, without knowing up within the head, or finding expression only through it, a teacher—and upon the whole, the less conscious- the vocal organs. ness there is, on either side, of either giving or receiving While the need of application of ideas gained in study instruction, the better. IV. Ideas, as we have seen, whether is acknowledged by all the more successful methods of they be humble guesses or dignified theories, are antici- instruction, the exercises in application are sometimes pations of possible solutions. They are anticipations of treated as devices for fixing what has already been learned some continuity or connection of an activity and a con- and for getting greater practical skill in its manipulation. sequence which has not as yet shown itself. They are These results are genuine and not to be despised. But therefore tested by the operation of acting upon them. practice in applying what has been gained in study ought They are to guide and organize further observations, rec- primarily to have an intellectual quality. As we have al- ollections, and experiments. They are intermediate in ready seen, thoughts just as thoughts are incomplete. At learning, not final. All educational reformers, as we have best they are tentative; they are suggestions, indications. had occasion to remark, are given to attacking the pas- They are standpoints and methods for dealing with situ- sivity of traditional education. They have opposed pour- ations of experience. Till they are applied in these situa- ing in from without, and absorbing like a sponge; they tions they lack full point and reality. Only application have attacked drilling in material as into hard and resist- tests them, and only testing confers full meaning and a

167 Democracy & Education sense of their reality. Short of use made of them, they fold. Ordinary experience does not receive the enrich- tend to segregate into a peculiar world of their own. It ment which it should; it is not fertilized by school learn- may be seriously questioned whether the philosophies ing. And the attitudes which spring from getting used to (to which reference has been made in section 2 of chap- and accepting half-understood and ill-digested material ter X) which isolate mind and set it over against the weaken vigor and efficiency of thought. world did not have their origin in the fact that the reflec- If we have dwelt especially on the negative side, it is tive or theoretical class of men elaborated a large stock for the sake of suggesting positive measures adapted to of ideas which social conditions did not allow them to the effectual development of thought. Where schools are act upon and test. Consequently men were thrown back equipped with laboratories, shops, and gardens, where into their own thoughts as ends in themselves. dramatizations, plays, and games are freely used, oppor- However this may be, there can be no doubt that a tunities exist for reproducing situations of life, and for peculiar artificiality attaches to much of what is learned acquiring and applying information and ideas in the car- in schools. It can hardly be said that many students con- rying forward of progressive experiences. Ideas are not sciously think of the subject matter as unreal; but it as- segregated, they do not form an isolated island. They suredly does not possess for them the kind of reality which animate and enrich the ordinary course of life. Informa- the subject matter of their vital experiences possesses. tion is vitalized by its function; by the place it occupies They learn not to expect that sort of reality of it; they in direction of action. The phrase “opportunities exist” is become habituated to treating it as having reality for the used purposely. They may not be taken advantage of; it is purposes of recitations, lessons, and examinations. That possible to employ manual and constructive activities in it should remain inert for the experiences of daily life is a physical way, as means of getting just bodily skill; or more or less a matter of course. The bad effects are two- they may be used almost exclusively for “utilitarian,” i.e.

168 John Dewey , pecuniary, ends. But the disposition on the part of up- tive factor in the development of experience. While it is holders of “cultural” education to assume that such ac- desirable that all educational institutions should be tivities are merely physical or professional in quality, is equipped so as to give students an opportunity for ac- itself a product of the philosophies which isolate mind quiring and testing ideas and information in active pur- from direction of the course of experience and hence from suits typifying important social situations, it will, doubt- action upon and with things. When the “mental” is re- less, be a long time before all of them are thus furnished. garded as a self-contained separate realm, a counterpart But this state of affairs does not afford instructors an fate befalls bodily activity and movements. They are re- excuse for folding their hands and persisting in methods garded as at the best mere external annexes to mind. which segregate school knowledge. Every recitation in They may be necessary for the satisfaction of bodily needs every subject gives an opportunity for establishing cross and the attainment of external decency and comfort, but connections between the subject matter of the lesson they do not occupy a necessary place in mind nor enact and the wider and more direct experiences of everyday an indispensable role in the completion of thought. Hence life. Classroom instruction falls into three kinds. The least they have no place in a liberal education—i.e., one which desirable treats each lesson as an independent whole. It is concerned with the interests of intelligence. If they does not put upon the student the responsibility of find- come in at all, it is as a concession to the material needs ing points of contact between it and other lessons in the of the masses. That they should be allowed to invade the same subject, or other subjects of study. Wiser teachers education of the elite is unspeakable. This conclusion see to it that the student is systematically led to utilize follows irresistibly from the isolated conception of mind, his earlier lessons to help understand the present one, but by the same logic it disappears when we perceive and also to use the present to throw additional light upon what mind really is —namely, the purposive and direc- what has already been acquired. Results are better, but

169 Democracy & Education school subject matter is still isolated. Save by accident, ondly, that a genuine problem develop within this situa- out-of-school experience is left in its crude and com- tion as a stimulus to thought; third, that he possess the paratively irreflective state. It is not subject to the refin- information and make the observations needed to deal ing and expanding influences of the more accurate and with it; fourth, that suggested solutions occur to him comprehensive material of direct instruction. The latter which he shall be responsible for developing in an or- is not motivated and impregnated with a sense of reality derly way; fifth, that he have opportunity and occasion by being intermingled with the realities of everyday life. to test his ideas by application, to make their meaning The best type of teaching bears in mind the desirability clear and to discover for himself their validity. of affecting this interconnection. It puts the student in the habitual attitude of finding points of contact and mutual bearings.

Summary. Processes of instruction are unified in the degree in which they center in the production of good habits of thinking. While we may speak, without error, of the method of thought, the important thing is that thinking is the method of an educative experience. The essentials of method are therefore identical with the essentials of reflection. They are first that the pupil have a genuine situation of experience—that there be a continuous activity in which he is interested for its own sake; sec-

170 John Dewey Chapter Thirteen: The Nature of Method ent subject matter may be best presented to and impressed upon the mind; or, a consideration of the ways in 1. The Unity of Subject Matter and Method. The trinity which the mind may be externally brought to bear upon of school topics is subject matter, methods, and adminis- the matter so as to facilitate its acquisition and posses- tration or government. We have been concerned with the sion. In theory, at least, one might deduce from a sci- two former in recent chapters. It remains to disentangle ence of the mind as something existing by itself a com- them from the context in which they have been referred plete theory of methods of learning, with no knowledge to, and discuss explicitly their nature. We shall begin of the subjects to which the methods are to be applied. with the topic of method, since that lies closest to the Since many who are actually most proficient in various considerations of the last chapter. Before taking it up, it branches of subject matter are wholly innocent of these may be well, however, to call express attention to one methods, this state of affairs gives opportunity for the implication of our theory; the connection of subject mat- retort that pedagogy, as an alleged science of methods of ter and method with each other. The idea that mind and the mind in learning, is futile;—a mere screen for con- the world of things and persons are two separate and cealing the necessity a teacher is under of profound and independent realms—a theory which philosophically is accurate acquaintance with the subject in hand. known as dualism—carries with it the conclusion that But since thinking is a directed movement of subject method and subject matter of instruction are separate matter to a completing issue, and since mind is the de- affairs. Subject matter then becomes a ready-made sys- liberate and intentional phase of the process, the notion tematized classification of the facts and principles of the of any such split is radically false. The fact that the ma- world of nature and man. Method then has for its prov- terial of a science is organized is evidence that it has ince a consideration of the ways in which this anteced- already been subjected to intelligence; it has been meth-

171 Democracy & Education odized, so to say. Zoology as a systematic branch of knowl- The statement that method means directed movement edge represents crude, scattered facts of our ordinary ac- of subject matter towards ends is formal. An illustration quaintance with animals after they have been subjected may give it content. Every artist must have a method, a to careful examination, to deliberate supplementation, technique, in doing his work. Piano playing is not hitting and to arrangement to bring out connections which as- the keys at random. It is an orderly way of using them, sist observation, memory, and further inquiry. Instead of and the order is not something which exists ready- made furnishing a starting point for learning, they mark out a in the musician’s hands or brain prior to an activity deal- consummation. Method means that arrangement of sub- ing with the piano. Order is found in the disposition of ject matter which makes it most effective in use. Never is acts which use the piano and the hands and brain so as method something outside of the material. to achieve the result intended. It is the action of the How about method from the standpoint of an individual piano directed to accomplish the purpose of the piano as who is dealing with subject matter? Again, it is not some- a musical instrument. It is the same with “pedagogical” thing external. It is simply an effective treatment of mate- method. The only difference is that the piano is a mecha- rial—efficiency meaning such treatment as utilizes the nism constructed in advance for a single end; while the material (puts it to a purpose) with a minimum of waste of material of study is capable of indefinite uses. But even time and energy. We can distinguish a way of acting, and in this regard the illustration may apply if we consider discuss it by itself; but the way exists only as way-of- the infinite variety of kinds of music which a piano may dealing-with-material. Method is not antithetical to sub- produce, and the variations in technique required in the ject matter; it is the effective direction of subject matter different musical results secured. Method in any case is to desired results. It is antithetical to random and ill-con- but an effective way of employing some material for some sidered action,—ill-considered signifying ill-adapted. end.

172 John Dewey These considerations may be generalized by going back scientific investigation of the act, such a discrimination to the conception of experience. Experience as the per- is the first thing he would effect. He would examine on ception of the connection between something tried and the one hand the properties of the nutritive material, something undergone in consequence is a process. Apart and on the other hand the acts of the organism in appro- from effort to control the course which the process takes, priating and digesting. Such reflection upon experience there is no distinction of subject matter and method. gives rise to a distinction of what we experience (the There is simply an activity which includes both what an experienced) and the experiencing—the how. When we individual does and what the environment does. A piano give names to this distinction we have subject matter player who had perfect mastery of his instrument would and method as our terms. There is the thing seen, heard, have no occasion to distinguish between his contribu- loved, hated, imagined, and there is the act of seeing, tion and that of the piano. In well-formed, smooth-run- hearing, loving, hating, imagining, etc. ning functions of any sort,—skating, conversing, hear- This distinction is so natural and so important for cer- ing music, enjoying a landscape,—there is no conscious- tain purposes, that we are only too apt to regard it as a ness of separation of the method of the person and of separation in existence and not as a distinction in thought. the subject matter. In whole-hearted play and work there Then we make a division between a self and the environ- is the same phenomenon. ment or world. This separation is the root of the dualism When we reflect upon an experience instead of just of method and subject matter. That is, we assume that having it, we inevitably distinguish between our own at- knowing, feeling, willing, etc., are things which belong titude and the objects toward which we sustain the atti- to the self or mind in its isolation, and which then may tude. When a man is eating, he is eating food. He does be brought to bear upon an independent subject matter. not divide his act into eating and food. But if he makes a We assume that the things which belong in isolation to

173 Democracy & Education the self or mind have their own laws of operation irre- mental distinction between the how and the what. While spective of the modes of active energy of the object. there is no way of walking or of eating or of learning over These laws are supposed to furnish method. It would be and above the actual walking, eating, and studying, there no less absurd to suppose that men can eat without eat- are certain elements in the act which give the key to its ing something, or that the structure and movements of more effective control. Special attention to these ele- the jaws, throat muscles, the digestive activities of stom- ments makes them more obvious to perception (letting ach, etc., are not what they are because of the material other factors recede for the time being from conspicuous with which their activity is engaged. Just as the organs recognition). Getting an idea of how the experience proof the organism are a continuous part of the very world ceeds indicates to us what factors must be secured or in which food materials exist, so the capacities of see- modified in order that it may go on more successfully. ing, hearing, loving, imagining are intrinsically connected This is only a somewhat elaborate way of saying that if a with the subject matter of the world. They are more truly man watches carefully the growth of several plants, some ways in which the environment enters into experience of which do well and some of which amount to little or and functions there than they are independent acts nothing, he may be able to detect the special conditions brought to bear upon things. Experience, in short, is not upon which the prosperous development of a plant de- a combination of mind and world, subject and object, pends. These conditions, stated in an orderly sequence, method and subject matter, but is a single continuous would constitute the method or way or manner of its interaction of a great diversity (literally countless in num- growth. There is no difference between the growth of a ber) of energies. plant and the prosperous development of an experience. For the purpose of controlling the course or direction It is not easy, in either case, to seize upon just the fac- which the moving unity of experience takes we draw a tors which make for its best movement. But study of cases

174 John Dewey of success and failure and minute and extensive compari- servations. Under such circumstances, they have a me- son, helps to seize upon causes. When we have arranged chanical uniformity, assumed to be alike for all minds. these causes in order, we have a method of procedure or Where flexible personal experiences are promoted by pro- a technique. viding an environment which calls out directed occupa- A consideration of some evils in education that flow tions in work and play, the methods ascertained will vary from the isolation of method from subject matter will with individuals—for it is certain that each individual make the point more definite. has something characteristic in his way of going at things. (I) In the first place, there is the neglect (of which we (II) In the second place, the notion of methods iso- have spoken) of concrete situations of experience. There lated from subject matter is responsible for the false con- can be no discovery of a method without cases to be ceptions of discipline and interest already noted. When studied. The method is derived from observation of what the effective way of managing material is treated as some- actually happens, with a view to seeing that it happen thing ready-made apart from material, there are just three better next time. But in instruction and discipline, there possible ways in which to establish a relationship lack- is rarely sufficient opportunity for children and youth to ing by assumption. One is to utilize excitement, shock of have the direct normal experiences from which educators pleasure, tickling the palate. Another is to make the con- might derive an idea of method or order of best develop- sequences of not attending painful; we may use the men- ment. Experiences are had under conditions of such con- ace of harm to motivate concern with the alien subject straint that they throw little or no light upon the normal matter. Or a direct appeal may be made to the person to course of an experience to its fruition. “Methods” have put forth effort without any reason. We may rely upon then to be authoritatively recommended to teachers, in- immediate strain of “will.” In practice, however, the lat- stead of being an expression of their own intelligent ob- ter method is effectual only when instigated by fear of

175 Democracy & Education unpleasant results. This does not mean, however, that students are to be (III) In the third place, the act of learning is made a seduced unaware into preoccupation with lessons. It direct and conscious end in itself. Under normal condi- means that they shall be occupied with them for real tions, learning is a product and reward of occupation with reasons or ends, and not just as something to be learned. subject matter. Children do not set out, consciously, to This is accomplished whenever the pupil perceives the learn walking or talking. One sets out to give his im- place occupied by the subject matter in the fulfilling of pulses for communication and for fuller intercourse with some experience. others a show. He learns in consequence of his direct (IV) In the fourth place, under the influence of the activities. The better methods of teaching a child, say, to conception of the separation of mind and material, method read, follow the same road. They do not fix his attention tends to be reduced to a cut and dried routine, to follow- upon the fact that he has to learn something and so ing mechanically prescribed steps. No one can tell in how make his attitude self-conscious and constrained. They many schoolrooms children reciting in arithmetic or gram- engage his activities, and in the process of engagement mar are compelled to go through, under the alleged sanc- he learns: the same is true of the more successful meth- tion of method, certain preordained verbal formulae. In- ods in dealing with number or whatever. But when the stead of being encouraged to attack their topics directly, subject matter is not used in carrying forward impulses experimenting with methods that seem promising and and habits to significant results, it is just something to learning to discriminate by the consequences that ac- be learned. The pupil’s attitude to it is just that of hav- crue, it is assumed that there is one fixed method to be ing to learn it. Conditions more unfavorable to an alert followed. It is also naively assumed that if the pupils and concentrated response would be hard to devise. Frontal make their statements and explanations in a certain form attacks are even more wasteful in learning than in war. of “analysis,” their mental habits will in time conform.

176 John Dewey Nothing has brought pedagogical theory into greater dis- manipulation of all his appliances. Attainment of this repute than the belief that it is identified with handing knowledge requires persistent and concentrated atten- out to teachers recipes and models to be followed in teach- tion to objective materials. The artist studies the progress ing. Flexibility and initiative in dealing with problems of his own attempts to see what succeeds and what fails. are characteristic of any conception to which method is a The assumption that there are no alternatives between way of managing material to develop a conclusion. Me- following ready-made rules and trusting to native gifts, chanical rigid woodenness is an inevitable corollary of the inspiration of the moment and undirected “hard work,” any theory which separates mind from activity motivated is contradicted by the procedures of every art. by a purpose. Such matters as knowledge of the past, of current technique, of materials, of the ways in which one’s own best 2. Method as General and as Individual. In brief, the results are assured, supply the material for what may be method of teaching is the method of an art, of action called general method. There exists a cumulative body of intelligently directed by ends. But the practice of a fine fairly stable methods for reaching results, a body autho- art is far from being a matter of extemporized inspira- rized by past experience and by intellectual analysis, which tions. Study of the operations and results of those in the an individual ignores at his peril. As was pointed out in past who have greatly succeeded is essential. There is the discussion of habit-forming (ante, p. 49), there is always a tradition, or schools of art, definite enough to always a danger that these methods will become mecha- impress beginners, and often to take them captive. Meth- nized and rigid, mastering an agent instead of being pow- ods of artists in every branch depend upon thorough ac- ers at command for his own ends. But it is also true that quaintance with materials and tools; the painter must the innovator who achieves anything enduring, whose know canvas, pigments, brushes, and the technique of work is more than a passing sensation, utilizes classic

177 Democracy & Education methods more than may appear to himself or to his crit- tic work, for the latter also depends upon an animating ics. He devotes them to new uses, and in so far trans- idea. forms them. If knowledge of methods used by others does not directly tell us what to do, or furnish ready-made models, Education also has its general methods. And if the appli- how does it operate? What is meant by calling a method cation of this remark is more obvious in the case of the intellectual? Take the case of a physician. No mode of teacher than of the pupil, it is equally real in the case of behavior more imperiously demands knowledge of estab- the latter. Part of his learning, a very important part, lished modes of diagnosis and treatment than does his. consists in becoming master of the methods which the But after all, cases are like, not identical. To be used experience of others has shown to be more efficient in intelligently, existing practices, however authorized they like cases of getting knowledge. 1 These general methods may be, have to be adapted to the exigencies of particu- are in no way opposed to individual initiative and origi- lar cases. Accordingly, recognized procedures indicate to nality—to personal ways of doing things. On the con- the physician what inquiries to set on foot for himself, trary they are reinforcements of them. For there is radical what measures to try. They are standpoints from which to difference between even the most general method and a carry on investigations; they economize a survey of the prescribed rule. The latter is a direct guide to action; the features of the particular case by suggesting the things former operates indirectly through the enlightenment it to be especially looked into. The physician’s own per- supplies as to ends and means. It operates, that is to say, sonal attitudes, his own ways (individual methods) of through intelligence, and not through conformity to or- dealing with the situation in which he is concerned, are ders externally imposed. Ability to use even in a masterly not subordinated to the general principles of procedure, way an established technique gives no warranty of artis- but are facilitated and directed by the latter. The in-

178 John Dewey stance may serve to point out the value to the teacher of ods used in like cases by others—particularly by those a knowledge of the psychological methods and the em- who are already experts—are of worth or of harm accord- pirical devices found useful in the past. When they get in ing as they make his personal reaction more intelligent the way of his own common sense, when they come be- or as they induce a person to dispense with exercise of tween him and the situation in which he has to act, they his own judgment. If what was said earlier (See p. 159) are worse than useless. But if he has acquired them as about originality of thought seemed overstrained, demand- intellectual aids in sizing up the needs, resources, and ing more of education than the capacities of average difficulties of the unique experiences in which he en- human nature permit, the difficulty is that we lie under gages, they are of constructive value. In the last resort, the incubus of a superstition. We have set up the notion just because everything depends upon his own methods of mind at large, of intellectual method that is the same of response, much depends upon how far he can utilize, for all. Then we regard individuals as differing in the in making his own response, the knowledge which has quantity of mind with which they are charged. Ordinary accrued in the experience of others. As already intimated, persons are then expected to be ordinary. Only the ex- every word of this account is directly applicable also to ceptional are allowed to have originality. The measure of the method of the pupil, the way of learning. To suppose difference between the average student and the genius that students, whether in the primary school or in the is a measure of the absence of originality in the former. university, can be supplied with models of method to be But this notion of mind in general is a fiction. How one followed in acquiring and expounding a subject is to fall person’s abilities compare in quantity with those of an- into a self-deception that has lamentable consequences. other is none of the teacher’s business. It is irrelevant to (See ante, p. 169.) One must make his own reaction in his work. What is required is that every individual shall any case. Indications of the standardized or general meth- have opportunities to employ his own powers in activi-

179 Democracy & Education ties that have meaning. Mind, individual method, original- habits and interests. The method of one will vary from that ity (these are convertible terms) signify the quality of pur- of another (and properly vary) as his original instinctive posive or directed action. If we act upon this conviction, capacities vary, as his past experiences and his prefer- we shall secure more originality even by the conventional ences vary. Those who have already studied these matters standard than now develops. Imposing an alleged uniform are in possession of information which will help teachers general method upon everybody breeds mediocrity in all in understanding the responses different pupils make, and but the very exceptional. And measuring originality by de- help them in guiding these responses to greater efficiency. viation from the mass breeds eccentricity in them. Thus Child-study, psychology, and a knowledge of social envi- we stifle the distinctive quality of the many, and save in ronment supplement the personal acquaintance gained by rare instances (like, say, that of Darwin) infect the rare the teacher. But methods remain the personal concern, geniuses with an unwholesome quality. approach, and attack of an individual, and no catalogue can ever exhaust their diversity of form and tint. 3. The Traits of Individual Method. The most general Some attitudes may be named, however,-which are cen- features of the method of knowing have been given in tral in effective intellectual ways of dealing with subject our chapter on thinking. They are the features of the matter. Among the most important are directness, open- reflective situation: Problem, collection and analysis of mindedness, single-mindedness (or whole-heartedness), data, projection and elaboration of suggestions or ideas, and responsibility. experimental application and testing; the resulting con- 1. It is easier to indicate what is meant by directness clusion or judgment. The specific elements of an through negative terms than in positive ones. Self-con- individual’s method or way of attack upon a problem are sciousness, embarrassment, and constraint are its men- found ultimately in his native tendencies and his acquired acing foes. They indicate that a person is not immedi-

180 John Dewey ately concerned with subject matter. Something has come ject—as when the player strikes an attitude thinking of between which deflects concern to side issues. A self- the impression it will make upon spectators, or is worried conscious person is partly thinking about his problem because of the impression he fears his movements give and partly about what others think of his performances. rise to. Diverted energy means loss of power and confusion of Confidence is a good name for what is intended by the ideas. Taking an attitude is by no means identical with term directness. It should not be confused, however, with being conscious of one’s attitude. The former is sponta- self-confidence which may be a form of self-conscious- neous, naive, and simple. It is a sign of whole-souled ness—or of “cheek.” Confidence is not a name for what relationship between a person and what he is dealing one thinks or feels about his attitude it is not reflex. It with. The latter is not of necessity abnormal. It is some- denotes the straightforwardness with which one goes at times the easiest way of correcting a false method of what he has to do. It denotes not conscious trust in the approach, and of improving the effectiveness of the means efficacy of one’s powers but unconscious faith in the pos- one is employing,—as golf players, piano players, public sibilities of the situation. It signifies rising to the needs speakers, etc., have occasionally to give especial atten- of the situation. We have already pointed out (See p. tion to their position and movements. But this need is 169) the objections to making students emphatically aware occasional and temporary. When it is effectual a person of the fact that they are studying or learning. Just in the thinks of himself in terms of what is to be done, as one degree in which they are induced by the conditions to be means among others of the realization of an end—as in so aware, they are not studying and learning. They are in the case of a tennis player practicing to get the “feel” of a divided and complicated attitude. Whatever methods of a stroke. In abnormal cases, one thinks of himself not as a teacher call a pupil’s attention off from what he has to part of the agencies of execution, but as a separate ob- do and transfer it to his own attitude towards what he is

181 Democracy & Education doing impair directness of concern and action. Persisted thing must be bent and sacrificed. They are, as foreseen, in, the pupil acquires a permanent tendency to fumble, means of guiding the development of a situation. A tar- to gaze about aimlessly, to look for some clew of action get is not the future goal of shooting; it is the centering beside that which the subject matter supplies. Depen- factor in a present shooting. Openness of mind means dence upon extraneous suggestions and directions, a state accessibility of mind to any and every consideration that of foggy confusion, take the place of that sureness with will throw light upon the situation that needs to be cleared which children (and grown-up people who have not been up, and that will help determine the consequences of sophisticated by “education”) confront the situations of acting this way or that. Efficiency in accomplishing ends life. which have been settled upon as unalterable can coexist with a narrowly opened mind. But intellectual growth 2. Open-mindedness. Partiality is, as we have seen, an means constant expansion of horizons and consequent accompaniment of the existence of interest, since this formation of new purposes and new responses. These are means sharing, partaking, taking sides in some move- impossible without an active disposition to welcome ment. All the more reason, therefore, for an attitude of points of view hitherto alien; an active desire to enter- mind which actively welcomes suggestions and relevant tain considerations which modify existing purposes. Re- information from all sides. In the chapter on Aims it was tention of capacity to grow is the reward of such intellec- shown that foreseen ends are factors in the development tual hospitality. The worst thing about stubbornness of of a changing situation. They are the means by which the mind, about prejudices, is that they arrest development; direction of action is controlled. They are subordinate to they shut the mind off from new stimuli. Open-mindedness the situation, therefore, not the situation to them. They means retention of the childlike attitude; closed- are not ends in the sense of finalities to which every- mindedness means premature intellectual old age.

182 John Dewey Exorbitant desire for uniformity of procedure and for the quality of mental process, not the production of cor- prompt external results are the chief foes which the open- rect answers, is the measure of educative growth some- minded attitude meets in school. The teacher who does thing hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be not permit and encourage diversity of operation in deal- worked. ing with questions is imposing intellectual blinders upon pupils—restricting their vision to the one path the 3. Single-mindedness. So far as the word is concerned, teacher’s mind happens to approve. Probably the chief much that was said under the head of “directness” is cause of devotion to rigidity of method is, however, that applicable. But what the word is here intended to convey it seems to promise speedy, accurately measurable, cor- is completeness of interest, unity of purpose; the ab- rect results. The zeal for “answers” is the explanation of sence of suppressed but effectual ulterior aims for which much of the zeal for rigid and mechanical methods. Forc- the professed aim is but a mask. It is equivalent to men- ing and overpressure have the same origin, and the same tal integrity. Absorption, engrossment, full concern with result upon alert and varied intellectual interest. subject matter for its own sake, nurture it. Divided inter- Open-mindedness is not the same as empty-mindedness. est and evasion destroy it. To hang out a sign saying “Come right in; there is no one Intellectual integrity, honesty, and sincerity are at bot- at home” is not the equivalent of hospitality. But there is tom not matters of conscious purpose but of quality of a kind of passivity, willingness to let experiences accu- active response. Their acquisition is fostered of course by mulate and sink in and ripen, which is an essential of conscious intent, but self-deception is very easy. Desires development. Results (external answers or solutions) may are urgent. When the demands and wishes of others for- be hurried; processes may not be forced. They take their bid their direct expression they are easily driven into own time to mature. Were all instructors to realize that subterranean and deep channels. Entire surrender, and

183 Democracy & Education wholehearted adoption of the course of action demanded only to recall his own experiences in school or at the by others are almost impossible. Deliberate revolt or de- present time when outwardly employed in actions which liberate attempts to deceive others may result. But the do not engage one’s desires and purposes, to realize how more frequent outcome is a confused and divided state prevalent is this attitude of divided attention—double- of interest in which one is fooled as to one’s own real mindedness. We are so used to it that we take it for granted intent. One tries to serve two masters at once. Social that a considerable amount of it is necessary. It may be; instincts, the strong desire to please others and get their if so, it is the more important to face its bad intellectual approval, social training, the general sense of duty and effects. Obvious is the loss of energy of thought immedi- of authority, apprehension of penalty, all lead to a half- ately available when one is consciously trying (or trying hearted effort to conform, to “pay attention to the les- to seem to try) to attend to one matter, while uncon- son,” or whatever the requirement is. Amiable individu- sciously one’s imagination is spontaneously going out to als want to do what they are expected to do. Consciously more congenial affairs. More subtle and more permanently the pupil thinks he is doing this. But his own desires are crippling to efficiency of intellectual activity is a foster- not abolished. Only their evident exhibition is suppressed. ing of habitual self-deception, with the confused sense Strain of attention to what is hostile to desire is irksome; of reality which accompanies it. A double standard of in spite of one’s conscious wish, the underlying desires reality, one for our own private and more or less con- determine the main course of thought, the deeper emo- cealed interests, and another for public and acknowledged tional responses. The mind wanders from the nominal concerns, hampers, in most of us, integrity and complete- subject and devotes itself to what is intrinsically more ness of mental action. Equally serious is the fact that a desirable. A systematized divided attention expressing split is set up between conscious thought and attention the duplicity of the state of desire is the result. One has and impulsive blind affection and desire. Reflective deal-

184 John Dewey ings with the material of instruction is constrained and tention to assigned tasks. Some responses are secured, half-hearted; attention wanders. The topics to which it but desires and affections not enlisted must find other wanders are unavowed and hence intellectually illicit; outlets. Not less serious is exaggerated emphasis upon drill transactions with them are furtive. The discipline that exercises designed to produce skill in action, independent comes from regulating response by deliberate inquiry of any engagement of thought—exercises have no pur- having a purpose fails; worse than that, the deepest con- pose but the production of automatic skill. Nature abhors cern and most congenial enterprises of the imagination a mental vacuum. What do teachers imagine is happening (since they center about the things dearest to desire) are to thought and emotion when the latter get no outlet in casual, concealed. They enter into action in ways which the things of immediate activity? Were they merely kept in are unacknowledged. Not subject to rectification by contemporary abeyance, or even only calloused, it would not sideration of consequences, they are demoralizing. be a matter of so much moment. But they are not abol- School conditions favorable to this division of mind be- ished; they are not suspended; they are not suppressed— tween avowed, public, and socially responsible undertak- save with reference to the task in question. They follow ings, and private, ill-regulated, and suppressed indulgences their own chaotic and undisciplined course. What is na- of thought are not hard to find. What is sometimes called tive, spontaneous, and vital in mental reaction goes un- “stern discipline,” i.e., external coercive pressure, has this used and untested, and the habits formed are such that tendency. Motivation through rewards extraneous to the these qualities become less and less available for public thing to be done has a like effect. Everything that makes and avowed ends. schooling merely preparatory (See ante, p. 55) works in this direction. Ends being beyond the pupil’s present grasp, 4. Responsibility. By responsibility as an element in in- other agencies have to be found to procure immediate at- tellectual attitude is meant the disposition to consider in

185 Democracy & Education advance the probable consequences of any projected step due complication of school subjects and congestion of and deliberately to accept them: to accept them in the school studies and lessons are not the worry, nervous sense of taking them into account, acknowledging them strain, and superficial acquaintance that follow (serious in action, not yielding a mere verbal assent. Ideas, as we as these are), but the failure to make clear what is in- have seen, are intrinsically standpoints and methods for volved in really knowing and believing a thing. Intellec- bringing about a solution of a perplexing situation; fore- tual responsibility means severe standards in this regard. casts calculated to influence responses. It is only too These standards can be built up only through practice in easy to think that one accepts a statement or believes a following up and acting upon the meaning of what is suggested truth when one has not considered its impli- acquired. cations; when one has made but a cursory and superficial Intellectual thoroughness is thus another name for the survey of what further things one is committed to by attitude we are considering. There is a kind of thorough- acceptance. Observation and recognition, belief and as- ness which is almost purely physical: the kind that signi- sent, then become names for lazy acquiescence in what fies mechanical and exhausting drill upon all the details is externally presented. of a subject. Intellectual thoroughness is seeing a thing It would be much better to have fewer facts and truths through. It depends upon a unity of purpose to which in instruction—that is, fewer things supposedly ac- details are subordinated, not upon presenting a multi- cepted,—if a smaller number of situations could be in- tude of disconnected details. It is manifested in the firm- tellectually worked out to the point where conviction ness with which the full meaning of the purpose is devel- meant something real—some identification of the self oped, not in attention, however “conscientious” it may with the type of conduct demanded by facts and fore- be, to the steps of action externally imposed and di- sight of results. The most permanent bad results of un- rected.

186 John Dewey Summary. Method is a statement of the way the subject are termed psychological and logical methods respectively. matter of an experience develops most effectively and See p. 219. fruitfully. It is derived, accordingly, from observation of the course of experiences where there is no conscious distinction of personal attitude and manner from material dealt with. The assumption that method is something separate is connected with the notion of the isolation of mind and self from the world of things. It makes instruction and learning formal, mechanical, constrained. While methods are individualized, certain features of the normal course of an experience to its fruition may be discriminated, because of the fund of wisdom derived from prior experiences and because of general similari- ties in the materials dealt with from time to time. Ex- pressed in terms of the attitude of the individual the traits of good method are straightforwardness, flexible intellectual interest or open-minded will to learn, integrity of purpose, and acceptance of responsibility for the consequences of one’s activity including thought.

1 This point is developed below in a discussion of what

187 Democracy & Education Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of Subject Matter ies or the subject matter of the curriculum have intimately to do with this business of supplying an environ- 1. Subject Matter of Educator and of Learner. So far as ment. The other point is the necessity of a social envi- the nature of subject matter in principle is concerned, ronment to give meaning to habits formed. In what we there is nothing to add to what has been said (See ante, have termed informal education, subject matter is car- p. 134). It consists of the facts observed, recalled, read, ried directly in the matrix of social intercourse. It is what and talked about, and the ideas suggested, in course of a the persons with whom an individual associates do and development of a situation having a purpose. This state- say. This fact gives a clew to the understanding of the ment needs to be rendered more specific by connecting it subject matter of formal or deliberate instruction. A con- with the materials of school instruction, the studies which necting link is found in the stories, traditions, songs, make up the curriculum. What is the significance of our and liturgies which accompany the doings and rites of a definition in application to reading, writing, mathemat- primitive social group. They represent the stock of mean- ics, history, nature study, drawing, singing, physics, chem- ings which have been precipitated out of previous expe- istry, modern and foreign languages, and so on? Let us rience, which are so prized by the group as to be identi- recur to two of the points made earlier in our discussion. fied with their conception of their own collective life. The educator’s part in the enterprise of education is to Not being obviously a part of the skill exhibited in the furnish the environment which stimulates responses and daily occupations of eating, hunting, making war and directs the learner’s course. In last analysis, all that the peace, constructing rugs, pottery, and baskets, etc., they educator can do is modify stimuli so that response will as are consciously impressed upon the young; often, as in surely as is possible result in the formation of desirable the initiation ceremonies, with intense emotional fervor. intellectual and emotional dispositions. Obviously stud- Even more pains are consciously taken to perpetuate the

188 John Dewey myths, legends, and sacred verbal formulae of the group if there were none; as if subject matter existed simply as than to transmit the directly useful customs of the group knowledge on its own independent behoof, and as if study just because they cannot be picked up, as the latter can were the mere act of mastering it for its own sake, irre- be in the ordinary processes of association. spective of any social values. Since it is highly important As the social group grows more complex, involving a for practical reasons to counter-act this tendency (See greater number of acquired skills which are dependent, ante, p. 8) the chief purposes of our theoretical discus- either in fact or in the belief of the group, upon standard sion are to make clear the connection which is so readily ideas deposited from past experience, the content of so- lost from sight, and to show in some detail the social cial life gets more definitely formulated for purposes of content and function of the chief constituents of the instruction. As we have previously noted, probably the course of study. chief motive for consciously dwelling upon the group life, The points need to be considered from the standpoint extracting the meanings which are regarded as most im- of instructor and of student. To the former, the signifi- portant and systematizing them in a coherent arrange- cance of a knowledge of subject matter, going far beyond ment, is just the need of instructing the young so as to the present knowledge of pupils, is to supply definite perpetuate group life. Once started on this road of selec- standards and to reveal to him the possibilities of the tion, formulation, and organization, no definite limit crude activities of the immature. (i) The material of school exists. The invention of writing and of printing gives the studies translates into concrete and detailed terms the operation an immense impetus. Finally, the bonds which meanings of current social life which it is desirable to connect the subject matter of school study with the hab- transmit. It puts clearly before the instructor the essen- its and ideals of the social group are disguised and cov- tial ingredients of the culture to be perpetuated, in such ered up. The ties are so loosened that it often appears as an organized form as to protect him from the haphazard

189 Democracy & Education efforts he would be likely to indulge in if the meanings tical with the formulated, the crystallized, and system- had not been standardized. (ii) A knowledge of the ideas atized subject matter of the adult; the material as found which have been achieved in the past as the outcome of in books and in works of art, etc. The latter represents activity places the educator in a position to perceive the the possibilities of the former; not its existing state. It meaning of the seeming impulsive and aimless reactions enters directly into the activities of the expert and the of the young, and to provide the stimuli needed to direct educator, not into that of the beginner, the learner. Fail- them so that they will amount to something. The more ure to bear in mind the difference in subject matter from the educator knows of music the more he can perceive the respective standpoints of teacher and student is re- the possibilities of the inchoate musical impulses of a sponsible for most of the mistakes made in the use of child. Organized subject matter represents the ripe fruit- texts and other expressions of preexistent knowledge. age of experiences like theirs, experiences involving the The need for a knowledge of the constitution and func- same world, and powers and needs similar to theirs. It tions, in the concrete, of human nature is great just be- does not represent perfection or infallible wisdom; but it cause the teacher’s attitude to subject matter is so dif- is the best at command to further new experiences which ferent from that of the pupil. The teacher presents in may, in some respects at least, surpass the achievements actuality what the pupil represents only in posse. That is, embodied in existing knowledge and works of art. the teacher already knows the things which the student From the standpoint of the educator, in other words, is only learning. Hence the problem of the two is radi- the various studies represent working resources, avail- cally unlike. When engaged in the direct act of teaching, able capital. Their remoteness from the experience of the the instructor needs to have subject matter at his fin- young is not, however, seeming; it is real. The subject gers’ ends; his attention should be upon the attitude and matter of the learner is not, therefore, it cannot be, iden- response of the pupil. To understand the latter in its in-

190 John Dewey terplay with subject matter is his task, while the pupil’s consists of isolated scraps. But it is organized in connec- mind, naturally, should be not on itself but on the topic tion with direct practical centers of interest. The child’s in hand. Or to state the same point in a somewhat differ- home is, for example, the organizing center of his geo- ent manner: the teacher should be occupied not with graphical knowledge. His own movements about the lo- subject matter in itself but in its interaction with the cality, his journeys abroad, the tales of his friends, give pupils’ present needs and capacities. Hence simple schol- the ties which hold his items of information together. arship is not enough. In fact, there are certain features But the geography of the geographer, of the one who has of scholarship or mastered subject matter —taken by it- already developed the implications of these smaller ex- self—which get in the way of effective teaching unless periences, is organized on the basis of the relationship the instructor’s habitual attitude is one of concern with which the various facts bear to one another—not the its interplay in the pupil’s own experience. In the first relations which they bear to his house, bodily movements, place, his knowledge extends indefinitely beyond the range and friends. To the one who is learned, subject matter is of the pupil’s acquaintance. It involves principles which extensive, accurately defined, and logically interrelated. are beyond the immature pupil’s understanding and in- To the one who is learning, it is fluid, partial, and con- terest. In and of itself, it may no more represent the nected through his personal occupations. 1 The problem living world of the pupil’s experience than the astronomer’s of teaching is to keep the experience of the student mov- knowledge of Mars represents a baby’s acquaintance with ing in the direction of what the expert already knows. the room in which he stays. In the second place, the Hence the need that the teacher know both subject mat- method of organization of the material of achieved schol- ter and the characteristic needs and capacities of the arship differs from that of the beginner. It is not true student. that the experience of the young is unorganized—that it

191 Democracy & Education 2. The Development of Subject Matter in the Learner. When education, under the influence of a scholastic con- It is possible, without doing violence to the facts, to ception of knowledge which ignores everything but sci- mark off three fairly typical stages in the growth of sub- entifically formulated facts and truths, fails to recognize ject matter in the experience of the learner. In its first that primary or initial subject matter always exists as estate, knowledge exists as the content of intelligent matter of an active doing, involving the use of the body ability—power to do. This kind of subject matter, or known and the handling of material, the subject matter of in- material, is expressed in familiarity or acquaintance with struction is isolated from the needs and purposes of the things. Then this material gradually is surcharged and learner, and so becomes just a something to be memo- deepened through communicated knowledge or informa- rized and reproduced upon demand. Recognition of the tion. Finally, it is enlarged and worked over into ratio- natural course of development, on the contrary, always nally or logically organized material—that of the one sets out with situations which involve learning by doing. who, relatively speaking, is expert in the subject. Arts and occupations form the initial stage of the cur- I. The knowledge which comes first to persons, and riculum, corresponding as they do to knowing how to go that remains most deeply ingrained, is knowledge of how about the accomplishment of ends. Popular terms denot- to do; how to walk, talk, read, write, skate, ride a bicycle, ing knowledge have always retained the connection with manage a machine, calculate, drive a horse, sell goods, ability in action lost by academic philosophies. Ken and manage people, and so on indefinitely. The popular ten- can are allied words. Attention means caring for a thing, dency to regard instinctive acts which are adapted to an in the sense of both affection and of looking out for its end as a sort of miraculous knowledge, while unjustifi- welfare. Mind means carrying out instructions in action— able, is evidence of the strong tendency to identify intel- as a child minds his mother—and taking care of some- ligent control of the means of action with knowledge. thing—as a nurse minds the baby. To be thoughtful, con-

192 John Dewey siderate, means to heed the claims of others. Apprehen- we can anticipate how it will act and react—such is the sion means dread of undesirable consequences, as well as meaning of familiar acquaintance. We are ready for a fa- intellectual grasp. To have good sense or judgment is to miliar thing; it does not catch us napping, or play unex- know the conduct a situation calls for; discernment is pected tricks with us. This attitude carries with it a sense not making distinctions for the sake of making them, an of congeniality or friendliness, of ease and illumination; exercise reprobated as hair splitting, but is insight into while the things with which we are not accustomed to an affair with reference to acting. Wisdom has never lost deal are strange, foreign, cold, remote, “abstract.” its association with the proper direction of life. Only in II. But it is likely that elaborate statements regarding education, never in the life of farmer, sailor, merchant, this primary stage of knowledge will darken understand- physician, or laboratory experimenter, does knowledge ing. It includes practically all of our knowledge which is mean primarily a store of information aloof from doing. not the result of deliberate technicalstudy. Modes of pur- Having to do with things in an intelligent way issues in poseful doing include dealings with persons as well as acquaintance or familiarity. The things we are best ac- things. Impulses of communication and habits of inter- quainted with are the things we put to frequent use— course have to be adapted to maintaining successful con- such things as chairs, tables, pen, paper, clothes, food, nections with others; a large fund of social knowledge knives and forks on the commonplace level, differentiat- accrues. As a part of this intercommunication one learns ing into more special objects according to a person’s oc- much from others. They tell of their experiences and of cupations in life. Knowledge of things in that intimate the experiences which, in turn, have been told them. In and emotional sense suggested by the word acquaintance so far as one is interested or concerned in these commu- is a precipitate from our employing them with a purpose. nications, their matter becomes a part of one’s own ex- We have acted with or upon the thing so frequently that perience. Active connections with others are such an in-

193 Democracy & Education timate and vital part of our own concerns that it is im- as to increase its efficacy and deepen its meaning? If it possible to draw sharp lines, such as would enable us to meets these two requirements, it is educative. The amount say, “Here my experience ends; there yours begins.” In so heard or read is of no importance—the more the better, far as we are partners in common undertakings, the things provided the student has a need for it and can apply it in which others communicate to us as the consequences of some situation of his own. their particular share in the enterprise blend at once into But it is not so easy to fulfill these requirements in the experience resulting from our own special doings. actual practice as it is to lay them down in theory. The The ear is as much an organ of experience as the eye or extension in modern times of the area of intercommuni- hand; the eye is available for reading reports of what cation; the invention of appliances for securing acquain- happens beyond its horizon. Things remote in space and tance with remote parts of the heavens and bygone events time affect the issue of our actions quite as much as of history; the cheapening of devices, like printing, for things which we can smell and handle. They really con- recording and distributing information —genuine and cern us, and, consequently, any account of them which alleged—have created an immense bulk of communicated assists us in dealing with things at hand falls within per- subject matter. It is much easier to swamp a pupil with sonal experience. this than to work it into his direct experiences. All too Information is the name usually given to this kind of frequently it forms another strange world which just over- subject matter. The place of communication in personal lies the world of personal acquaintance. The sole problem doing supplies us with a criterion for estimating the value of the student is to learn, for school purposes, for pur- of informational material in school. Does it grow natu- poses of recitations and promotions, the constituent parts rally out of some question with which the student is con- of this strange world. Probably the most conspicuous concerned? Does it fit into his more direct acquaintance so notation of the word knowledge for most persons to-day

194 John Dewey is just the body of facts and truths ascertained by others; branches of study, each study being subdivided into les- the material found in the rows and rows of atlases, cyclo- sons presenting in serial cutoff portions of the total store. pedias, histories, biographies, books of travel, scientific In the seventeenth century, the store was still small treatises, on the shelves of libraries. enough so that men set up the ideal of a complete ency- The imposing stupendous bulk of this material has un- clopedic mastery of it. It is now so bulky that the impos- consciously influenced men’s notions of the nature of sibility of any one man’s coming into possession of it all knowledge itself. The statements, the propositions, in is obvious. But the educational ideal has not been much which knowledge, the issue of active concern with prob- affected. Acquisition of a modicum of information in each lems, is deposited, are taken to be themselves knowl- branch of learning, or at least in a selected group, re- edge. The record of knowledge, independent of its place mains the principle by which the curriculum, from el- as an outcome of inquiry and a resource in further in- ementary school through college, is formed; the easier quiry, is taken to be knowledge. The mind of man is taken portions being assigned to the earlier years, the more captive by the spoils of its prior victories; the spoils, not difficult to the later. The complaints of educators that the weapons and the acts of waging the battle against learning does not enter into character and affect con- the unknown, are used to fix the meaning of knowledge, duct; the protests against memoriter work, against cram- of fact, and truth. ming, against gradgrind preoccupation with “facts, “ If this identification of knowledge with propositions against devotion to wire-drawn distinctions and ill-un- stating information has fastened itself upon logicians and derstood rules and principles, all follow from this state of philosophers, it is not surprising that the same ideal has affairs. Knowledge which is mainly second-hand, other almost dominated instruction. The “course of study” con- men’s knowledge, tends to become merely verbal. It is no sists largely of information distributed into various objection to information that it is clothed in words; com-

195 Democracy & Education munication necessarily takes place through words. But in the circle to its circumference is 3.1415 . . . one receives the degree in which what is communicated cannot be what is indeed knowledge for others, but for him it is a organized into the existing experience of the learner, it stimulus to knowing. His acquisition of knowledge de- becomes mere words: that is, pure sense-stimuli, lacking pends upon his response to what is communicated. in meaning. Then it operates to call out mechanical reactions, ability to use the vocal organs to repeat state- 3. Science or Rationalized Knowledge. Science is a name ments, or the hand to write or to do “sums.” for knowledge in its most characteristic form. It repre- To be informed is to be posted; it is to have at com- sents in its degree, the perfected outcome of learning,— mand the subject matter needed for an effective dealing its consummation. What is known, in a given case, is with a problem, and for giving added significance to the what is sure, certain, settled, disposed of; that which we search for solution and to the solution itself. Informa- think with rather than that which we think about. In its tional knowledge is the material which can be fallen back honorable sense, knowledge is distinguished from opin- upon as given, settled, established, assured in a doubt- ion, guesswork, speculation, and mere tradition. In knowl- ful situation. It is a kind of bridge for mind in its passage edge, things are ascertained; they are so and not dubi- from doubt to discovery. It has the office of an intellec- ously otherwise. But experience makes us aware that there tual middleman. It condenses and records in available is difference between intellectual certainty of subject form the net results of the prior experiences of mankind, matter and our certainty. We are made, so to speak, for as an agency of enhancing the meaning of new experi- belief; credulity is natural. The undisciplined mind is ences. When one is told that Brutus assassinated Caesar, averse to suspense and intellectual hesitation; it is prone or that the length of the year is three hundred sixty-five to assertion. It likes things undisturbed, settled, and treats and one fourth days, or that the ratio of the diameter of them as such without due warrant. Familiarity, common

196 John Dewey repute, and congeniality to desire are readily made mea- and our incomplete inquiry into conditions (thereby get- suring rods of truth. Ignorance gives way to opinionated ting material for revising the former and stimulus for ex- and current error,—a greater foe to learning than igno- tending the latter) but to untoward fate. We even plume rance itself. A Socrates is thus led to declare that con- ourselves upon our firmness in clinging to our conceptions sciousness of ignorance is the beginning of effective love in spite of the way in which they work out. of wisdom, and a Descartes to say that science is born of Science represents the safeguard of the race against doubting. these natural propensities and the evils which flow from We have already dwelt upon the fact that subject matter, them. It consists of the special appliances and methods or data, and ideas have to have their worth tested experi- which the race has slowly worked out in order to conduct mentally: that in themselves they are tentative and provi- reflection under conditions whereby its procedures and sional. Our predilection for premature acceptance and as- results are tested. It is artificial (an acquired art), not sertion, our aversion to suspended judgment, are signs spontaneous; learned, not native. To this fact is due the that we tend naturally to cut short the process of testing. unique, the invaluable place of science in education, and We are satisfied with superficial and immediate also the dangers which threaten its right use. Without shortvisioned applications. If these work out with moder- initiation into the scientific spirit one is not in posses- ate satisfactoriness, we are content to suppose that our sion of the best tools which humanity has so far devised assumptions have been confirmed. Even in the case of for effectively directed reflection. One in that case not failure, we are inclined to put the blame not on the inad- merely conducts inquiry and learning without the use of equacy and incorrectness of our data and thoughts, but the best instruments, but fails to understand the full upon our hard luck and the hostility of circumstance. We meaning of knowledge. For he does not become acquainted charge the evil consequence not to the error of our schemes with the traits that mark off opinion and assent from

197 Democracy & Education authorized conviction. On the other hand, the fact that firmed) is incidental to its organization with reference to science marks the perfecting of knowing in highly spe- securing crops, live-stock, etc. But scientific subject mat- cialized conditions of technique renders its results, taken ter is organized with specific reference to the successful by themselves, remote from ordinary experience —a qual- conduct of the enterprise of discovery, to knowing as a ity of aloofness that is popularly designated by the term specialized undertaking. Reference to the kind of assur- abstract. When this isolation appears in instruction, sci- ance attending science will shed light upon this state- entific information is even more exposed to the dangers ment. It is rational assurance,—logical warranty. The ideal attendant upon presenting ready-made subject matter of scientific organization is, therefore, that every con- than are other forms of information. ception and statement shall be of such a kind as to fol- Science has been defined in terms of method of inquiry low from others and to lead to others. Conceptions and and testing. At first sight, this definition may seem op- propositions mutually imply and support one another. This posed to the current conception that science is orga- double relation of ‘leading to and confirming” is what is nized or systematized knowledge. The opposition, how- meant by the terms logical and rational. The everyday ever, is only seeming, and disappears when the ordinary conception of water is more available for ordinary uses of definition is completed. Not organization but the kind of drinking, washing, irrigation, etc., than the chemist’s organization effected by adequate methods of tested dis- notion of it. The latter’s description of it as H20 is supe- covery marks off science. The knowledge of a farmer is rior from the standpoint of place and use in inquiry. It systematized in the degree in which he is competent. It states the nature of water in a way which connects it is organized on the basis of relation of means to ends — with knowledge of other things, indicating to one who practically organized. Its organization as knowledge (that understands it how the knowledge is arrived at and its is, in the eulogistic sense of adequately tested and con- bearings upon other portions of knowledge of the struc-

198 John Dewey ture of things. Strictly speaking, it does not indicate the vital knowledge; even in the data and ideas which are objective relations of water any more than does a state- relevant to real problems and which are motivated by ment that water is transparent, fluid, without taste or purposes. For there is a difference in the social scope of odor, satisfying to thirst, etc. It is just as true that water purposes and the social importance of problems. With has these relations as that it is constituted by two mol- the wide range of possible material to select from, it is ecules of hydrogen in combination with one of oxygen. important that education (especially in all its phases short But for the particular purpose of conducting discovery of the most specialized) should use a criterion of social with a view to ascertainment of fact, the latter relations worth. All information and systematized scientific sub- are fundamental. The more one emphasizes organization ject matter have been worked out under the conditions as a mark of science, then, the more he is committed to a of social life and have been transmitted by social means. recognition of the primacy of method in the definition of But this does not prove that all is of equal value for the science. For method defines the kind of organization in purposes of forming the disposition and supplying the virtue of which science is science. equipment of members of present society. The scheme of a curriculum must take account of the adaptation of stud- 4. Subject Matter as Social. Our next chapters will take ies to the needs of the existing community life; it must up various school activities and studies and discuss them select with the intention of improving the life we live in as successive stages in that evolution of knowledge which common so that the future shall be better than the past. we have just been discussing. It remains to say a few Moreover, the curriculum must be planned with reference words upon subject matter as social, since our prior re- to placing essentials first, and refinements second. The marks have been mainly concerned with its intellectual things which are socially most fundamental, that is, which aspect. A difference in breadth and depth exists even in have to do with the experiences in which the widest groups

199 Democracy & Education share, are the essentials. The things which represent able; it assumes that in the future, as in the past, get- the needs of specialized groups and technical pursuits ting a livelihood, “making a living,” must signify for are secondary. There is truth in the saying that educa- most men and women doing things which are not sig- tion must first be human and only after that profes- nificant, freely chosen, and ennobling to those who do sional. But those who utter the saying frequently have them; doing things which serve ends unrecognized by in mind in the term human only a highly specialized those engaged in them, carried on under the direction class: the class of learned men who preserve the classic of others for the sake of pecuniary reward. For prepara- traditions of the past. They forget that material is hu- tion of large numbers for a life of this sort, and only for manized in the degree in which it connects with the this purpose, are mechanical efficiency in reading, writ- common interests of men as men. Democratic society is ing, spelling and figuring, together with attainment of peculiarly dependent for its maintenance upon the use a certain amount of muscular dexterity, “essentials.” Such in forming a course of study of criteria which are broadly conditions also infect the education called liberal, with human. Democracy cannot flourish where the chief in- illiberality. They imply a somewhat parasitic cultivation fluences in selecting subject matter of instruction are bought at the expense of not having the enlightenment utilitarian ends narrowly conceived for the masses, and, and discipline which come from concern with the deep- for the higher education of the few, the traditions of a est problems of common humanity. A curriculum which specialized cultivated class. The notion that the “es- acknowledges the social responsibilities of education sentials” of elementary education are the three R’s me- must present situations where problems are relevant to chanically treated, is based upon ignorance of the es- the problems of living together, and where observation sentials needed for realization of democratic ideals. and information are calculated to develop social insight Unconsciously it assumes that these ideals are unrealiz- and interest.

200 John Dewey Summary. The subject matter of education consists pri- and facts communicated by others who have had a larger marily of the meanings which supply content to existing experience. social life. The continuity of social life means that many of these meanings are contributed to present activity by 1 Since the learned man should also still be a learner, it past collective experience. As social life grows more com- will be understood that these contrasts are relative, not plex, these factors increase in number and import. There absolute. But in the earlier stages of learning at least is need of special selection, formulation, and organiza- they are practically all-important. tion in order that they may be adequately transmitted to the new generation. But this very process tends to set up subject matter as something of value just by itself, apart from its function in promoting the realization of the meanings implied in the present experience of the immature. Especially is the educator exposed to the temptation to conceive his task in terms of the pupil’s ability to appropriate and reproduce the subject matter in set statements, irrespective of its organization into his activities as a developing social member. The positive principle is maintained when the young begin with active occupations having a social origin and use, and proceed to a scientific insight in the materials and laws involved, through assimilating into their more direct experience the ideas

201 Democracy & Education Chapter Fifteen: Play and Work in the Curriculum strain of “regular” school work. There is no reason, however, for using them merely as agreeable diversions. Study 1. The Place of Active Occupations in Education. In of mental life has made evident the fundamental worth consequence partly of the efforts of educational reform- of native tendencies to explore, to manipulate tools and ers, partly of increased interest in child-psychology, and materials, to construct, to give expression to joyous emo- partly of the direct experience of the schoolroom, the tion, etc. When exercises which are prompted by these course of study has in the past generation undergone instincts are a part of the regular school program, the considerable modification. The desirability of starting from whole pupil is engaged, the artificial gap between life in and with the experience and capacities of learners, a les- school and out is reduced, motives are afforded for at- son enforced from all three quarters, has led to the intro- tention to a large variety of materials and processes dis- duction of forms of activity, in play and work, similar to tinctly educative in effect, and cooperative associations those in which children and youth engage outside of which give information in a social setting are provided. school. Modern psychology has substituted for the gen- In short, the grounds for assigning to play and active eral, ready-made faculties of older theory a complex group work a definite place in the curriculum are intellectual of instinctive and impulsive tendencies. Experience has and social, not matters of temporary expediency and shown that when children have a chance at physical ac- momentary agreeableness. Without something of the kind, tivities which bring their natural impulses into play, go- it is not possible to secure the normal estate of effective ing to school is a joy, management is less of a burden, learning; namely, that knowledge-getting be an outgrowth and learning is easier. Sometimes, perhaps, plays, games, of activities having their own end, instead of a school and constructive occupations are resorted to only for these task. More specifically, play and work correspond, point reasons, with emphasis upon relief from the tedium and for point, with the traits of the initial stage of knowing,

202 John Dewey which consists, as we saw in the last chapter, in learning were, on the other hand, rare and difficult of access; they how to do things and in acquaintance with things and were the only means of outlet from a narrow and crude processes gained in the doing. It is suggestive that among environment. Wherever such conditions obtain, much may the Greeks, till the rise of conscious philosophy, the same be said in favor of concentrating school activity upon word, techne, was used for art and science. Plato gave books. The situation is very different, however, in most his account of knowledge on the basis of an analysis of communities to-day. The kinds of work in which the young the knowledge of cobblers, carpenters, players of musical can engage, especially in cities, are largely anti-educa- instruments, etc., pointing out that their art (so far as it tional. That prevention of child labor is a social duty is was not mere routine) involved an end, mastery of mate- evidence on this point. On the other hand, printed mat- rial or stuff worked upon, control of appliances, and a ter has been so cheapened and is in such universal circu- definite order of procedure—all of which had to be known lation, and all the opportunities of intellectual culture in order that there be intelligent skill or art. have been so multiplied, that the older type of book work Doubtless the fact that children normally engage in play is far from having the force it used to possess. and work out of school has seemed to many educators a But it must not be forgotten that an educational result reason why they should concern themselves in school is a by-product of play and work in most out-of-school with things radically different. School time seemed too conditions. It is incidental, not primary. Consequently precious to spend in doing over again what children were the educative growth secured is more or less accidental. sure to do any way. In some social conditions, this rea- Much work shares in the defects of existing industrial son has weight. In pioneer times, for example, outside society—defects next to fatal to right development. Play occupations gave a definite and valuable intellectual and tends to reproduce and affirm the crudities, as well as moral training. Books and everything concerned with them the excellencies, of surrounding adult life. It is the busi-

203 Democracy & Education ness of the school to set up an environment in which of the modes of occupation. play and work shall be conducted with reference to facili- The problem of the educator is to engage pupils in these tating desirable mental and moral growth. It is not enough activities in such ways that while manual skill and tech- just to introduce plays and games, hand work and manual nical efficiency are gained and immediate satisfaction exercises. Everything depends upon the way in which they found in the work, together with preparation for later are employed. usefulness, these things shall be subordinated to education—that is, to intellectual results and the forming of a 2. Available Occupations. A bare catalogue of the list of socialized disposition. What does this principle signify? activities which have already found their way into schools In the first place, the principle rules out certain prac- indicates what a rich field is at hand. There is work with tices. Activities which follow definite prescription and paper, cardboard, wood, leather, cloth, yarns, clay and dictation or which reproduce without modification ready- sand, and the metals, with and without tools. Processes made models, may give muscular dexterity, but they do employed are folding, cutting, pricking, measuring, mold- not require the perception and elaboration of ends, nor ing, modeling, pattern-making, heating and cooling, and (what is the same thing in other words) do they permit the operations characteristic of such tools as the ham- the use of judgment in selecting and adapting means. mer, saw, file, etc. Outdoor excursions, gardening, cook- Not merely manual training specifically so called but many ing, sewing, printing, book-binding, weaving, painting, traditional kindergarten exercises have erred here. More- drawing, singing, dramatization, story-telling, reading and over, opportunity for making mistakes is an incidental writing as active pursuits with social aims (not as mere requirement. Not because mistakes are ever desirable, but exercises for acquiring skill for future use), in addition to because overzeal to select material and appliances which a countless variety of plays and games, designate some forbid a chance for mistakes to occur, restricts initiative,

204 John Dewey reduces judgment to a minimum, and compels the use of Unconscious suspicion of native experience and conse- methods which are so remote from the complex situa- quent overdoing of external control are shown quite as tions of life that the power gained is of little availability. much in the material supplied as in the matter of the It is quite true that children tend to exaggerate their pow- teacher’s orders. The fear of raw material is shown in ers of execution and to select projects that are beyond laboratory, manual training shop, Froebelian kindergar- them. But limitation of capacity is one of the things which ten, and Montessori house of childhood. The demand is has to be learned; like other things, it is learned through for materials which have already been subjected to the the experience of consequences. The danger that children perfecting work of mind: a demand which shows itself in undertaking too complex projects will simply muddle and the subject matter of active occupations quite as well as mess, and produce not merely crude results (which is a in academic book learning. That such material will con- minor matter) but acquire crude standards (which is an trol the pupil’s operations so as to prevent errors is true. important matter) is great. But it is the fault of the teacher The notion that a pupil operating with such material will if the pupil does not perceive in due season the inad- somehow absorb the intelligence that went originally to equacy of his performances, and thereby receive a stimu- its shaping is fallacious. Only by starting with crude ma- lus to attempt exercises which will perfect his powers. terial and subjecting it to purposeful handling will he Meantime it is more important to keep alive a creative and gain the intelligence embodied in finished material. In constructive attitude than to secure an external perfec- practice, overemphasis upon formed material leads to an tion by engaging the pupil’s action in too minute and too exaggeration of mathematical qualities, since intellect closely regulated pieces of work. Accuracy and finish of finds its profit in physical things from matters of size, detail can be insisted upon in such portions of a complex form, and proportion and the relations that flow from work as are within the pupil’s capacity. them. But these are known only when their perception is

205 Democracy & Education a fruit of acting upon purposes which require attention poses of discovery and testing which alone give it mean- to them. The more human the purpose, or the more it ing. Kindergarten employments are calculated to give in- approximates the ends which appeal in daily experience, formation regarding cubes, spheres, etc., and to form the more real the knowledge. When the purpose of the certain habits of manipulation of material (for everything activity is restricted to ascertaining these qualities, the must always be done “just so”), the absence of more vital resulting knowledge is only technical. purposes being supposedly compensated for by the al- To say that active occupations should be concerned pri- leged symbolism of the material used. Manual training is marily with wholes is another statement of the same prin- reduced to a series of ordered assignments calculated to ciple. Wholes for purposes of education are not, however, secure the mastery of one tool after another and techni- physical affairs. Intellectually the existence of a whole cal ability in the various elements of construction—like depends upon a concern or interest; it is qualitative, the the different joints. It is argued that pupils must know completeness of appeal made by a situation. Exagger- how to use tools before they attack actual making,— ated devotion to formation of efficient skill irrespective assuming that pupils cannot learn how in the process of of present purpose always shows itself in devising exer- making. Pestalozzi’s just insistence upon the active use cises isolated from a purpose. Laboratory work is made to of the senses, as a substitute for memorizing words, left consist of tasks of accurate measurement with a view to behind it in practice schemes for “object lessons” in- acquiring knowledge of the fundamental units of physics, tended to acquaint pupils with all the qualities of se- irrespective of contact with the problems which make lected objects. The error is the same: in all these cases it these units important; or of operations designed to af- is assumed that before objects can be intelligently used, ford facility in the manipulation of experimental appara- their properties must be known. In fact, the senses are tus. The technique is acquired independently of the pur- normally used in the course of intelligent (that is, pur-

206 John Dewey poseful) use of things, since the qualities perceived are through the process, the constituent qualities and rela- factors to be reckoned with in accomplishment. Witness tions are elements, each possessed with a definite mean- the different attitude of a boy in making, say, a kite, ing of its own. The false notion referred to takes the with respect to the grain and other properties of wood, standpoint of the expert, the one for whom elements ex- the matter of size, angles, and proportion of parts, to the ist; isolates them from purposeful action, and presents attitude of a pupil who has an object-lesson on a piece them to beginners as the “simple” things. But it is time of wood, where the sole function of wood and its proper- for a positive statement. Aside from the fact that active ties is to serve as subject matter for the lesson. occupations represent things to do, not studies, their The failure to realize that the functional development educational significance consists in the fact that they of a situation alone constitutes a “whole” for the pur- may typify social situations. Men’s fundamental common pose of mind is the cause of the false notions which have concerns center about food, shelter, clothing, household prevailed in instruction concerning the simple and the furnishings, and the appliances connected with produc- complex. For the person approaching a subject, the simple tion, exchange, and consumption. thing is his purpose—the use he desires to make of ma- Representing both the necessities of life and the adorn- terial, tool, or technical process, no matter how compli- ments with which the necessities have been clothed, they cated the process of execution may be. The unity of the tap instincts at a deep level; they are saturated with purpose, with the concentration upon details which it facts and principles having a social quality. entails, confers simplicity upon the elements which have To charge that the various activities of gardening, weav- to be reckoned with in the course of action. It furnishes ing, construction in wood, manipulation of metals, cook- each with a single meaning according to its service in ing, etc., which carry over these fundamental human con- carrying on the whole enterprise. After one has gone cerns into school resources, have a merely bread and but-

207 Democracy & Education ter value is to miss their point. If the mass of mankind soil, the role of light, air, and moisture, injurious and has usually found in its industrial occupations nothing helpful animal life, etc. There is nothing in the elemen- but evils which had to be endured for the sake of main- tary study of botany which cannot be introduced in a taining existence, the fault is not in the occupations, but vital way in connection with caring for the growth of in the conditions under which they are carried on. The seeds. Instead of the subject matter belonging to a pe- continually increasing importance of economic factors in culiar study called botany, it will then belong to life, and contemporary life makes it the more needed that educa- will find, moreover, its natural correlations with the facts tion should reveal their scientific content and their so- of soil, animal life, and human relations. As students grow cial value. For in schools, occupations are not carried on mature, they will perceive problems of interest which may for pecuniary gain but for their own content. Freed from be pursued for the sake of discovery, independent of the extraneous associations and from the pressure of wage- original direct interest in gardening—problems connected earning, they supply modes of experience which are in- with the germination and nutrition of plants, the repro- trinsically valuable; they are truly liberalizing in quality. duction of fruits, etc., thus making a transition to delib- Gardening, for example, need not be taught either for erate intellectual investigations. the sake of preparing future gardeners, or as an agree- The illustration is intended to apply, of course, to other able way of passing time. It affords an avenue of ap- school occupations,—wood-working, cooking, and on proach to knowledge of the place farming and horticul- through the list. It is pertinent to note that in the his- ture have had in the history of the race and which they tory of the race the sciences grew gradually out from occupy in present social organization. Carried on in an useful social occupations. Physics developed slowly out environment educationally controlled, they are means for of the use of tools and machines; the important branch making a study of the facts of growth, the chemistry of of physics known as mechanics testifies in its name to its

208 John Dewey original associations. The lever, wheel, inclined plane, tical use of number in counting to keep track of things etc., were among the first great intellectual discoveries and in measuring is even more important to-day than in of mankind, and they are none the less intellectual be- the times when it was invented for these purposes. Such cause they occurred in the course of seeking for means of considerations (which could be duplicated in the history accomplishing practical ends. The great advance of elec- of any science) are not arguments for a recapitulation of trical science in the last generation was closely associ- the history of the race or for dwelling long in the early ated, as effect and as cause, with application of electric rule of thumb stage. But they indicate the possibilities— agencies to means of communication, transportation, greater to-day than ever before—of using active occupa- lighting of cities and houses, and more economical pro- tions as opportunities for scientific study. The opportu- duction of goods. These are social ends, moreover, and if nities are just as great on the social side, whether we they are too closely associated with notions of private look at the life of collective humanity in its past or in its profit, it is not because of anything in them, but because future. The most direct road for elementary students into they have been deflected to private uses:—a fact which civics and economics is found in consideration of the puts upon the school the responsibility of restoring their place and office of industrial occupations in social life. connection, in the mind of the coming generation, with Even for older students, the social sciences would be less public scientific and social interests. In like ways, chem- abstract and formal if they were dealt with less as sci- istry grew out of processes of dying, bleaching, metal ences (less as formulated bodies of knowledge) and more working, etc., and in recent times has found innumerable in their direct subject-matter as that is found in the daily new uses in industry. life of the social groups in which the student shares. Mathematics is now a highly abstract science; geom- Connection of occupations with the method of science etry, however, means literally earth-measuring: the prac- is at least as close as with its subject matter. The ages

209 Democracy & Education when scientific progress was slow were the ages when 3. Work and Play. What has been termed active occupa- learned men had contempt for the material and processes tion includes both play and work. In their intrinsic mean- of everyday life, especially for those concerned with ing, play and industry are by no means so antithetical to manual pursuits. Consequently they strove to develop one another as is often assumed, any sharp contrast be- knowledge out of general principles—almost out of their ing due to undesirable social conditions. Both involve heads—by logical reasons. It seems as absurd that learn- ends consciously entertained and the selection and ad- ing should come from action on and with physical things, aptations of materials and processes designed to effect like dropping acid on a stone to see what would happen, the desired ends. The difference between them is largely as that it should come from sticking an awl with waxed one of time-span, influencing the directness of the con- thread through a piece of leather. But the rise of experi- nection of means and ends. In play, the interest is more mental methods proved that, given control of conditions, direct—a fact frequently indicated by saying that in play the latter operation is more typical of the right way of the activity is its own end, instead of its having an ulte- knowledge than isolated logical reasonings. Experiment rior result. The statement is correct, but it is falsely taken, developed in the seventeenth and succeeding centuries if supposed to mean that play activity is momentary, and became the authorized way of knowing when men’s having no element of looking ahead and none of pursuit. interests were centered in the question of control of na- Hunting, for example, is one of the commonest forms of ture for human uses. The active occupations in which adult play, but the existence of foresight and the direc- appliances are brought to bear upon physical things with tion of present activity by what one is watching for are the intention of effecting useful changes is the most vi- obvious. When an activity is its own end in the sense tal introduction to the experimental method. that the action of the moment is complete in itself, it is purely physical; it has no meaning (See p. 77) . The per-

210 John Dewey son is either going through motions quite blindly, per- of intermediate adaptations. When the intended act is haps purely imitatively, or else is in a state of excitement another activity, it is not necessary to look far ahead and which is exhausting to mind and nerves. Both results it is possible to alter it easily and frequently. If a child is may be seen in some types of kindergarten games where making a toy boat, he must hold on to a single end and the idea of play is so highly symbolic that only the adult direct a considerable number of acts by that one idea. If is conscious of it. Unless the children succeed in reading he is just “playing boat” he may change the material that in some quite different idea of their own, they move about serves as a boat almost at will, and introduce new factors either as if in a hypnotic daze, or they respond to a direct as fancy suggests. The imagination makes what it will of excitation. chairs, blocks, leaves, chips, if they serve the purpose of The point of these remarks is that play has an end in carrying activity forward. the sense of a directing idea which gives point to the From a very early age, however, there is no distinction successive acts. Persons who play are not just doing some- of exclusive periods of play activity and work activity, thing (pure physical movement) ; they are trying to do or but only one of emphasis. There are definite results which effect something, an attitude that involves anticipatory even young children desire, and try to bring to pass. Their forecasts which stimulate their present responses. The eager interest in sharing the occupations of others, if anticipated result, however, is rather a subsequent ac- nothing else, accomplishes this. Children want to “help”; tion than the production of a specific change in things. they are anxious to engage in the pursuits of adults which Consequently play is free, plastic. Where some definite effect external changes: setting the table, washing dishes, external outcome is wanted, the end has to be held to helping care for animals, etc. In their plays, they like to with some persistence, which increases as the contem- construct their own toys and appliances. With increasing plated result is complex and requires a fairly long series maturity, activity which does not give back results of

211 Democracy & Education tangible and visible achievement loses its interest. Play thinking. It is pertinent, however, to inquire why the then changes to fooling and if habitually indulged in is idea is so current that work involves subordination of an demoralizing. Observable results are necessary to enable activity to an ulterior material result. The extreme form persons to get a sense and a measure of their own pow- of this subordination, namely drudgery, offers a clew. ers. When make-believe is recognized to be make-believe, Activity carried on under conditions of external pressure the device of making objects in fancy alone is too easy to or coercion is not carried on for any significance attached stimulate intense action. One has only to observe the to the doing. The course of action is not intrinsically countenance of children really playing to note that their satisfying; it is a mere means for avoiding some penalty, attitude is one of serious absorption; this attitude can- or for gaining some reward at its conclusion. What is not be maintained when things cease to afford adequate inherently repulsive is endured for the sake of averting stimulation. something still more repulsive or of securing a gain hitched When fairly remote results of a definite character are on by others. Under unfree economic conditions, this state foreseen and enlist persistent effort for their accomplish- of affairs is bound to exist. Work or industry offers little ment, play passes into work. Like play, it signifies pur- to engage the emotions and the imagination; it is a more poseful activity and differs not in that activity is subor- or less mechanical series of strains. Only the hold which dinated to an external result, but in the fact that a longer the completion of the work has upon a person will keep course of activity is occasioned by the idea of a result. him going. But the end should be intrinsic to the action; The demand for continuous attention is greater, and more it should be its end—a part of its own course. Then it intelligence must be shown in selecting and shaping affords a stimulus to effort very different from that aris- means. To extend this account would be to repeat what ing from the thought of results which have nothing to do has been said under the caption of aim, interest, and with the intervening action. As already mentioned, the

212 John Dewey absence of economic pressure in schools supplies an op- afford opportunity for wholesome recreation and train portunity for reproducing industrial situations of mature capacity for seeking and finding it, the suppressed in- life under conditions where the occupation can be car- stincts find all sorts of illicit outlets, sometimes overt, ried on for its own sake. If in some cases, pecuniary rec- sometimes confined to indulgence of the imagination. ognition is also a result of an action, though not the Education has no more serious responsibility than mak- chief motive for it, that fact may well increase the sig- ing adequate provision for enjoyment of recreative lei- nificance of the occupation. Where something approach- sure; not only for the sake of immediate health, but still ing drudgery or the need of fulfilling externally imposed more if possible for the sake of its lasting effect upon tasks exists, the demand for play persists, but tends to habits of mind. Art is again the answer to this demand. be perverted. The ordinary course of action fails to give adequate stimulus to emotion and imagination. So in lei- Summary. In the previous chapter we found that the pri- sure time, there is an imperious demand for their stimu- mary subject matter of knowing is that contained in learn- lation by any kind of means; gambling, drink, etc., may ing how to do things of a fairly direct sort. The educa- be resorted to. Or, in less extreme cases, there is recourse tional equivalent of this principle is the consistent use of to idle amusement; to anything which passes time with simple occupations which appeal to the powers of youth immediate agreeableness. Recreation, as the word indi- and which typify general modes of social activity. Skill cates, is recuperation of energy. No demand of human and information about materials, tools, and laws of en- nature is more urgent or less to be escaped. The idea that ergy are acquired while activities are carried on for their the need can be suppressed is absolutely fallacious, and own sake. The fact that they are socially representative the Puritanic tradition which disallows the need has en- gives a quality to the skill and knowledge gained which tailed an enormous crop of evils. If education does not makes them transferable to out-of-school situations. It is

213 Democracy & Education important not to confuse the psychological distinction Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography between play and work with the economic distinction. and History Psychologically, the defining characteristic of play is not amusement nor aimlessness. It is the fact that the aim is 1. Extension of Meaning of Primary Activities. Nothing thought of as more activity in the same line, without is more striking than the difference between an activity defining continuity of action in reference to results pro- as merely physical and the wealth of meanings which the duced. Activities as they grow more complicated gain same activity may assume. From the outside, an astrono- added meaning by greater attention to specific results mer gazing through a telescope is like a small boy look- achieved. Thus they pass gradually into work. Both are ing through the same tube. In each case, there is an equally free and intrinsically motivated, apart from false arrangement of glass and metal, an eye, and a little speck economic conditions which tend to make play into idle of light in the distance. Yet at a critical moment, the excitement for the well to do, and work into uncongenial activity of an astronomer might be concerned with the labor for the poor. Work is psychologically simply an ac- birth of a world, and have whatever is known about the tivity which consciously includes regard for consequences starry heavens as its significant content. Physically speak- as a part of itself; it becomes constrained labor when the ing, what man has effected on this globe in his progress consequences are outside of the activity as an end to from savagery is a mere scratch on its surface, not per- which activity is merely a means. Work which remains ceptible at a distance which is slight in comparison with permeated with the play attitude is art—in quality if not the reaches even of the solar system. Yet in meaning in conventional designation. what has been accomplished measures just the difference of civilization from savagery. Although the activities, physically viewed, have changed somewhat, this

214 John Dewey change is slight in comparison with the development of a means or as a widening of the content of the aim—it is the meanings attaching to the activities. There is no limit informing. The insight directly gained fuses with what is to the meaning which an action may come to possess. It told. Individual experience is then capable of taking up all depends upon the context of perceived connections in and holding in solution the net results of the experience which it is placed; the reach of imagination in realizing of the group to which he belongs—including the results connections is inexhaustible. The advantage which the of sufferings and trials over long stretches of time. And activity of man has in appropriating and finding mean- such media have no fixed saturation point where further ings makes his education something else than the manu- absorption is impossible. The more that is taken in, the facture of a tool or the training of an animal. The latter greater capacity there is for further assimilation. New increase efficiency; they do not develop significance. The receptiveness follows upon new curiosity, and new curi- final educational importance of such occupations in play osity upon information gained. and work as were considered in the last chapter is that The meanings with which activities become charged, they afford the most direct instrumentalities for such concern nature and man. This is an obvious truism, which extension of meaning. Set going under adequate condi- however gains meaning when translated into educational tions they are magnets for gathering and retaining an equivalents. So translated, it signifies that geography and indefinitely wide scope of intellectual considerations. They history supply subject matter which gives background and provide vital centers for the reception and assimilation outlook, intellectual perspective, to what might other- of information. When information is purveyed in chunks wise be narrow personal actions or mere forms of techni- simply as information to be retained for its own sake, it cal skill. With every increase of ability to place our own tends to stratify over vital experience. Entering as a fac- doings in their time and space connections, our doings tor into an activity pursued for its own sake—whether as gain in significant content. We realize that we are citi-

215 Democracy & Education zens of no mean city in discovering the scene in space of mind wooden; elasticity disappears. which we are denizens, and the continuous manifesta- Normally every activity engaged in for its own sake tion of endeavor in time of which we are heirs and con- reaches out beyond its immediate self. It does not pas- tinuers. Thus our ordinary daily experiences cease to be sively wait for information to be bestowed which will things of the moment and gain enduring substance. Of increase its meaning; it seeks it out. Curiosity is not an course if geography and history are taught as ready-made accidental isolated possession; it is a necessary conse- studies which a person studies simply because he is sent quence of the fact that an experience is a moving, chang- to school, it easily happens that a large number of state- ing thing, involving all kinds of connections with other ments about things remote and alien to everyday experi- things. Curiosity is but the tendency to make these con- ence are learned. Activity is divided, and two separate ditions perceptible. It is the business of educators to worlds are built up, occupying activity at divided peri- supply an environment so that this reaching out of an ods. No transmutation takes place; ordinary experience is experience may be fruitfully rewarded and kept continu- not enlarged in meaning by getting its connections; what ously active. Within a certain kind of environment, an is studied is not animated and made real by entering into activity may be checked so that the only meaning which immediate activity. Ordinary experience is not even left accrues is of its direct and tangible isolated outcome. as it was, narrow but vital. Rather, it loses something of One may cook, or hammer, or walk, and the resulting its mobility and sensitiveness to suggestions. It is weighed consequences may not take the mind any farther than down and pushed into a corner by a load of unassimilated the consequences of cooking, hammering, and walking information. It parts with its flexible responsiveness and in the literal—or physical—sense. But nevertheless the alert eagerness for additional meaning. Mere amassing of consequences of the act remain far-reaching. To walk in- information apart from the direct interests of life makes volves a displacement and reaction of the resisting earth,

216 John Dewey whose thrill is felt wherever there is matter. It involves the activities and sufferings of the social groups with the structure of the limbs and the nervous system; the which our own lives are continuous, and through refer- principles of mechanics. To cook is to utilize heat and ence to which our own customs and institutions are illu- moisture to change the chemical relations of food mate- minated. rials; it has a bearing upon the assimilation of food and the growth of the body. The utmost that the most learned 2. The Complementary Nature of History and Geography. men of science know in physics, chemistry, physiology is History and geography—including in the latter, for rea- not enough to make all these consequences and connec- sons about to be mentioned, nature study—are the in- tions perceptible. The task of education, once more, is to formation studies par excellence of the schools. Exami- see to it that such activities are performed in such ways nation of the materials and the method of their use will and under such conditions as render these conditions as make clear that the difference between penetration of perceptible as possible. To “learn geography” is to gain this information into living experience and its mere pil- in power to perceive the spatial, the natural, connec- ing up in isolated heaps depends upon whether these tions of an ordinary act; to “learn history” is essentially studies are faithful to the interdependence of man and to gain in power to recognize its human connections. For nature which affords these studies their justification. what is called geography as a formulated study is simply Nowhere, however, is there greater danger that subject the body of facts and principles which have been discov- matter will be accepted as appropriate educational mate- ered in other men’s experience about the natural medium rial simply because it has become customary to teach in which we live, and in connection with which the par- and learn it. The idea of a philosophic reason for it, be- ticular acts of our life have an explanation. So history as cause of the function of the material in a worthy trans- a formulated study is but the body of known facts about formation of experience, is looked upon as a vain fancy,

217 Democracy & Education or as supplying a high-sounding phraseology in support periments, its ways and means, its achievements and fail- of what is already done. The words “history” and “geog- ures, does not go on in the sky nor yet in a vacuum. It raphy” suggest simply the matter which has been tradi- takes place on the earth. This setting of nature does not tionally sanctioned in the schools. The mass and variety bear to social activities the relation that the scenery of a of this matter discourage an attempt to see what it really theatrical performance bears to a dramatic representa- stands for, and how it can be so taught as to fulfill its tion; it enters into the very make-up of the social hap- mission in the experience of pupils. But unless the idea penings that form history. Nature is the medium of social that there is a unifying and social direction in education occurrences. It furnishes original stimuli; it supplies ob- is a farcical pretense, subjects that bulk as large in the stacles and resources. Civilization is the progressive mas- curriculum as history and geography, must represent a tery of its varied energies. When this interdependence of general function in the development of a truly socialized the study of history, representing the human emphasis, and intellectualized experience. The discovery of this func- with the study of geography, representing the natural, is tion must be employed as a criterion for trying and sift- ignored, history sinks to a listing of dates with an ap- ing the facts taught and the methods used. pended inventory of events, labeled “important”; or else The function of historical and geographical subject mat- it becomes a literary phantasy—for in purely literary his- ter has been stated; it is to enrich and liberate the more tory the natural environment is but stage scenery. direct and personal contacts of life by furnishing their Geography, of course, has its educative influence in a context, their background and outlook. While geography counterpart connection of natural facts with social events emphasizes the physical side and history the social, these and their consequences. The classic definition of geogra- are only emphases in a common topic, namely, the asso- phy as an account of the earth as the home of man ex- ciated life of men. For this associated life, with its expresses the educational reality. But it is easier to give

218 John Dewey this definition than it is to present specific geographical tomary. And while local or home geography is the natural subject matter in its vital human bearings. The residence, starting point in the reconstructive development of the pursuits, successes, and failures of men are the things natural environment, it is an intellectual starting point that give the geographic data their reason for inclusion for moving out into the unknown, not an end in itself. in the material of instruction. But to hold the two to- When not treated as a basis for getting at the large world gether requires an informed and cultivated imagination. beyond, the study of the home geography becomes as When the ties are broken, geography presents itself as deadly as do object lessons which simply summarize the that hodge-podge of unrelated fragments too often found. properties of familiar objects. The reason is the same. It appears as a veritable rag-bag of intellectual odds and The imagination is not fed, but is held down to recapitu- ends: the height of a mountain here, the course of a river lating, cataloguing, and refining what is already known. there, the quantity of shingles produced in this town, the But when the familiar fences that mark the limits of the tonnage of the shipping in that, the boundary of a county, village proprietors are signs that introduce an understand- the capital of a state. The earth as the home of man is ing of the boundaries of great nations, even fences are humanizing and unified; the earth viewed as a miscel- lighted with meaning. Sunlight, air, running water, in- lany of facts is scattering and imaginatively inert. Geog- equality of earth’s surface, varied industries, civil officers raphy is a topic that originally appeals to imagination— and their duties—all these things are found in the local even to the romantic imagination. It shares in the won- environment. Treated as if their meaning began and ended der and glory that attach to adventure, travel, and explo- in those confines, they are curious facts to be laboriously ration. The variety of peoples and environments, their learned. As instruments for extending the limits of expe- contrast with familiar scenes, furnishes infinite stimula- rience, bringing within its scope peoples and things oth- tion. The mind is moved from the monotony of the cus- erwise strange and unknown, they are transfigured by

219 Democracy & Education the use to which they are put. Sunlight, wind, stream, solar system. Economic activities deeply influence social commerce, political relations come from afar and lead intercourse and political organization on one side, and the thoughts afar. To follow their course is to enlarge the reflect physical conditions on the other. The specializa- mind not by stuffing it with additional information, but tions of these topics are for the specialists; their interac- by remaking the meaning of what was previously a mat- tion concerns man as a being whose experience is social. ter of course. To include nature study within geography doubtless The same principle coordinates branches, or phases, of seems forced; verbally, it is. But in educational idea there geographical study which tend to become specialized and is but one reality, and it is pity that in practice we have separate. Mathematical or astronomical, physiographic, two names: for the diversity of names tends to conceal topographic, political, commercial, geography, all make the identity of meaning. Nature and the earth should be their claims. How are they to be adjusted? By an external equivalent terms, and so should earth study and nature compromise that crowds in so much of each? No other study. Everybody knows that nature study has suffered in method is to be found unless it be constantly borne in schools from scrappiness of subject matter, due to deal- mind that the educational center of gravity is in the cul- ing with a large number of isolated points. The parts of a tural or humane aspects of the subject. From this center, flower have been studied, for example, apart from the any material becomes relevant in so far as it is needed to flower as an organ; the flower apart from the plant; the help appreciate the significance of human activities and plant apart from the soil, air, and light in which and relations. The differences of civilization in cold and tropical through which it lives. The result is an inevitable dead- regions, the special inventions, industrial and political, ness of topics to which attention is invited, but which of peoples in the temperate regions, cannot be under- are so isolated that they do not feed imagination. The stood without appeal to the earth as a member of the lack of interest is so great that it was seriously proposed

220 John Dewey to revive animism, to clothe natural facts and events with there would be only one reasonable attitude toward it. myths in order that they might attract and hold the mind. Let the dead bury their dead. But knowledge of the past In numberless cases, more or less silly personifications is the key to understanding the present. History deals were resorted to. The method was silly, but it expressed a with the past, but this past is the history of the present. real need for a human atmosphere. The facts had been An intelligent study of the discovery, explorations, colo- torn to pieces by being taken out of their context. They nization of America, of the pioneer movement westward, no longer belonged to the earth; they had no abiding of immigration, etc., should be a study of the United place anywhere. To compensate, recourse was had to ar- States as it is to-day: of the country we now live in. tificial and sentimental associations. The real remedy is Studying it in process of formation makes much that is to make nature study a study of nature, not of fragments too complex to be directly grasped open to comprehen- made meaningless through complete removal from the sion. Genetic method was perhaps the chief scientific situations in which they are produced and in which they achievement of the latter half of the nineteenth century. operate. When nature is treated as a whole, like the earth Its principle is that the way to get insight into any com- in its relations, its phenomena fall into their natural rela- plex product is to trace the process of its making,—to tions of sympathy and association with human life, and follow it through the successive stages of its growth. To artificial substitutes are not needed. apply this method to history as if it meant only the truism that the present social state cannot be separated 3. History and Present Social Life. The segregation which from its past, is one-sided. It means equally that past kills the vitality of history is divorce from present modes events cannot be separated from the living present and and concerns of social life. The past just as past is no retain meaning. The true starting point of history is al- longer our affair. If it were wholly gone and done with, ways some present situation with its problems.

221 Democracy & Education This general principle may be briefly applied to a con- life as an introduction to learning history. Here also there sideration of its bearing upon a number of points. The is a right and a wrong way of conceiving its value. The biographical method is generally recommended as the seemingly ready-made character and the complexity of natural mode of approach to historical study. The lives of present conditions, their apparently hard and fast char- great men, of heroes and leaders, make concrete and vi- acter, is an almost insuperable obstacle to gaining in- tal historic episodes otherwise abstract and incompre- sight into their nature. Recourse to the primitive may hensible. They condense into vivid pictures complicated furnish the fundamental elements of the present situa- and tangled series of events spread over so much space tion in immensely simplified form. It is like unraveling a and time that only a highly trained mind can follow and cloth so complex and so close to the eyes that its scheme unravel them. There can be no doubt of the psychological cannot be seen, until the larger coarser features of the soundness of this principle. But it is misused when em- pattern appear. We cannot simplify the present situations ployed to throw into exaggerated relief the doings of a by deliberate experiment, but resort to primitive life pre- few individuals without reference to the social situations sents us with the sort of results we should desire from an which they represent. When a biography is related just as experiment. Social relationships and modes of organized an account of the doings of a man isolated from the con- action are reduced to their lowest terms. When this so- ditions that aroused him and to which his activities were cial aim is overlooked, however, the study of primitive a response, we do not have a study of history, for we life becomes simply a rehearsing of sensational and ex- have no study of social life, which is an affair of individu- citing features of savagery. Primitive history suggests in- als in association. We get only a sugar coating which dustrial history. For one of the chief reasons for going to makes it easier to swallow certain fragments of informa- more primitive conditions to resolve the present into more tion. Much attention has been given of late to primitive easily perceived factors is that we may realize how the

222 John Dewey fundamental problems of procuring subsistence, shelter, must do is to secure from each individual his fair contri- and protection have been met; and by seeing how these bution to the general well being and see to it that a just were solved in the earlier days of the human race, form return is made to him. some conception of the long road which has had to be Economic history is more human, more democratic, and traveled, and of the successive inventions by which the hence more liberalizing than political history. It deals race has been brought forward in culture. We do not need not with the rise and fall of principalities and powers, to go into disputes regarding the economic interpreta- but with the growth of the effective liberties, through tion of history to realize that the industrial history of command of nature, of the common man for whom pow- mankind gives insight into two important phases of so- ers and principalities exist. cial life in a way which no other phase of history can Industrial history also offers a more direct avenue of possibly do. It presents us with knowledge of the succes- approach to the realization of the intimate connection of sive inventions by which theoretical science has been man’s struggles, successes, and failures with nature than applied to the control of nature in the interests of secu- does political history—to say nothing of the military his- rity and prosperity of social life. It thus reveals the suc- tory into which political history so easily runs when re- cessive causes of social progress. Its other service is to duced to the level of youthful comprehension. For indus- put before us the things that fundamentally concern all trial history is essentially an account of the way in which men in common—the occupations and values connected man has learned to utilize natural energy from the time with getting a living. Economic history deals with the when men mostly exploited the muscular energies of other activities, the career, and fortunes of the common man men to the time when, in promise if not in actuality, the as does no other branch of history. The one thing every resources of nature are so under command as to enable individual must do is to live; the one thing that society men to extend a common dominion over her. When the

223 Democracy & Education history of work, when the conditions of using the soil, eulogize intelligence and reason in general terms; their forest, mine, of domesticating and cultivating grains and fundamental importance is urged. But pupils often come animals, of manufacture and distribution, are left out of away from the conventional study of history, and think account, history tends to become merely literary—a sys- either that the human intellect is a static quantity which tematized romance of a mythical humanity living upon has not progressed by the invention of better methods, itself instead of upon the earth. or else that intelligence, save as a display of personal Perhaps the most neglected branch of history in gen- shrewdness, is a negligible historic factor. Surely no bet- eral education is intellectual history. We are only just ter way could be devised of instilling a genuine sense of beginning to realize that the great heroes who have ad- the part which mind has to play in life than a study of vanced human destiny are not its politicians, generals, history which makes plain how the entire advance of hu- and diplomatists, but the scientific discoverers and in- manity from savagery to civilization has been dependent ventors who have put into man’s hands the instrumen- upon intellectual discoveries and inventions, and the talities of an expanding and controlled experience, and extent to which the things which ordinarily figure most the artists and poets who have celebrated his struggles, largely in historical writings have been side issues, or triumphs, and defeats in such language, pictorial, plas- even obstructions for intelligence to overcome. tic, or written, that their meaning is rendered universally Pursued in this fashion, history would most naturally accessible to others. One of the advantages of industrial become of ethical value in teaching. Intelligent insight history as a history of man’s progressive adaptation of into present forms of associated life is necessary for a natural forces to social uses is the opportunity which it character whose morality is more than colorless inno- affords for consideration of advance in the methods and cence. Historical knowledge helps provide such insight. results of knowledge. At present men are accustomed to It is an organ for analysis of the warp and woof of the

224 John Dewey present social fabric, of making known the forces which significance by extending its range of perceived connec- have woven the pattern. The use of history for cultivat- tions. Normal communication with others is the readiest ing a socialized intelligence constitutes its moral signifi- way of effecting this development, for it links up the net cance. It is possible to employ it as a kind of reservoir of results of the experience of the group and even the race anecdotes to be drawn on to inculcate special moral les- with the immediate experience of an individual. By nor- sons on this virtue or that vice. But such teaching is not mal communication is meant that in which there is a so much an ethical use of history as it is an effort to joint interest, a common interest, so that one is eager to create moral impressions by means of more or less au- give and the other to take. It contrasts with telling or thentic material. At best, it produces a temporary emo- stating things simply for the sake of impressing them tional glow; at worst, callous indifference to moralizing. upon another, merely in order to test him to see how The assistance which may be given by history to a more much he has retained and can literally reproduce. intelligent sympathetic understanding of the social situ- Geography and history are the two great school resources ations of the present in which individuals share is a per- for bringing about the enlargement of the significance of manent and constructive moral asset. a direct personal experience. The active occupations described in the previous chapter reach out in space and Summary. It is the nature of an experience to have im- time with respect to both nature and man. Unless they plications which go far beyond what is at first consciously are taught for external reasons or as mere modes of skill noted in it. Bringing these connections or implications their chief educational value is that they provide the most to consciousness enhances the meaning of the experi- direct and interesting roads out into the larger world of ence. Any experience, however trivial in its first appear- meanings stated in history and geography. While history ance, is capable of assuming an indefinite richness of makes human implications explicit and geography natu-

225 Democracy & Education ral connections, these subjects are two phases of the Chapter Seventeen: Science in the Course of Study same living whole, since the life of men in association goes on in nature, not as an accidental setting, but as 1. The Logical and the Psychological. By science is the material and medium of development. meant, as already stated, that knowledge which is the outcome of methods of observation, reflection, and testing which are deliberately adopted to secure a settled, assured subject matter. It involves an intelligent and persistent endeavor to revise current beliefs so as to weed out what is erroneous, to add to their accuracy, and, above all, to give them such shape that the dependencies of the various facts upon one another may be as obvious as possible. It is, like all knowledge, an outcome of activity bringing about certain changes in the environment. But in its case, the quality of the resulting knowledge is the controlling factor and not an incident of the activity. Both logically and educationally, science is the perfecting of knowing, its last stage. Science, in short, signifies a realization of the logical implications of any knowledge. Logical order is not a form imposed upon what is known; it is the proper form of knowledge as perfected. For it means that the statement

226 John Dewey of subject matter is of a nature to exhibit to one who technical body of information without ability to trace its understands it the premises from which it follows and connections with the objects and operations with which the conclusions to which it points (See ante, p. 190). As he is familiar—often he acquires simply a peculiar vocabu- from a few bones the competent zoologist reconstructs lary. There is a strong temptation to assume that present- an animal; so from the form of a statement in mathemat- ing subject matter in its perfected form provides a royal ics or physics the specialist in the subject can form an road to learning. What more natural than to suppose that idea of the system of truths in which it has its place. the immature can be saved time and energy, and be pro- To the non-expert, however, this perfected form is a tected from needless error by commencing where compe- stumbling block. Just because the material is stated with tent inquirers have left off? The outcome is written large reference to the furtherance of knowledge as an end in in the history of education. Pupils begin their study of itself, its connections with the material of everyday life science with texts in which the subject is organized into are hidden. To the layman the bones are a mere curiosity. topics according to the order of the specialist. Technical Until he had mastered the principles of zoology, his ef- concepts, with their definitions, are introduced at the out- forts to make anything out of them would be random and set. Laws are introduced at a very early stage, with at best blind. From the standpoint of the learner scientific form a few indications of the way in which they were arrived at. is an ideal to be achieved, not a starting point from which The pupils learn a “science” instead of learning the scien- to set out. It is, nevertheless, a frequent practice to start tific way of treating the familiar material of ordinary expe- in instruction with the rudiments of science somewhat rience. The method of the advanced student dominates simplified. The necessary consequence is an isolation of college teaching; the approach of the college is transferred science from significant experience. The pupil learns sym- into the high school, and so down the line, with such bols without the key to their meaning. He acquires a omissions as may make the subject easier.

227 Democracy & Education The chronological method which begins with the expe- far as they do go. And it is safe to say that the few who rience of the learner and develops from that the proper go on to be scientific experts will have a better prepara- modes of scientific treatment is often called the “psy- tion than if they had been swamped with a large mass of chological” method in distinction from the logical method purely technical and symbolically stated information. In of the expert or specialist. The apparent loss of time in- fact, those who do become successful men of science are volved is more than made up for by the superior under- those who by their own power manage to avoid the pit- standing and vital interest secured. What the pupil learns falls of a traditional scholastic introduction into it. he at least understands. Moreover by following, in con- The contrast between the expectations of the men who nection with problems selected from the material of ordi- a generation or two ago strove, against great odds, to nary acquaintance, the methods by which scientific men secure a place for science in education, and the result have reached their perfected knowledge, he gains inde- generally achieved is painful. Herbert Spencer, inquiring pendent power to deal with material within his range, what knowledge is of most worth, concluded that from and avoids the mental confusion and intellectual distaste all points of view scientific knowledge is most valuable. attendant upon studying matter whose meaning is only But his argument unconsciously assumed that scientific symbolic. Since the mass of pupils are never going to knowledge could be communicated in a ready-made form. become scientific specialists, it is much more important Passing over the methods by which the subject matter of that they should get some insight into what scientific our ordinary activities is transmuted into scientific form, method means than that they should copy at long range it ignored the method by which alone science is science. and second hand the results which scientific men have Instruction has too often proceeded upon an analogous reached. Students will not go so far, perhaps, in the plan. But there is no magic attached to material stated “ground covered,” but they will be sure and intelligent as in technically correct scientific form. When learned in

228 John Dewey this condition it remains a body of inert information. exercises with a problem belonging to subject matter. Moreover its form of statement removes it further from There is sometimes a ritual of laboratory instruction as fruitful contact with everyday experiences than does the well as of heathen religion. 1 It has been mentioned, mode of statement proper to literature. Nevertheless that incidentally, that scientific statements, or logical form, the claims made for instruction in science were unjustifi- implies the use of signs or symbols. The statement ap- able does not follow. For material so taught is not sci- plies, of course, to all use of language. But in the ver- ence to the pupil. nacular, the mind proceeds directly from the symbol to Contact with things and laboratory exercises, while a the thing signified. Association with familiar material is great improvement upon textbooks arranged upon the so close that the mind does not pause upon the sign. The deductive plan, do not of themselves suffice to meet the signs are intended only to stand for things and acts. But need. While they are an indispensable portion of scien- scientific terminology has an additional use. It is de- tific method, they do not as a matter of course constitute signed, as we have seen, not to stand for the things scientific method. Physical materials may be manipulated directly in their practical use in experience, but for the with scientific apparatus, but the materials may be dis- things placed in a cognitive system. Ultimately, of course, associated in themselves and in the ways in which they they denote the things of our common sense acquain- are handled, from the materials and processes used out tance. But immediately they do not designate them in of school. The problems dealt with may be only problems their common context, but translated into terms of sci- of science: problems, that is, which would occur to one entific inquiry. Atoms, molecules, chemical formulae, the already initiated in the science of the subject. Our atten- mathematical propositions in the study of physics—all tion may be devoted to getting skill in technical manipu- these have primarily an intellectual value and only indi- lation without reference to the connection of laboratory rectly an empirical value. They represent instruments for

229 Democracy & Education the carrying on of science. As in the case of other tools, tion. In every machine the primary state of material has their significance can be learned only by use. We cannot been modified by subordinating it to use for a purpose. procure understanding of their meaning by pointing to Not the stuff in its original form but in its adaptation to things, but only by pointing to their work when they are an end is important. No one would have a knowledge of a employed as part of the technique of knowledge. Even machine who could enumerate all the materials entering the circle, square, etc., of geometry exhibit a difference into its structure, but only he who knew their uses and from the squares and circles of familiar acquaintance, and could tell why they are employed as they are. In like the further one proceeds in mathematical science the fashion one has a knowledge of mathematical concep- greater the remoteness from the everyday empirical thing. tions only when he sees the problems in which they func- Qualities which do not count for the pursuit of knowl- tion and their specific utility in dealing with these prob- edge about spatial relations are left out; those which are lems. “Knowing” the definitions, rules, formulae, etc., is important for this purpose are accentuated. If one car- like knowing the names of parts of a machine without ries his study far enough, he will find even the properties knowing what they do. In one case, as in the other, the which are significant for spatial knowledge giving way to meaning, or intellectual content, is what the element those which facilitate knowledge of other things—per- accomplishes in the system of which it is a member. haps a knowledge of the general relations of number. There will be nothing in the conceptual definitions even to sug- 2. Science and Social Progress. Assuming that the de- gest spatial form, size, or direction. This does not mean velopment of the direct knowledge gained in occupations that they are unreal mental inventions, but it indicates of social interest is carried to a perfected logical form, that direct physical qualities have been transmuted into the question arises as to its place in experience. In gen- tools for a special end—the end of intellectual organiza- eral, the reply is that science marks the emancipation of

230 John Dewey mind from devotion to customary purposes and makes and distribution known as the industrial revolution is the possible the systematic pursuit of new ends. It is the fruit of experimental science. Railways, steamboats, elec- agency of progress in action. Progress is sometimes tric motors, telephone and telegraph, automobiles, thought of as consisting in getting nearer to ends al- aeroplanes and dirigibles are conspicuous evidences of ready sought. But this is a minor form of progress, for it the application of science in life. But none of them would requires only improvement of the means of action or tech- be of much importance without the thousands of less nical advance. More important modes of progress consist sensational inventions by means of which natural sci- in enriching prior purposes and in forming new ones. ence has been rendered tributary to our daily life. Desires are not a fixed quantity, nor does progress mean It must be admitted that to a considerable extent the only an increased amount of satisfaction. With increased progress thus procured has been only technical: it has culture and new mastery of nature, new desires, demands provided more efficient means for satisfying preexistent for new qualities of satisfaction, show themselves, for desires, rather than modified the quality of human pur- intelligence perceives new possibilities of action. This poses. There is, for example, no modern civilization which projection of new possibilities leads to search for new is the equal of Greek culture in all respects. Science is means of execution, and progress takes place; while the still too recent to have been absorbed into imaginative discovery of objects not already used leads to suggestion and emotional disposition. Men move more swiftly and of new ends. surely to the realization of their ends, but their ends too That science is the chief means of perfecting control of largely remain what they were prior to scientific enlight- means of action is witnessed by the great crop of inven- enment. This fact places upon education the responsibil- tions which followed intellectual command of the secrets ity of using science in a way to modify the habitual atti- of nature. The wonderful transformation of production tude of imagination and feeling, not leave it just an ex-

231 Democracy & Education tension of our physical arms and legs. the estate of our common humanity. The advance of science has already modified men’s thoughts of the purposes and goods of life to a sufficient The problem of an educational use of science is then to extent to give some idea of the nature of this responsi- create an intelligence pregnant with belief in the possibility and the ways of meeting it. Science taking effect in bility of the direction of human affairs by itself. The human activity has broken down physical barriers which method of science engrained through education in habit formerly separated men; it has immensely widened the means emancipation from rule of thumb and from the area of intercourse. It has brought about interdependence routine generated by rule of thumb procedure. The word of interests on an enormous scale. It has brought with it empirical in its ordinary use does not mean “connected an established conviction of the possibility of control of with experiment,” but rather crude and unrational. Under nature in the interests of mankind and thus has led men the influence of conditions created by the non-existence to look to the future, instead of the past. The coinci- of experimental science, experience was opposed in all dence of the ideal of progress with the advance of sci- the ruling philosophies of the past to reason and the ence is not a mere coincidence. Before this advance men truly rational. Empirical knowledge meant the knowledge placed the golden age in remote antiquity. Now they face accumulated by a multitude of past instances without the future with a firm belief that intelligence properly intelligent insight into the principles of any of them. To used can do away with evils once thought inevitable. To say that medicine was empirical meant that it was not subjugate devastating disease is no longer a dream; the scientific, but a mode of practice based upon accumu- hope of abolishing poverty is not utopian. Science has lated observations of diseases and of remedies used more familiarized men with the idea of development, taking or less at random. Such a mode of practice is of necessity effect practically in persistent gradual amelioration of happy-go-lucky; success depends upon chance. It lends

232 John Dewey itself to deception and quackery. Industry that is “em- in reflective direction of activity. Situations do not liter- pirically” controlled forbids constructive applications of ally repeat themselves. Habit treats new occurrences as intelligence; it depends upon following in an imitative if they were identical with old ones; it suffices, accord- slavish manner the models set in the past. Experimental ingly, when the different or novel element is negligible science means the possibility of using past experiences for present purposes. But when the new element requires as the servant, not the master, of mind. It means that especial attention, random reaction is the sole recourse reason operates within experience, not beyond it, to give unless abstraction is brought into play. For abstraction it an intelligent or reasonable quality. Science is experi- deliberately selects from the subject matter of former ence becoming rational. The effect of science is thus to experiences that which is thought helpful in dealing with change men’s idea of the nature and inherent possibili- the new. It signifies conscious transfer of a meaning ties of experience. By the same token, it changes the embedded in past experience for use in a new one. It is idea and the operation of reason. Instead of being some- the very artery of intelligence, of the intentional render- thing beyond experience, remote, aloof, concerned with ing of one experience available for guidance of another. a sublime region that has nothing to do with the experi- Science carries on this working over of prior subject enced facts of life, it is found indigenous in experience:— matter on a large scale. It aims to free an experience the factor by which past experiences are purified and from all which is purely personal and strictly immediate; rendered into tools for discovery and advance. it aims to detach whatever it has in common with the The term “abstract” has a rather bad name in popular subject matter of other experiences, and which, being speech, being used to signify not only that which is ab- common, may be saved for further use. It is, thus, an struse and hard to understand, but also that which is far indispensable factor in social progress. In any experi- away from life. But abstraction is an indispensable trait ence just as it occurs there is much which, while it may

233 Democracy & Education be of precious import to the individual implicated in the direct new situations. Reference to these possible appli- experience, is peculiar and unreduplicable. From the stand- cations is necessary in order that the abstraction may be point of science, this material is accidental, while the fruitful, instead of a barren formalism ending in itself. features which are widely shared are essential. Whatever Generalization is essentially a social device. When men is unique in the situation, since dependent upon the pe- identified their interests exclusively with the concerns of culiarities of the individual and the coincidence of cir- a narrow group, their generalizations were correspond- cumstance, is not available for others; so that unless what ingly restricted. The viewpoint did not permit a wide and is shared is abstracted and fixed by a suitable symbol, free survey. Men’s thoughts were tied down to a con- practically all the value of the experience may perish in tracted space and a short time,—limited to their own its passing. But abstraction and the use of terms to record established customs as a measure of all possible values. what is abstracted put the net value of individual experi- Scientific abstraction and generalization are equivalent ence at the permanent disposal of mankind. No one can to taking the point of view of any man, whatever his foresee in detail when or how it may be of further use. location in time and space. While this emancipation from The man of science in developing his abstractions is like the conditions and episodes of concrete experiences ac- a manufacturer of tools who does not know who will use counts for the remoteness, the “abstractness,” of science, them nor when. But intellectual tools are indefinitely it also accounts for its wide and free range of fruitful more flexible in their range of adaptation than other novel applications in practice. Terms and propositions mechanical tools. record, fix, and convey what is abstracted. A meaning Generalization is the counterpart of abstraction. It is detached from a given experience cannot remain hang- the functioning of an abstraction in its application to a ing in the air. It must acquire a local habitation. Names new concrete experience,—its extension to clarify and give abstract meanings a physical locus and body. For-

234 John Dewey mulation is thus not an after-thought or by-product; it is constructing new experiences with transformed meanings. essential to the completion of the work of thought. Per- To sum up: Science represents the office of intelligence, sons know many things which they cannot express, but in projection and control of new experiences, pursued such knowledge remains practical, direct, and personal. systematically, intentionally, and on a scale due to free- An individual can use it for himself; he may be able to dom from limitations of habit. It is the sole instrumen- act upon it with efficiency. Artists and executives often tality of conscious, as distinct from accidental, progress. have their knowledge in this state. But it is personal, And if its generality, its remoteness from individual con- untransferable, and, as it were, instinctive. To formulate ditions, confer upon it a certain technicality and aloof- the significance of an experience a man must take into ness, these qualities are very different from those of merely conscious account the experiences of others. He must try speculative theorizing. The latter are in permanent dislo- to find a standpoint which includes the experience of cation from practice; the former are temporarily detached others as well as his own. Otherwise his communication for the sake of wider and freer application in later con- cannot be understood. He talks a language which no one crete action. There is a kind of idle theory which is anti- else knows. While literary art furnishes the supreme suc- thetical to practice; but genuinely scientific theory falls cesses in stating of experiences so that they are vitally within practice as the agency of its expansion and its significant to others, the vocabulary of science is de- direction to new possibilities. signed, in another fashion, to express the meaning of experienced things in symbols which any one will know 3. Naturalism and Humanism in Education. There ex- who studies the science. Aesthetic formulation reveals ists an educational tradition which opposes science to and enhances the meaning of experiences one already literature and history in the curriculum. The quarrel be- has; scientific formulation supplies one with tools for tween the representatives of the two interests is easily

235 Democracy & Education explicable historically. Literature and language and a lit- the means and obstacles to its progressive development erary philosophy were entrenched in all higher institu- is to be in command of a knowledge which is thoroughly tions of learning before experimental science came into humanistic in quality. One who is ignorant of the history being. The latter had naturally to win its way. No forti- of science is ignorant of the struggles by which mankind fied and protected interest readily surrenders any mo- has passed from routine and caprice, from superstitious nopoly it may possess. But the assumption, from which- subjection to nature, from efforts to use it magically, to ever side, that language and literary products are exclu- intellectual self-possession. That science may be taught sively humanistic in quality, and that science is purely as a set of formal and technical exercises is only too true. physical in import, is a false notion which tends to cripple This happens whenever information about the world is the educational use of both studies. Human life does not made an end in itself. The failure of such instruction to occur in a vacuum, nor is nature a mere stage setting for procure culture is not, however, evidence of the antith- the enactment of its drama (ante, p. 211). Man’s life is esis of natural knowledge to humanistic concern, but evi- bound up in the processes of nature; his career, for suc- dence of a wrong educational attitude. Dislike to employ cess or defeat, depends upon the way in which nature scientific knowledge as it functions in men’s occupations enters it. Man’s power of deliberate control of his own is itself a survival of an aristocratic culture. The notion affairs depends upon ability to direct natural energies to that “applied” knowledge is somehow less worthy than use: an ability which is in turn dependent upon insight “pure” knowledge, was natural to a society in which all into nature’s processes. Whatever natural science may be useful work was performed by slaves and serfs, and in for the specialist, for educational purposes it is knowl- which industry was controlled by the models set by cus- edge of the conditions of human action. To be aware of tom rather than by intelligence. Science, or the highest the medium in which social intercourse goes on, and of knowing, was then identified with pure theorizing, apart

236 John Dewey from all application in the uses of life; and knowledge ary and linguistic studies, which in turn tend to shrink to relating to useful arts suffered the stigma attaching to the “the classics,” to languages no longer spoken. For modern classes who engaged in them (See below, Ch. XIX). The languages may evidently be put to use, and hence fall un- idea of science thus generated persisted after science had der the ban. It would be hard to find anything in history itself adopted the appliances of the arts, using them for more ironical than the educational practices which have the production of knowledge, and after the rise of democ- identified the “humanities” exclusively with a knowledge racy. Taking theory just as theory, however, that which of Greek and Latin. Greek and Roman art and institutions concerns humanity is of more significance for man than made such important contributions to our civilization that that which concerns a merely physical world. In adopting there should always be the amplest opportunities for mak- the criterion of knowledge laid down by a literary culture, ing their acquaintance. But to regard them as par excel- aloof from the practical needs of the mass of men, the lence the humane studies involves a deliberate neglect of educational advocates of scientific education put them- the possibilities of the subject matter which is accessible selves at a strategic disadvantage. So far as they adopt the in education to the masses, and tends to cultivate a nar- idea of science appropriate to its experimental method and row snobbery: that of a learned class whose insignia are to the movements of a democratic and industrial society, the accidents of exclusive opportunity. Knowledge is hu- they have no difficulty in showing that natural science is manistic in quality not because it is about human products more humanistic than an alleged humanism which bases in the past, but because of what it does in liberating hu- its educational schemes upon the specialized interests of man intelligence and human sympathy. Any subject matter a leisure class. For, as we have already stated, humanistic which accomplishes this result is humane, and any subject studies when set in opposition to study of nature are ham- matter which does not accomplish it is not even educa- pered. They tend to reduce themselves to exclusively liter- tional.

237 Democracy & Education Summary. Science represents the fruition of the cogni- traits of abstraction, generalization, and definite formu- tive factors in experience. Instead of contenting itself lation are all associated with this function. In emanci- with a mere statement of what commends itself to per- pating an idea from the particular context in which it sonal or customary experience, it aims at a statement originated and giving it a wider reference the results of which will reveal the sources, grounds, and consequences the experience of any individual are put at the disposal of a belief. The achievement of this aim gives logical of all men. Thus ultimately and philosophically science is character to the statements. Educationally, it has to be the organ of general social progress. 1 Upon the positive noted that logical characteristics of method, since they side, the value of problems arising in work in the garden, belong to subject matter which has reached a high de- the shop, etc., may be referred to (See p. 200). The labo- gree of intellectual elaboration, are different from the ratory may be treated as an additional resource to supply method of the learner—the chronological order of pass- conditions and appliances for the better pursuit of these ing from a cruder to a more refined intellectual quality of problems. experience. When this fact is ignored, science is treated as so much bare information, which however is less interesting and more remote than ordinary information, being stated in an unusual and technical vocabulary. The function which science has to perform in the curriculum is that which it has performed for the race: emancipation from local and temporary incidents of experience, and the opening of intellectual vistas unobscured by the accidents of personal habit and predilection. The logical

238 John Dewey Chapter Eighteen: Educational Values and of the curriculum on the other, by bringing them into connection with one another. The considerations involved in a discussion of educational values have already been brought out in the discussion 1. The Nature of Realization or Appreciation. Much of of aims and interests. our experience is indirect; it is dependent upon signs The specific values usually discussed in educational theo- which intervene between the things and ourselves, signs ries coincide with aims which are usually urged. They are which stand for or represent the former. It is one thing to such things as utility, culture, information, preparation have been engaged in war, to have shared its dangers for social efficiency, mental discipline or power, and so and hardships; it is another thing to hear or read about on. The aspect of these aims in virtue of which they are it. All language, all symbols, are implements of an indi- valuable has been treated in our analysis of the nature of rect experience; in technical language the experience interest, and there is no difference between speaking of which is procured by their means is “mediated.” It stands art as an interest or concern and referring to it as a value. in contrast with an immediate, direct experience, some- It happens, however, that discussion of values has usu- thing in which we take part vitally and at first hand, ally been centered about a consideration of the various instead of through the intervention of representative ends subserved by specific subjects of the curriculum. It media. As we have seen, the scope of personal, vitally has been a part of the attempt to justify those subjects direct experience is very limited. If it were not for the by pointing out the significant contributions to life ac- intervention of agencies for representing absent and dis- cruing from their study. An explicit discussion of educa- tant affairs, our experience would remain almost on the tional values thus affords an opportunity for reviewing level of that of the brutes. Every step from savagery to the prior discussion of aims and interests on one hand civilization is dependent upon the invention of media

239 Democracy & Education which enlarge the range of purely immediate experience genuine appreciation) are more elaborate names for the and give it deepened as well as wider meaning by con- realizing sense of a thing. It is not possible to define necting it with things which can only be signified or these ideas except by synonyms, like “coming home to symbolized. It is doubtless this fact which is the cause of one” “really taking it in,” etc., for the only way to appre- the disposition to identify an uncultivated person with ciate what is meant by a direct experience of a thing is an illiterate person—so dependent are we on letters for by having it. But it is the difference between reading a effective representative or indirect experience. technical description of a picture, and seeing it; or be- At the same time (as we have also had repeated occa- tween just seeing it and being moved by it; between sion to see) there is always a danger that symbols will learning mathematical equations about light and being not be truly representative; danger that instead of really carried away by some peculiarly glorious illumination of calling up the absent and remote in a way to make it a misty landscape. We are thus met by the danger of the enter a present experience, the linguistic media of repre- tendency of technique and other purely representative sentation will become an end in themselves. Formal edu- forms to encroach upon the sphere of direct apprecia- cation is peculiarly exposed to this danger, with the re- tions; in other words, the tendency to assume that pupils sult that when literacy supervenes, mere bookishness, have a foundation of direct realization of situations suf- what is popularly termed the academic, too often comes ficient for the superstructure of representative experi- with it. In colloquial speech, the phrase a “realizing sense” ence erected by formulated school studies. This is not is used to express the urgency, warmth, and intimacy of a simply a matter of quantity or bulk. Sufficient direct ex- direct experience in contrast with the remote, pallid, and perience is even more a matter of quality; it must be of a coldly detached quality of a representative experience. sort to connect readily and fruitfully with the symbolic The terms “mental realization” and “appreciation” (or material of instruction. Before teaching can safely enter

240 John Dewey upon conveying facts and ideas through the media of or college in a new field, is to familiarize the student at signs, schooling must provide genuine situations in which first hand with a certain range of facts and problems—to personal participation brings home the import of the give him a “feeling” for them. Getting command of tech- material and the problems which it conveys. From the nique and of methods of reaching and testing generaliza- standpoint of the pupil, the resulting experiences are tions is at first secondary to getting appreciation. As re- worth while on their own account; from the standpoint gards the primary school activities, it is to be borne in of the teacher they are also means of supplying subject mind that the fundamental intent is not to amuse nor to matter required for understanding instruction involving convey information with a minimum of vexation nor yet signs, and of evoking attitudes of open-mindedness and to acquire skill,—though these results may accrue as by- concern as to the material symbolically conveyed. products,—but to enlarge and enrich the scope of expe- In the outline given of the theory of educative subject rience, and to keep alert and effective the interest in matter, the demand for this background of realization or intellectual progress. appreciation is met by the provision made for play and The rubric of appreciation supplies an appropriate head active occupations embodying typical situations. Noth- for bringing out three further principles: the nature of ing need be added to what has already been said except effective or real (as distinct from nominal) standards of to point out that while the discussion dealt explicitly value; the place of the imagination in appreciative real- with the subject matter of primary education, where the izations; and the place of the fine arts in the course of demand for the available background of direct experi- study. ence is most obvious, the principle applies to the primary 1. The nature of standards of valuation. Every adult has or elementary phase of every subject. The first and basic acquired, in the course of his prior experience and educa- function of laboratory work, for example, in a high school tion, certain measures of the worth of various sorts of

241 Democracy & Education experience. He has learned to look upon qualities like ence, what he has been most accustomed to and has honesty, amiability, perseverance, loyalty, as moral goods; most enjoyed is ragtime, his active or working measures upon certain classics of literature, painting, music, as of valuation are fixed on the ragtime level. The appeal aesthetic values, and so on. Not only this, but he has actually made to him in his own personal realization fixes learned certain rules for these values —the golden rule his attitude much more deeply than what he has been in morals; harmony, balance, etc., proportionate distri- taught as the proper thing to say; his habitual disposi- bution in aesthetic goods; definition, clarity, system in tion thus fixed forms his real “norm” of valuation in sub- intellectual accomplishments. These principles are so sequent musical experiences. important as standards of judging the worth of new ex- Probably few would deny this statement as to musical periences that parents and instructors are always tend- taste. But it applies equally well in judgments of moral ing to teach them directly to the young. They overlook and intellectual worth. A youth who has had repeated the danger that standards so taught will be merely sym- experience of the full meaning of the value of kindliness bolic; that is, largely conventional and verbal. In reality, toward others built into his disposition has a measure of working as distinct from professed standards depend upon the worth of generous treatment of others. Without this what an individual has himself specifically appreciated vital appreciation, the duty and virtue of unselfishness to be deeply significant in concrete situations. An indi- impressed upon him by others as a standard remains purely vidual may have learned that certain characteristics are a matter of symbols which he cannot adequately trans- conventionally esteemed in music; he may be able to late into realities. His “knowledge” is second-handed; it converse with some correctness about classic music; he is only a knowledge that others prize unselfishness as an may even honestly believe that these traits constitute excellence, and esteem him in the degree in which he his own musical standards. But if in his own past experi- exhibits it. Thus there grows up a split between a person’s

242 John Dewey professed standards and his actual ones. A person may be if it were confined to such things as literature and pic- aware of the results of this struggle between his inclina- tures and music. Its scope is as comprehensive as the tions and his theoretical opinions; he suffers from the con- work of education itself. The formation of habits is a flict between doing what is really dear to him and what he purely mechanical thing unless habits are also tastes— has learned will win the approval of others. But of the split habitual modes of preference and esteem, an effective itself he is unaware; the result is a kind of unconscious sense of excellence. There are adequate grounds for as- hypocrisy, an instability of disposition. In similar fashion, serting that the premium so often put in schools upon a pupil who has worked through some confused intellec- external “discipline, “ and upon marks and rewards, upon tual situation and fought his way to clearing up obscuri- promotion and keeping back, are the obverse of the lack ties in a definite outcome, appreciates the value of clarity of attention given to life situations in which the mean- and definition. He has a standard which can be depended ing of facts, ideas, principles, and problems is vitally upon. He may be trained externally to go through certain brought home. motions of analysis and division of subject matter and may 2. Appreciative realizations are to be distinguished from acquire information about the value of these processes as symbolic or representative experiences. They are not to standard logical functions, but unless it somehow comes be distinguished from the work of the intellect or under- home to him at some point as an appreciation of his own, standing. Only a personal response involving imagina- the significance of the logical norms—so-called—remains tion can possibly procure realization even of pure “facts.” as much an external piece of information as, say, the names The imagination is the medium of appreciation in every of rivers in China. He may be able to recite, but the recital field. The engagement of the imagination is the only thing is a mechanical rehearsal. that makes any activity more than mechanical. Unfortu- It is, then, a serious mistake to regard appreciation as nately, it is too customary to identify the imaginative

243 Democracy & Education with the imaginary, rather than with a warm and inti- to denote the sort of thing that a well-planned machine mate taking in of the full scope of a situation. This leads can do better than a human being can, and the main to an exaggerated estimate of fairy tales, myths, fanciful effect of education, the achieving of a life of rich signifi- symbols, verse, and something labeled “Fine Art,” as agen- cance, drops by the wayside. Meantime mind-wandering cies for developing imagination and appreciation; and, and wayward fancy are nothing but the unsuppressible by neglecting imaginative vision in other matters, leads imagination cut loose from concern with what is done. to methods which reduce much instruction to an unimagi- An adequate recognition of the play of imagination as native acquiring of specialized skill and amassing of a the medium of realization of every kind of thing which load of information. Theory, and—to some extent—prac- lies beyond the scope of direct physical response is the tice, have advanced far enough to recognize that play- sole way of escape from mechanical methods in teach- activity is an imaginative enterprise. But it is still usual ing. The emphasis put in this book, in accord with many to regard this activity as a specially marked-off stage of tendencies in contemporary education, upon activity, will childish growth, and to overlook the fact that the differ- be misleading if it is not recognized that the imagina- ence between play and what is regarded as serious em- tion is as much a normal and integral part of human ac- ployment should be not a difference between the pres- tivity as is muscular movement. The educative value of ence and absence of imagination, but a difference in the manual activities and of laboratory exercises, as well as materials with which imagination is occupied. The result of play, depends upon the extent in which they aid in is an unwholesome exaggeration of the phantastic and bringing about a sensing of the meaning of what is going “unreal” phases of childish play and a deadly reduction on. In effect, if not in name, they are dramatizations. of serious occupation to a routine efficiency prized sim- Their utilitarian value in forming habits of skill to be ply for its external tangible results. Achievement comes used for tangible results is important, but not when iso-

244 John Dewey lated from the appreciative side. Were it not for the ac- duction. From the standpoint of product, or the work of companying play of imagination, there would be no road art, they are naturally defective, though even in this re- from a direct activity to representative knowledge; for it spect when they comprise genuine appreciation they of- is by imagination that symbols are translated over into a ten have a rudimentary charm. As experiences they have direct meaning and integrated with a narrower activity both an artistic and an esthetic quality. When they emerge so as to expand and enrich it. When the representative into activities which are tested by their product and when creative imagination is made merely literary and mytho- the socially serviceable value of the product is empha- logical, symbols are rendered mere means of directing sized, they pass into useful or industrial arts. When they physical reactions of the organs of speech. develop in the direction of an enhanced appreciation of 3. In the account previously given nothing was explic- the immediate qualities which appeal to taste, they grow itly said about the place of literature and the fine arts in into fine arts. the course of study. The omission at that point was in- In one of its meanings, appreciation is opposed to de- tentional. At the outset, there is no sharp demarcation of preciation. It denotes an enlarged, an intensified priz- useful, or industrial, arts and fine arts. The activities men- ing, not merely a prizing, much less—like depreciation— tioned in Chapter XV contain within themselves the fac- a lowered and degraded prizing. This enhancement of the tors later discriminated into fine and useful arts. As en- qualities which make any ordinary experience appealing, gaging the emotions and the imagination, they have the appropriable—capable of full assimilation—and enjoy- qualities which give the fine arts their quality. As de- able, constitutes the prime function of literature, music, manding method or skill, the adaptation of tools to ma- drawing, painting, etc., in education. They are not the terials with constantly increasing perfection, they involve exclusive agencies of appreciation in the most general the element of technique indispensable to artistic pro- sense of that word; but they are the chief agencies of an

245 Democracy & Education intensified, enhanced appreciation. As such, they are not tions, but an account of the specific directions in which only intrinsically and directly enjoyable, but they serve a these valuations occur. To value means primarily to prize, purpose beyond themselves. They have the office, in in- to esteem; but secondarily it means to apprise, to esti- creased degree, of all appreciation in fixing taste, in form- mate. It means, that is, the act of cherishing something, ing standards for the worth of later experiences. They holding it dear, and also the act of passing judgment arouse discontent with conditions which fall below their upon the nature and amount of its value as compared measure; they create a demand for surroundings coming with something else. To value in the latter sense is to up to their own level. They reveal a depth and range of valuate or evaluate. The distinction coincides with that meaning in experiences which otherwise might be me- sometimes made between intrinsic and instrumental val- diocre and trivial. They supply, that is, organs of vision. ues. Intrinsic values are not objects of judgment, they Moreover, in their fullness they represent the concentra- cannot (as intrinsic) be compared, or regarded as greater tion and consummation of elements of good which are and less, better or worse. They are invaluable; and if a otherwise scattered and incomplete. They select and fo- thing is invaluable, it is neither more nor less so than cus the elements of enjoyable worth which make any ex- any other invaluable. But occasions present themselves perience directly enjoyable. They are not luxuries of edu- when it is necessary to choose, when we must let one cation, but emphatic expressions of that which makes thing go in order to take another. This establishes an any education worth while. order of preference, a greater and less, better and worse. Things judged or passed upon have to be estimated in 2. The Valuation of Studies. The theory of educational relation to some third thing, some further end. With re- values involves not only an account of the nature of ap- spect to that, they are means, or instrumental values. preciation as fixing the measure of subsequent valua- We may imagine a man who at one time thoroughly

246 John Dewey enjoys converse with his friends, at another the hearing has just eaten, or if he is well fed generally and the of a symphony; at another the eating of his meals; at opportunity to hear music is a rarity, he will probably another the reading of a book; at another the earning of prefer the music to eating. In the given situation that money, and so on. As an appreciative realization, each of will render the greater contribution. If he is starving, or these is an intrinsic value. It occupies a particular place if he is satiated with music for the time being, he will in life; it serves its own end, which cannot be supplied naturally judge food to have the greater worth. In the by a substitute. There is no question of comparative value, abstract or at large, apart from the needs of a particular and hence none of valuation. Each is the specific good situation in which choice has to be made, there is no which it is, and that is all that can be said. In its own such thing as degrees or order of value. Certain conclu- place, none is a means to anything beyond itself. But sions follow with respect to educational values. We can- there may arise a situation in which they compete or not establish a hierarchy of values among studies. It is conflict, in which a choice has to be made. Now compari- futile to attempt to arrange them in an order, beginning son comes in. Since a choice has to be made, we want to with one having least worth and going on to that of know the respective claims of each competitor. What is maximum value. In so far as any study has a unique or to be said for it? What does it offer in comparison with, irreplaceable function in experience, in so far as it marks as balanced over against, some other possibility? Raising a characteristic enrichment of life, its worth is intrinsic these questions means that a particular good is no longer or incomparable. Since education is not a means to liv- an end in itself, an intrinsic good. For if it were, its claims ing, but is identical with the operation of living a life would be incomparable, imperative. The question is now which is fruitful and inherently significant, the only ulti- as to its status as a means of realizing something else, mate value which can be set up is just the process of which is then the invaluable of that situation. If a man living itself. And this is not an end to which studies and

247 Democracy & Education activities are subordinate means; it is the whole of which to use number. they are ingredients. And what has been said about ap- It also follows that the attempt to distribute distinct preciation means that every study in one of its aspects sorts of value among different studies is a misguided one, ought to have just such ultimate significance. It is true in spite of the amount of time recently devoted to the of arithmetic as it is of poetry that in some place and at undertaking. Science for example may have any kind of some time it ought to be a good to be appreciated on its value, depending upon the situation into which it enters own account—just as an enjoyable experience, in short. as a means. To some the value of science may be military; If it is not, then when the time and place come for it to it may be an instrument in strengthening means of of- be used as a means or instrumentality, it will be in just fense or defense; it may be technological, a tool for en- that much handicapped. Never having been realized or gineering; or it may be commercial—an aid in the suc- appreciated for itself, one will miss something of its ca- cessful conduct of business; under other conditions, its pacity as a resource for other ends. worth may be philanthropic—the service it renders in It equally follows that when we compare studies as to relieving human suffering; or again it may be quite con- their values, that is, treat them as means to something ventional—of value in establishing one’s social status as beyond themselves, that which controls their proper valu- an “educated” person. As matter of fact, science serves ation is found in the specific situation in which they are all these purposes, and it would be an arbitrary task to to be used. The way to enable a student to apprehend the try to fix upon one of them as its “real” end. All that we instrumental value of arithmetic is not to lecture him can be sure of educationally is that science should be upon the benefit it will be to him in some remote and taught so as to be an end in itself in the lives of stu- uncertain future, but to let him discover that success in dents—something worth while on account of its own something he is interested in doing depends upon ability unique intrinsic contribution to the experience of life.

248 John Dewey Primarily it must have “appreciation value. “ If we take materials which they can put to use in other concerns of something which seems to be at the opposite pole, like direct interest. Since the curriculum is always getting poetry, the same sort of statement applies. It may be loaded down with purely inherited traditional matter and that, at the present time, its chief value is the contribu- with subjects which represent mainly the energy of some tion it makes to the enjoyment of leisure. But that may influential person or group of persons in behalf of some- represent a degenerate condition rather than anything thing dear to them, it requires constant inspection, criti- necessary. Poetry has historically been allied with reli- cism, and revision to make sure it is accomplishing its gion and morals; it has served the purpose of penetrating purpose. Then there is always the probability that it rep- the mysterious depths of things. It has had an enormous resents the values of adults rather than those of children patriotic value. Homer to the Greeks was a Bible, a text- and youth, or those of pupils a generation ago rather book of morals, a history, and a national inspiration. In than those of the present day. Hence a further need for a any case, it may be said that an education which does critical outlook and survey. But these considerations do not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business not mean that for a subject to have motivating value to of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter a pupil (whether intrinsic or instrumental) is the same with it—or else the poetry is artificial poetry. thing as for him to be aware of the value, or to be able to The same considerations apply to the value of a study tell what the study is good for. or a topic of a study with reference to its motivating In the first place, as long as any topic makes an imme- force. Those responsible for planning and teaching the diate appeal, it is not necessary to ask what it is good course of study should have grounds for thinking that for. This is a question which can be asked only about the studies and topics included furnish both direct incre- instrumental values. Some goods are not good for any- ments to the enriching of lives of the pupils and also thing; they are just goods. Any other notion leads to an

249 Democracy & Education absurdity. For we cannot stop asking the question about justifying value. When pupils are genuinely concerned in an instrumental good, one whose value lies in its being learning Latin, that is of itself proof that it possesses good for something, unless there is at some point some- value. The most which one is entitled to ask in such cases thing intrinsically good, good for itself. To a hungry, is whether in view of the shortness of time, there are not healthy child, food is a good of the situation; we do not other things of intrinsic value which in addition have have to bring him to consciousness of the ends subserved greater instrumental value. by food in order to supply a motive to eat. The food in This brings us to the matter of instrumental values— connection with his appetite is a motive. The same thing topics studied because of some end beyond themselves. holds of mentally eager pupils with respect to many top- If a child is ill and his appetite does not lead him to eat ics. Neither they nor the teacher could possibly foretell when food is presented, or if his appetite is perverted so with any exactness the purposes learning is to accom- that he prefers candy to meat and vegetables, conscious plish in the future; nor as long as the eagerness contin- reference to results is indicated. He needs to be made ues is it advisable to try to specify particular goods which conscious of consequences as a justification of the posi- are to come of it. The proof of a good is found in the fact tive or negative value of certain objects. Or the state of that the pupil responds; his response is use. His response things may be normal enough, and yet an individual not to the material shows that the subject functions in his be moved by some matter because he does not grasp how life. It is unsound to urge that, say, Latin has a value per his attainment of some intrinsic good depends upon ac- se in the abstract, just as a study, as a sufficient justifi- tive concern with what is presented. In such cases, it is cation for teaching it. But it is equally absurd to argue obviously the part of wisdom to establish consciousness that unless teacher or pupil can point out some definite of connection. In general what is desirable is that a topic assignable future use to which it is to be put, it lacks be presented in such a way that it either have an imme-

250 John Dewey diate value, and require no justification, or else be per- breadth and flexibility to the enterprise of education, ceived to be a means of achieving something of intrinsic there is some advantage in such a classification. But it is value. An instrumental value then has the intrinsic value a great mistake to regard these values as ultimate ends of being a means to an end. It may be questioned whether to which the concrete satisfactions of experience are sub- some of the present pedagogical interest in the matter of ordinate. They are nothing but generalizations, more or values of studies is not either excessive or else too nar- less adequate, of concrete goods. Health, wealth, effi- row. Sometimes it appears to be a labored effort to fur- ciency, sociability, utility, culture, happiness itself are nish an apologetic for topics which no longer operate to only abstract terms which sum up a multitude of particu- any purpose, direct or indirect, in the lives of pupils. At lars. To regard such things as standards for the valuation other times, the reaction against useless lumber seems of concrete topics and process of education is to subordi- to have gone to the extent of supposing that no subject nate to an abstraction the concrete facts from which the or topic should be taught unless some quite definite fu- abstraction is derived. They are not in any true sense ture utility can be pointed out by those making the course standards of valuation; these are found, as we have pre- of study or by the pupil himself, unmindful of the fact viously seen, in the specific realizations which form tastes that life is its own excuse for being; and that definite and habits of preference. They are, however, of signifi- utilities which can be pointed out are themselves justi- cance as points of view elevated above the details of life fied only because they increase the experienced content whence to survey the field and see how its constituent of life itself. 3. The Segregation and Organization of Val- details are distributed, and whether they are well propor- ues. It is of course possible to classify in a general way tioned. No classification can have other than a provi- the various valuable phases of life. In order to get a sur- sional validity. The following may prove of some help. We vey of aims sufficiently wide (See ante, p. 110) to give may say that the kind of experience to which the work of

251 Democracy & Education the schools should contribute is one marked by executive of a curriculum constructed on the idea that there are a competency in the management of resources and obstacles number of separate ends to be reached, and that various encountered (efficiency); by sociability, or interest in the studies may be evaluated by referring each study to its direct companionship of others; by aesthetic taste or respective end. “Memory is trained by most studies, but capacity to appreciate artistic excellence in at least some best by languages and history; taste is trained by the of its classic forms; by trained intellectual method, or more advanced study of languages, and still better by interest in some mode of scientific achievement; and by English literature; imagination by all higher language sensitiveness to the rights and claims of others —con- teaching, but chiefly by Greek and Latin poetry; observa- scientiousness. And while these considerations are not tion by science work in the laboratory, though some train- standards of value, they are useful criteria for survey, ing is to be got from the earlier stages of Latin and Greek; criticism, and better organization of existing methods for expression, Greek and Latin composition comes first and subject matter of instruction. and English composition next; for abstract reasoning, The need of such general points of view is the greater mathematics stands almost alone; for concrete reason- because of a tendency to segregate educational values ing, science comes first, then geometry; for social rea- due to the isolation from one another of the various pur- soning, the Greek and Roman historians and orators come suits of life. The idea is prevalent that different studies first, and general history next. Hence the narrowest edu- represent separate kinds of values, and that the curricu- cation which can claim to be at all complete includes lum should, therefore, be constituted by gathering to- Latin, one modern language, some history, some English gether various studies till a sufficient variety of indepen- literature, and one science.” There is much in the word- dent values have been cared for. The following quotation ing of this passage which is irrelevant to our point and does not use the word value, but it contains the notion which must be discounted to make it clear. The phraseol-

252 John Dewey ogy betrays the particular provincial tradition within which with which one is familiar. One accepts, for the most the author is writing. There is the unquestioned assump- part, the studies of the existing course and then assigns tion of “faculties” to be trained, and a dominant interest values to them as a sufficient reason for their being taught. in the ancient languages; there is comparative disregard Mathematics is said to have, for example, disciplinary of the earth on which men happen to live and the bodies value in habituating the pupil to accuracy of statement they happen to carry around with them. But with allow- and closeness of reasoning; it has utilitarian value in ances made for these matters (even with their complete giving command of the arts of calculation involved in abandonment) we find much in contemporary educational trade and the arts; culture value in its enlargement of philosophy which parallels the fundamental notion of par- the imagination in dealing with the most general rela- celing out special values to segregated studies. Even when tions of things; even religious value in its concept of the some one end is set up as a standard of value, like social infinite and allied ideas. But clearly mathematics does efficiency or culture, it will often be found to be but a not accomplish such results, because it is endowed with verbal heading under which a variety of disconnected fac- miraculous potencies called values; it has these values if tors are comprised. And although the general tendency is and when it accomplishes these results, and not other- to allow a greater variety of values to a given study than wise. The statements may help a teacher to a larger vi- does the passage quoted, yet the attempt to inventory a sion of the possible results to be effected by instruction number of values attaching to each study and to state the in mathematical topics. But unfortunately, the tendency amount of each value which the given study possesses is to treat the statement as indicating powers inherently emphasizes an implied educational disintegration. residing in the subject, whether they operate or not, and As matter of fact, such schemes of values of studies are thus to give it a rigid justification. If they do not oper- largely but unconscious justifications of the curriculum ate, the blame is put not on the subject as taught, but on

253 Democracy & Education the indifference and recalcitrancy of pupils. so with each of the others. An ideal education would This attitude toward subjects is the obverse side of the then supply the means of meeting these separate and conception of experience or life as a patchwork of inde- pigeon-holed interests. And when we look at the schools, pendent interests which exist side by side and limit one it is easy to get the impression that they accept this view another. Students of politics are familiar with a check of the nature of adult life, and set for themselves the and balance theory of the powers of government. There task of meeting its demands. Each interest is acknowl- are supposed to be independent separate functions, like edged as a kind of fixed institution to which something the legislative, executive, judicial, administrative, and in the course of study must correspond. The course of all goes well if each of these checks all the others and study must then have some civics and history politically thus creates an ideal balance. There is a philosophy which and patriotically viewed: some utilitarian studies; some might well be called the check and balance theory of science; some art (mainly literature of course); some pro- experience. Life presents a diversity of interests. Left to vision for recreation; some moral education; and so on. themselves, they tend to encroach on one another. The And it will be found that a large part of current agitation ideal is to prescribe a special territory for each till the about schools is concerned with clamor and controversy whole ground of experience is covered, and then see to it about the due meed of recognition to be given to each of each remains within its own boundaries. Politics, busi- these interests, and with struggles to secure for each its ness, recreation, art, science, the learned professions, due share in the course of study; or, if this does not seem polite intercourse, leisure, represent such interests. Each feasible in the existing school system, then to secure a of these ramifies into many branches: business into manual new and separate kind of schooling to meet the need. In occupations, executive positions, bookkeeping, railroad- the multitude of educations education is forgotten. ing, banking, agriculture, trade and commerce, etc., and The obvious outcome is congestion of the course of

254 John Dewey study, overpressure and distraction of pupils, and a nar- has left behind itself a kind of cultural deposit, like a row specialization fatal to the very idea of education. geologic stratum. These deposits have found their way But these bad results usually lead to more of the same into educational institutions in the form of studies, dis- sort of thing as a remedy. When it is perceived that after tinct courses of study, distinct types of schools. With the all the requirements of a full life experience are not met, rapid change of political, scientific, and economic inter- the deficiency is not laid to the isolation and narrowness ests in the last century, provision had to be made for new of the teaching of the existing subjects, and this recog- values. Though the older courses resisted, they have had nition made the basis of reorganization of the system. at least in this country to retire their pretensions to a No, the lack is something to be made up for by the intro- monopoly. They have not, however, been reorganized in duction of still another study, or, if necessary, another content and aim; they have only been reduced in amount. kind of school. And as a rule those who object to the The new studies, representing the new interests, have resulting overcrowding and consequent superficiality and not been used to transform the method and aim of all distraction usually also have recourse to a merely quanti- instruction; they have been injected and added on. The tative criterion: the remedy is to cut off a great many result is a conglomerate, the cement of which consists in studies as fads and frills, and return to the good old cur- the mechanics of the school program or time table. Thence riculum of the three R’s in elementary education and the arises the scheme of values and standards of value which equally good and equally old-fashioned curriculum of the we have mentioned. classics and mathematics in higher education. This situation in education represents the divisions and The situation has, of course, its historic explanation. separations which obtain in social life. The variety of Various epochs of the past have had their own character- interests which should mark any rich and balanced expe- istic struggles and interests. Each of these great epochs rience have been torn asunder and deposited in separate

255 Democracy & Education institutions with diverse and independent purposes and politics or religion. Each has become specialized not methods. Business is business, science is science, art is merely in its appliances and its demands upon time, but art, politics is politics, social intercourse is social inter- in its aim and animating spirit. Unconsciously, our course course, morals is morals, recreation is recreation, and so of studies and our theories of the educational values of on. Each possesses a separate and independent province studies reflect this division of interests. The point at is- with its own peculiar aims and ways of proceeding. Each sue in a theory of educational value is then the unity or contributes to the others only externally and acciden- integrity of experience. How shall it be full and varied tally. All of them together make up the whole of life by without losing unity of spirit? How shall it be one and just apposition and addition. What does one expect from yet not narrow and monotonous in its unity? Ultimately, business save that it should furnish money, to be used in the question of values and a standard of values is the turn for making more money and for support of self and moral question of the organization of the interests of family, for buying books and pictures, tickets to concerts life. Educationally, the question concerns that organiza- which may afford culture, and for paying taxes, chari- tion of schools, materials, and methods which will oper- table gifts and other things of social and ethical value? ate to achieve breadth and richness of experience. How How unreasonable to expect that the pursuit of business shall we secure breadth of outlook without sacrificing should be itself a culture of the imagination, in breadth efficiency of execution? How shall we secure the diver- and refinement; that it should directly, and not through sity of interests, without paying the price of isolation? the money which it supplies, have social service for its How shall the individual be rendered executive in his in- animating principle and be conducted as an enterprise in telligence instead of at the cost of his intelligence? How behalf of social organization! The same thing is to be shall art, science, and politics reinforce one another in said, mutatis mutandis, of the pursuit of art or science or an enriched temper of mind instead of constituting ends

256 John Dewey pursued at one another’s expense? How can the interests tion arises which of the various possibilities of a situa- of life and the studies which enforce them enrich the tion is to be preferred in order to reach a full realization, common experience of men instead of dividing men from or vital experience. one another? With the questions of reorganization thus We must not, however, divide the studies of the cur- suggested, we shall be concerned in the concluding chap- riculum into the appreciative, those concerned with in- ters. trinsic value, and the instrumental, concerned with those which are of value or ends beyond themselves. The for- Summary. Fundamentally, the elements involved in a dis- mation of proper standards in any subject depends upon cussion of value have been covered in the prior discus- a realization of the contribution which it makes to the sion of aims and interests. But since educational values immediate significance of experience, upon a direct ap- are generally discussed in connection with the claims of preciation. Literature and the fine arts are of peculiar the various studies of the curriculum, the consideration value because they represent appreciation at its best—a of aim and interest is here resumed from the point of heightened realization of meaning through selection and view of special studies. The term “value” has two quite concentration. But every subject at some phase of its different meanings. On the one hand, it denotes the atti- development should possess, what is for the individual tude of prizing a thing finding it worth while, for its own concerned with it, an aesthetic quality. sake, or intrinsically. This is a name for a full or complete Contribution to immediate intrinsic values in all their experience. To value in this sense is to appreciate. But to variety in experience is the only criterion for determin- value also means a distinctively intellectual act—an oping the worth of instrumental and derived values in stud- eration of comparing and judging—to valuate. This oc- ies. The tendency to assign separate values to each study curs when direct full experience is lacking, and the ques- and to regard the curriculum in its entirety as a kind of

257 Democracy & Education composite made by the aggregation of segregated values Chapter Nineteen: Labor and Leisure is a result of the isolation of social groups and classes. Hence it is the business of education in a democratic 1. The Origin of the Opposition. The isolation of aims social group to struggle against this isolation in order and values which we have been considering leads to op- that the various interests may reinforce and play into position between them. Probably the most deep-seated one another. antithesis which has shown itself in educational history is that between education in preparation for useful labor and education for a life of leisure. The bare terms “useful labor” and ‘leisure” confirm the statement already made that the segregation and conflict of values are not self- inclosed, but reflect a division within social life. Were the two functions of gaining a livelihood by work and enjoying in a cultivated way the opportunities of leisure, distributed equally among the different members of a community, it would not occur to any one that there was any conflict of educational agencies and aims involved. It would be self-evident that the question was how education could contribute most effectively to both. And while it might be found that some materials of instruction chiefly accomplished one result and other subject matter the other, it would be evident that care must be

258 John Dewey taken to secure as much overlapping as conditions per- or reward intelligence. mit; that is, the education which had leisure more di- That a certain amount of labor must be engaged in rectly in view should indirectly reinforce as much as pos- goes without saying. Human beings have to live and it sible the efficiency and the enjoyment of work, while requires work to supply the resources of life. Even if we that aiming at the latter should produce habits of emo- insist that the interests connected with getting a living tion and intellect which would procure a worthy cultiva- are only material and hence intrinsically lower than those tion of leisure. These general considerations are amply connected with enjoyment of time released from labor, borne out by the historical development of educational and even if it were admitted that there is something philosophy. The separation of liberal education from pro- engrossing and insubordinate in material interests which fessional and industrial education goes back to the time leads them to strive to usurp the place belonging to the of the Greeks, and was formulated expressly on the basis higher ideal interests, this would not—barring the fact of a division of classes into those who had to labor for a of socially divided classes—lead to neglect of the kind of living and those who were relieved from this necessity. education which trains men for the useful pursuits. It The conception that liberal education, adapted to men in would rather lead to scrupulous care for them, so that the latter class, is intrinsically higher than the servile men were trained to be efficient in them and yet to keep training given to the latter class reflected the fact that them in their place; education would see to it that we one class was free and the other servile in its social sta- avoided the evil results which flow from their being al- tus. The latter class labored not only for its own subsis- lowed to flourish in obscure purlieus of neglect. Only tence, but also for the means which enabled the superior when a division of these interests coincides with a divi- class to live without personally engaging in occupations sion of an inferior and a superior social class will prepa- taking almost all the time and not of a nature to engage ration for useful work be looked down upon with con-

259 Democracy & Education tempt as an unworthy thing: a fact which prepares one their own satiety, they observe moderation—the law of for the conclusion that the rigid identification of work the mean—and serve desirable ends as they are subjected with material interests, and leisure with ideal interests is to the rule of reason. itself a social product. The educational formulations of Such is the situation as an affair of theoretical psychol- the social situation made over two thousand years ago ogy and as most adequately stated by Aristotle. But this have been so influential and give such a clear and logical state of things is reflected in the constitution of classes recognition of the implications of the division into la- of men and hence in the organization of society. Only in boring and leisure classes, that they deserve especial note. a comparatively small number is the function of reason According to them, man occupies the highest place in capable of operating as a law of life. In the mass of people, the scheme of animate existence. In part, he shares the vegetative and animal functions dominate. Their energy constitution and functions of plants and animals—nutri- of intelligence is so feeble and inconstant that it is con- tive, reproductive, motor or practical. The distinctively stantly overpowered by bodily appetite and passion. Such human function is reason existing for the sake of behold- persons are not truly ends in themselves, for only reason ing the spectacle of the universe. Hence the truly human constitutes a final end. Like plants, animals and physical end is the fullest possible of this distinctive human pre- tools, they are means, appliances, for the attaining of rogative. The life of observation, meditation, cogitation, ends beyond themselves, although unlike them they have and speculation pursued as an end in itself is the proper enough intelligence to exercise a certain discretion in life of man. From reason moreover proceeds the proper the execution of the tasks committed to them. Thus by control of the lower elements of human nature—the ap- nature, and not merely by social convention, there are petites and the active, motor, impulses. In themselves those who are slaves—that is, means for the ends of greedy, insubordinate, lovers of excess, aiming only at others. 1 The great body of artisans are in one important

260 John Dewey respect worse off than even slaves. Like the latter they with intelligence, may live the life of leisurely concern are given up to the service of ends external to them- with things intrinsically worth while. selves; but since they do not enjoy the intimate associa- To these two modes of occupation, with their distinction with the free superior class experienced by domestic tion of servile and free activities (or “arts”) correspond slaves they remain on a lower plane of excellence. More- two types of education: the base or mechanical and the over, women are classed with slaves and craftsmen as liberal or intellectual. Some persons are trained by suit- factors among the animate instrumentalities of produc- able practical exercises for capacity in doing things, for tion and reproduction of the means for a free or rational ability to use the mechanical tools involved in turning life. out physical commodities and rendering personal service. Individually and collectively there is a gulf between This training is a mere matter of habituation and techni- merely living and living worthily. In order that one may cal skill; it operates through repetition and assiduity in live worthily he must first live, and so with collective application, not through awakening and nurturing society. The time and energy spent upon mere life, upon thought. Liberal education aims to train intelligence for the gaining of subsistence, detracts from that available its proper office: to know. The less this knowledge has to for activities that have an inherent rational meaning; do with practical affairs, with making or producing, the they also unfit for the latter. Means are menial, the ser- more adequately it engages intelligence. So consistently viceable is servile. The true life is possible only in the does Aristotle draw the line between menial and liberal degree in which the physical necessities are had without education that he puts what are now called the “fine” effort and without attention. Hence slaves, artisans, and arts, music, painting, sculpture, in the same class with women are employed in furnishing the means of subsis- menial arts so far as their practice is concerned. They tence in order that others, those adequately equipped involve physical agencies, assiduity of practice, and ex-

261 Democracy & Education ternal results. In discussing, for example, education in companied by reason or as it makes reason its own me- music he raises the question how far the young should be dium. That is to say, the free citizen who devotes himself practiced in the playing of instruments. His answer is to the public life of his community, sharing in the man- that such practice and proficiency may be tolerated as agement of its affairs and winning personal honor and conduce to appreciation; that is, to understanding and distinction, lives a life accompanied by reason. But the enjoyment of music when played by slaves or profession- thinker, the man who devotes himself to scientific in- als. When professional power is aimed at, music sinks quiry and philosophic speculation, works, so to speak, in from the liberal to the professional level. One might then reason, not simply by. Even the activity of the citizen in as well teach cooking, says Aristotle. Even a liberal con- his civic relations, in other words, retains some of the cern with the works of fine art depends upon the exist- taint of practice, of external or merely instrumental do- ence of a hireling class of practitioners who have subor- ing. This infection is shown by the fact that civic activity dinated the development of their own personality to at- and civic excellence need the help of others; one cannot taining skill in mechanical execution. The higher the ac- engage in public life all by himself. But all needs, all tivity the more purely mental is it; the less does it have desires imply, in the philosophy of Aristotle, a material to do with physical things or with the body. The more factor; they involve lack, privation; they are dependent purely mental it is, the more independent or self-suffic- upon something beyond themselves for completion. A ing is it. purely intellectual life, however, one carries on by him- These last words remind us that Aristotle again makes self, in himself; such assistance as he may derive from a distinction of superior and inferior even within those others is accidental, rather than intrinsic. In knowing, in living the life of reason. For there is a distinction in ends the life of theory, reason finds its own full manifesta- and in free action, according as one’s life is merely action; knowing for the sake of knowing irrespective of any

262 John Dewey application is alone independent, or self-sufficing. Hence laboring class, to make his point of view a most enlight- only the education that makes for power to know as an ening one from which to criticize the separation between end in itself. without reference to the practice of even culture and utility in present education. Behind the in- civic duties, is truly liberal or free. tellectual and abstract distinction as it figures in pedagogical discussion, there looms a social distinction be- 2. The Present Situation. If the Aristotelian conception tween those whose pursuits involve a minimum of self- represented just Aristotle’s personal view, it would be a directive thought and aesthetic appreciation, and those more or less interesting historical curiosity. It could be who are concerned more directly with things of the intel- dismissed as an illustration of the lack of sympathy or ligence and with the control of the activities of others. the amount of academic pedantry which may coexist with Aristotle was certainly permanently right when he said extraordinary intellectual gifts. But Aristotle simply de- that “any occupation or art or study deserves to be called scribed without confusion and without that insincerity mechanical if it renders the body or soul or intellect of always attendant upon mental confusion, the life that free persons unfit for the exercise and practice of excel- was before him. That the actual social situation has greatly lence.” The force of the statement is almost infinitely changed since his day there is no need to say. But in increased when we hold, as we nominally do at present, spite of these changes, in spite of the abolition of legal that all persons, instead of a comparatively few, are free. serfdom, and the spread of democracy, with the exten- For when the mass of men and all women were regarded sion of science and of general education (in books, news- as unfree by the very nature of their bodies and minds, papers, travel, and general intercourse as well as in there was neither intellectual confusion nor moral hy- schools), there remains enough of a cleavage of society pocrisy in giving them only the training which fitted them into a learned and an unlearned class, a leisure and a for mechanical skill, irrespective of its ulterior effect upon

263 Democracy & Education their capacity to share in a worthy life. He was perma- tive thought; between significant knowledge and practi- nently right also when he went on to say that “all merce- cal achievement. We hardly better matters if we just cor- nary employments as well as those which degrade the rect his theoretical misapprehension, and tolerate the condition of the body are mechanical, since they deprive social state of affairs which generated and sanctioned the intellect of leisure and dignity,”—permanently right, his conception. We lose rather than gain in change from that is, if gainful pursuits as matter of fact deprive the serfdom to free citizenship if the most prized result of intellect of the conditions of its exercise and so of its the change is simply an increase in the mechanical effi- dignity. If his statements are false, it is because they ciency of the human tools of production. So we lose rather identify a phase of social custom with a natural neces- than gain in coming to think of intelligence as an organ sity. But a different view of the relations of mind and of control of nature through action, if we are content matter, mind and body, intelligence and social service, is that an unintelligent, unfree state persists in those who better than Aristotle’s conception only if it helps render engage directly in turning nature to use, and leave the the old idea obsolete in fact—in the actual conduct of intelligence which controls to be the exclusive posses- life and education. Aristotle was permanently right in sion of remote scientists and captains of industry. We are assuming the inferiority and subordination of mere skill in a position honestly to criticize the division of life into in performance and mere accumulation of external prod- separate functions and of society into separate classes ucts to understanding, sympathy of appreciation, and the only so far as we are free from responsibility for perpetu- free play of ideas. If there was an error, it lay in assuming ating the educational practices which train the many for the necessary separation of the two: in supposing that pursuits involving mere skill in production, and the few there is a natural divorce between efficiency in produc- for a knowledge that is an ornament and a cultural em- ing commodities and rendering service, and self-direc- bellishment. In short, ability to transcend the Greek phi-

264 John Dewey losophy of life and education is not secured by a mere cultural or liberal education cannot have anything in com- shifting about of the theoretical symbols meaning free, mon, directly at least, with industrial affairs, and that rational, and worthy. It is not secured by a change of the education which is fit for the masses must be a useful sentiment regarding the dignity of labor, and the superi- or practical education in a sense which opposes useful ority of a life of service to that of an aloof self-sufficing and practical to nurture of appreciation and liberation of independence. Important as these theoretical and emo- thought. As a consequence, our actual system is an in- tional changes are, their importance consists in their being consistent mixture. Certain studies and methods are returned to account in the development of a truly demo- tained on the supposition that they have the sanction of cratic society, a society in which all share in useful ser- peculiar liberality, the chief content of the term liberal vice and all enjoy a worthy leisure. It is not a mere change being uselessness for practical ends. This aspect is chiefly in the concepts of culture—or a liberal mind—and social visible in what is termed the higher education—that of service which requires an educational reorganization; but the college and of preparation for it. But is has filtered the educational transformation is needed to give full and through into elementary education and largely controls explicit effect to the changes implied in social life. The its processes and aims. But, on the other hand, certain increased political and economic emancipation of the concessions have been made to the masses who must “masses” has shown itself in education; it has effected engage in getting a livelihood and to the increased role the development of a common school system of educa- of economic activities in modern life. These concessions tion, public and free. It has destroyed the idea that learn- are exhibited in special schools and courses for the pro- ing is properly a monopoly of the few who are predes- fessions, for engineering, for manual training and com- tined by nature to govern social affairs. But the revolu- merce, in vocational and prevocational courses; and in tion is still incomplete. The idea still prevails that a truly the spirit in which certain elementary subjects, like the

265 Democracy & Education three R’s, are taught. The result is a system in which both phasis put upon drill and practice for the sake of gaining “cultural” and “utilitarian” subjects exist in an inorganic automatic skill. If we turn to Greek schooling, we find composite where the former are not by dominant purpose that from the earliest years the acquisition of skill was socially serviceable and the latter not liberative of imagi- subordinated as much as possible to acquisition of liter- nation or thinking power. ary content possessed of aesthetic and moral significance. In the inherited situation, there is a curious intermin- Not getting a tool for subsequent use but present subject gling, in even the same study, of concession to useful- matter was the emphasized thing. Nevertheless the iso- ness and a survival of traits once exclusively attributed lation of these studies from practical application, their to preparation for leisure. The “utility” element is found reduction to purely symbolic devices, represents a sur- in the motives assigned for the study, the “liberal” ele- vival of the idea of a liberal training divorced from util- ment in methods of teaching. The outcome of the mix- ity. A thorough adoption of the idea of utility would have ture is perhaps less satisfactory than if either principle led to instruction which tied up the studies to situations were adhered to in its purity. The motive popularly as- in which they were directly needed and where they were signed for making the studies of the first four or five rendered immediately and not remotely helpful. It would years consist almost entirely of reading, spelling, writ- be hard to find a subject in the curriculum within which ing, and arithmetic, is, for example, that ability to read, there are not found evil results of a compromise between write, and figure accurately is indispensable to getting the two opposed ideals. Natural science is recommended ahead. These studies are treated as mere instruments for on the ground of its practical utility, but is taught as a entering upon a gainful employment or of later progress special accomplishment in removal from application. On in the pursuit of learning, according as pupils do not or the other hand, music and literature are theoretically jus- do remain in school. This attitude is reflected in the em- tified on the ground of their culture value and are then

266 John Dewey taught with chief emphasis upon forming technical modes fact of social and economic utility which made certain of skill. activities seem servile to the Greeks but the fact that the If we had less compromise and resulting confusion, if activities directly connected with getting a livelihood were we analyzed more carefully the respective meanings of not, in their days, the expression of a trained intelli- culture and utility, we might find it easier to construct a gence nor carried on because of a personal appreciation course of study which should be useful and liberal at the of their meaning. So far as farming and the trades were same time. Only superstition makes us believe that the rule-of-thumb occupations and so far as they were en- two are necessarily hostile so that a subject is illiberal gaged in for results external to the minds of agricultural because it is useful and cultural because it is useless. It laborers and mechanics, they were illiberal—but only so will generally be found that instruction which, in aiming far. The intellectual and social context has now changed. at utilitarian results, sacrifices the development of imagi- The elements in industry due to mere custom and routine nation, the refining of taste and the deepening of intel- have become subordinate in most economic callings to lectual insight—surely cultural values—also in the same elements derived from scientific inquiry. The most impor- degree renders what is learned limited in its use. Not tant occupations of today represent and depend upon that it makes it wholly unavailable but that its applica- applied mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The area of bility is restricted to routine activities carried on under the human world influenced by economic production and the supervision of others. Narrow modes of skill cannot influencing consumption has been so indefinitely wid- be made useful beyond themselves; any mode of skill ened that geographical and political considerations of an which is achieved with deepening of knowledge and per- almost infinitely wide scope enter in. It was natural for fecting of judgment is readily put to use in new situa- Plato to deprecate the learning of geometry and arith- tions and is under personal control. It was not the bare metic for practical ends, because as matter of fact the

267 Democracy & Education practical uses to which they were put were few, lacking is the fact that the great majority of workers have no in content and mostly mercenary in quality. But as their insight into the social aims of their pursuits and no di- social uses have increased and enlarged, their liberaliz- rect personal interest in them. The results actually ing or “intellectual” value and their practical value ap- achieved are not the ends of their actions, but only of proach the same limit. their employers. They do what they do, not freely and Doubtless the factor which chiefly prevents our full rec- intelligently, but for the sake of the wage earned. It is ognition and employment of this identification is the con- this fact which makes the action illiberal, and which will ditions under which so much work is still carried on. The make any education designed simply to give skill in such invention of machines has extended the amount of lei- undertakings illiberal and immoral. The activity is not sure which is possible even while one is at work. It is a free because not freely participated in. commonplace that the mastery of skill in the form of Nevertheless, there is already an opportunity for an edu- established habits frees the mind for a higher order of cation which, keeping in mind the larger features of work, thinking. Something of the same kind is true of the in- will reconcile liberal nurture with training in social ser- troduction of mechanically automatic operations in in- viceableness, with ability to share efficiently and happily dustry. They may release the mind for thought upon other in occupations which are productive. And such an educa- topics. But when we confine the education of those who tion will of itself tend to do away with the evils of the work with their hands to a few years of schooling de- existing economic situation. In the degree in which men voted for the most part to acquiring the use of rudimen- have an active concern in the ends that control their tary symbols at the expense of training in science, litera- activity, their activity becomes free or voluntary and loses ture, and history, we fail to prepare the minds of workers its externally enforced and servile quality, even though to take advantage of this opportunity. More fundamental the physical aspect of behavior remain the same. In what

268 John Dewey is termed politics, democratic social organization makes son and hence having their own ends, and those capable provision for this direct participation in control: in the only of desire and work, and needing to have their ends economic region, control remains external and autocratic. provided by others. The two distinctions, psychological and Hence the split between inner mental action and outer political, translated into educational terms, effected a di- physical action of which the traditional distinction be- vision between a liberal education, having to do with the tween the liberal and the utilitarian is the reflex. An edu- self-sufficing life of leisure devoted to knowing for its own cation which should unify the disposition of the mem- sake, and a useful, practical training for mechanical occu- bers of society would do much to unify society itself. pations, devoid of intellectual and aesthetic content. While the present situation is radically diverse in theory and much Summary. Of the segregations of educational values dis- changed in fact, the factors of the older historic situation cussed in the last chapter, that between culture and util- still persist sufficiently to maintain the educational dis- ity is probably the most fundamental. While the distinc- tinction, along with compromises which often reduce the tion is often thought to be intrinsic and absolute, it is efficacy of the educational measures. The problem of edu- really historical and social. It originated, so far as con- cation in a democratic society is to do away with the dual- scious formulation is concerned, in Greece, and was based ism and to construct a course of studies which makes upon the fact that the truly human life was lived only by thought a guide of free practice for all and which makes a few who subsisted upon the results of the labor of oth- leisure a reward of accepting responsibility for service, rather ers. This fact affected the psychological doctrine of the than a state of exemption from it. relation of intelligence and desire, theory and practice. It was embodied in a political theory of a permanent divi- 1 Aristotle does not hold that the class of actual slaves sion of human beings into those capable of a life of rea- and of natural slaves necessarily coincide.

269 Democracy & Education Chapter Twenty: Intellectual and Practical Studies its own sake free from practical reference, and found its source and organ in a purely immaterial mind; it had to 1. The Opposition of Experience and True Knowledge. do with spiritual or ideal interests. Again, experience al- As livelihood and leisure are opposed, so are theory and ways involved lack, need, desire; it was never self-suffic- practice, intelligence and execution, knowledge and acing. Rational knowing on the other hand, was complete tivity. The latter set of oppositions doubtless springs from and comprehensive within itself. Hence the practical life the same social conditions which produce the former con- was in a condition of perpetual flux, while intellectual flict; but certain definite problems of education connected knowledge concerned eternal truth. with them make it desirable to discuss explicitly the mat- This sharp antithesis is connected with the fact that ter of the relationship and alleged separation of knowing Athenian philosophy began as a criticism of custom and and doing. tradition as standards of knowledge and conduct. In a The notion that knowledge is derived from a higher search for something to replace them, it hit upon reason source than is practical activity, and possesses a higher as the only adequate guide of belief and activity. Since and more spiritual worth, has a long history. The history custom and tradition were identified with experience, it so far as conscious statement is concerned takes us back followed at once that reason was superior to experience. to the conceptions of experience and of reason formu- Moreover, experience, not content with its proper posi- lated by Plato and Aristotle. Much as these thinkers dif- tion of subordination, was the great foe to the acknowl- fered in many respects, they agreed in identifying expe- edgment of the authority of reason. Since custom and rience with purely practical concerns; and hence with traditionary beliefs held men in bondage, the struggle of material interests as to its purpose and with the body as reason for its legitimate supremacy could be won only by to its organ. Knowledge, on the other hand, existed for showing the inherently unstable and inadequate nature

270 John Dewey of experience. The statement of Plato that philosophers and society. Reason was the faculty by which the univer- should be kings may best be understood as a statement sal principle and essence is apprehended; while the senses that rational intelligence and not habit, appetite, im- were the organs of perceiving change,—the unstable and pulse, and emotion should regulate human affairs. The the diverse as against the permanent and uniform. The former secures unity, order, and law; the latter signify results of the work of the senses, preserved in memory multiplicity and discord, irrational fluctuations from one and imagination, and applied in the skill given by habit, estate to another. constituted experience. The grounds for the identification of experience with Experience at its best is thus represented in the various the unsatisfactory condition of things, the state of af- handicrafts—the arts of peace and war. The cobbler, the fairs represented by rule of mere custom, are not far to flute player, the soldier, have undergone the discipline of seek. Increasing trade and travel, colonizations, migra- experience to acquire the skill they have. This means that tions and wars, had broadened the intellectual horizon. the bodily organs, particularly the senses, have had re- The customs and beliefs of different communities were peated contact with things and that the result of these found to diverge sharply from one another. Civil distur- contacts has been preserved and consolidated till ability bance had become a custom in Athens; the fortunes of in foresight and in practice had been secured. Such was the city seemed given over to strife of factions. The in- the essential meaning of the term “empirical.” It sug- crease of leisure coinciding with the broadening of the gested a knowledge and an ability not based upon in- horizon had brought into ken many new facts of nature sight into principles, but expressing the result of a large and had stimulated curiosity and speculation. The situa- number of separate trials. It expressed the idea now con- tion tended to raise the question as to the existence of veyed by “method of trial and error,” with especial em- anything constant and universal in the realm of nature phasis upon the more or less accidental character of the

271 Democracy & Education trials. So far as ability of control, of management, was the edge of pretense, of sham, of seeming, and appear- concerned, it amounted to rule-of-thumb procedure, to ance, in distinction from the reality upon which reason routine. If new circumstances resembled the past, it might lays hold. work well enough; in the degree in which they deviated, The philosophers soon reached certain generalizations failure was likely. Even to-day to speak of a physician as from this state of affairs. The senses are connected with an empiricist is to imply that he lacks scientific training, the appetites, with wants and desires. They lay hold not and that he is proceeding simply on the basis of what he on the reality of things but on the relation which things happens to have got out of the chance medley of his past have to our pleasures and pains, to the satisfaction of practice. Just because of the lack of science or reason in wants and the welfare of the body. They are important “experience” it is hard to keep it at its poor best. The only for the life of the body, which is but a fixed substra- empiric easily degenerates into the quack. He does not tum for a higher life. Experience thus has a definitely know where his knowledge begins or leaves off, and so material character; it has to do with physical things in when he gets beyond routine conditions he begins to relation to the body. In contrast, reason, or science, lays pretend—to make claims for which there is no justifica- hold of the immaterial, the ideal, the spiritual. There is tion, and to trust to luck and to ability to impose upon something morally dangerous about experience, as such others—to “bluff.” Moreover, he assumes that because words as sensual, carnal, material, worldly, interests sug- he has learned one thing, he knows others—as the his- gest; while pure reason and spirit connote something tory of Athens showed that the common craftsmen thought morally praiseworthy. Moreover, ineradicable connection they could manage household affairs, education, and with the changing, the inexplicably shifting, and with politics, because they had learned to do the specific things the manifold, the diverse, clings to experience. Its mate- of their trades. Experience is always hovering, then, on rial is inherently variable and untrustworthy. It is anar-

272 John Dewey chic, because unstable. The man who trusts to experi- thing intellectually or theoretically, is to be out of the ence does not know what he depends upon, since it region of vicissitude, chance, and diversity. Truth has no changes from person to person, from day to day, to say lack; it is untouched by the perturbations of the world of nothing of from country to country. Its connection with sense. It deals with the eternal and the universal. And the “many,” with various particulars, has the same ef- the world of experience can be brought under control, fect, and also carries conflict in its train. can be steadied and ordered, only through subjection to Only the single, the uniform, assures coherence and its law of reason. harmony. Out of experience come warrings, the conflict It would not do, of course, to say that all these distinc- of opinions and acts within the individual and between tions persisted in full technical definiteness. But they all individuals. From experience no standard of belief can of them profoundly influenced men’s subsequent think- issue, because it is the very nature of experience to insti- ing and their ideas about education. The contempt for gate all kinds of contrary beliefs, as varieties of local physical as compared with mathematical and logical sci- custom proved. Its logical outcome is that anything is ence, for the senses and sense observation; the feeling good and true to the particular individual which his ex- that knowledge is high and worthy in the degree in which perience leads him to believe true and good at a particu- it deals with ideal symbols instead of with the concrete; lar time and place. Finally practice falls of necessity within the scorn of particulars except as they are deductively experience. Doing proceeds from needs and aims at brought under a universal; the disregard for the body; change. To produce or to make is to alter something; to the depreciation of arts and crafts as intellectual instru- consume is to alter. All the obnoxious characters of change mentalities, all sought shelter and found sanction under and diversity thus attach themselves to doing while know- this estimate of the respective values of experience and ing is as permanent as its object. To know, to grasp a reason—or, what came to the same thing, of the practi-

273 Democracy & Education cal and the intellectual. Medieval philosophy continued to note the theory of experience and knowledge devel- and reinforced the tradition. To know reality meant to be oped in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In in relation to the supreme reality, or God, and to enjoy general, it presents us with an almost complete reversal the eternal bliss of that relation. Contemplation of su- of the classic doctrine of the relations of experience and preme reality was the ultimate end of man to which ac- reason. To Plato experience meant habituation, or the tion is subordinate. Experience had to do with mundane, conservation of the net product of a lot of past chance profane, and secular affairs, practically necessary indeed, trials. Reason meant the principle of reform, of progress, but of little import in comparison with supernatural ob- of increase of control. Devotion to the cause of reason jects of knowledge. When we add to this motive the force meant breaking through the limitations of custom and derived from the literary character of the Roman educa- getting at things as they really were. To the modern re- tion and the Greek philosophic tradition, and conjoin to formers, the situation was the other way around. Reason, them the preference for studies which obviously demar- universal principles, a priori notions, meant either blank cated the aristocratic class from the lower classes, we forms which had to be filled in by experience, by sense can readily understand the tremendous power exercised observations, in order to get significance and validity; or by the persistent preference of the “intellectual” over else were mere indurated prejudices, dogmas imposed by the “practical” not simply in educational philosophies authority, which masqueraded and found protection un- but in the higher schools. 2. The Modern Theory of Expe- der august names. The great need was to break way from rience and Knowledge. As we shall see later, the develop- captivity to conceptions which, as Bacon put it, “antici- ment of experimentation as a method of knowledge makes pated nature” and imposed merely human opinions upon possible and necessitates a radical transformation of the her, and to resort to experience to find out what nature view just set forth. But before coming to that, we have was like. Appeal to experience marked the breach with

274 John Dewey authority. It meant openness to new impressions; eager- edge. The educational result was only to confirm the ex- ness in discovery and invention instead of absorption in clusion of active pursuits from the school, save as they tabulating and systematizing received ideas and “prov- might be brought in for purely utilitarian ends—the acing” them by means of the relations they sustained to quisition by drill of certain habits. In the second place, one another. It was the irruption into the mind of the the interest in experience as a means of basing truth things as they really were, free from the veil cast over upon objects, upon nature, led to looking at the mind as them by preconceived ideas. purely receptive. The more passive the mind is, the more The change was twofold. Experience lost the practical truly objects will impress themselves upon it. For the meaning which it had borne from the time of Plato. It mind to take a hand, so to speak, would be for it in the ceased to mean ways of doing and being done to, and very process of knowing to vitiate true knowledge—to became a name for something intellectual and cognitive. defeat its own purpose. The ideal was a maximum of re- It meant the apprehension of material which should bal- ceptivity. Since the impressions made upon the mind by last and check the exercise of reasoning. By the modern objects were generally termed sensations, empiricism thus philosophic empiricist and by his opponent, experience became a doctrine of sensationalism—that is to say, a has been looked upon just as a way of knowing. The only doctrine which identified knowledge with the reception question was how good a way it is. The result was an and association of sensory impressions. In John Locke, even greater “intellectualism” than is found in ancient the most influential of the empiricists, we find this sen- philosophy, if that word be used to designate an em- sationalism mitigated by a recognition of certain mental phatic and almost exclusive interest in knowledge in its faculties, like discernment or discrimination, compari- isolation. Practice was not so much subordinated to knowl- son, abstraction, and generalization which work up the edge as treated as a kind of tag-end or aftermath of knowl- material of sense into definite and organized forms and

275 Democracy & Education which even evolve new ideas on their own account, such empiricism found its directly beneficial office in protest- as the fundamental conceptions of morals and mathemat- ing against mere book learning. If knowledge comes from ics. (See ante, p. 61.) But some of his successors, espe- the impressions made upon us by natural objects, it is cially in France in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- impossible to procure knowledge without the use of ob- tury, carried his doctrine to the limit; they regarded dis- jects which impress the mind. Words, all kinds of linguis- cernment and judgment as peculiar sensations made in tic symbols, in the lack of prior presentations of objects us by the conjoint presence of other sensations. Locke with which they may be associated, convey nothing but had held that the mind is a blank piece of paper, or a wax sensations of their own shape and color —certainly not a tablet with nothing engraved on it at birth (a tabula very instructive kind of knowledge. Sensationalism was rasa) so far as any contents of ideas were concerned, but an extremely handy weapon with which to combat doc- had endowed it with activities to be exercised upon the trines and opinions resting wholly upon tradition and material received. His French successors razed away the authority. With respect to all of them, it set up a test: powers and derived them also from impressions received. Where are the real objects from which these ideas and As we have earlier noted, this notion was fostered by beliefs are received? If such objects could not be pro- the new interest in education as method of social reform. duced, ideas were explained as the result of false asso- (See ante, p. 93.) The emptier the mind to begin with, ciations and combinations. Empiricism also insisted upon the more it may be made anything we wish by bringing a first-hand element. The impression must be made upon the right influences to bear upon it. Thus Helvetius, per- me, upon my mind. The further we get away from this haps the most extreme and consistent sensationalist, pro- direct, first-hand source of knowledge, the more numer- claimed that education could do anything—that it was ous the sources of error, and the vaguer the resulting omnipotent. Within the sphere of school instruction, idea.

276 John Dewey As might be expected, however, the philosophy was weak for thinking consisted simply in combining and separat- upon the positive side. Of course, the value of natural ing sensory units which had been received without any objects and firsthand acquaintance was not dependent participation of judgment. upon the truth of the theory. Introduced into the schools As a matter of fact, accordingly, practically no scheme they would do their work, even if the sensational theory of education upon a purely sensory basis has ever been about the way in which they did it was quite wrong. So systematically tried, at least after the early years of in- far, there is nothing to complain of. But the emphasis fancy. Its obvious deficiencies have caused it to be re- upon sensationalism also operated to influence the way sorted to simply for filling in “rationalistic” knowledge in which natural objects were employed, and to prevent (that is to say, knowledge of definitions, rules, classifi- full good being got from them. “Object lessons” tended cations, and modes of application conveyed through sym- to isolate the mere sense-activity and make it an end in bols), and as a device for lending greater “interest” to itself. The more isolated the object, the more isolated barren symbols. There are at least three serious defects the sensory quality, the more distinct the sense-impres- of sensationalistic empiricism as an educational philoso- sion as a unit of knowledge. The theory worked not only phy of knowledge. (a) the historical value of the theory in the direction of this mechanical isolation, which tended was critical; it was a dissolvent of current beliefs about to reduce instruction to a kind of physical gymnastic of the world and political institutions. It was a destructive the sense-organs (good like any gymnastic of bodily or- organ of criticism of hard and fast dogmas. But the work gans, but not more so), but also to the neglect of think- of education is constructive, not critical. It assumes not ing. According to the theory there was no need of think- old beliefs to be eliminated and revised, but the need of ing in connection with sense-observation; in fact, in strict building up new experience into intellectual habitudes theory such thinking would be impossible till afterwards, as correct as possible from the start. Sensationalism is

277 Democracy & Education highly unfitted for this constructive task. Mind, under- arithmetical understanding. They arrest growth on a low standing, denotes responsiveness to meanings (ante, p. plane, the plane of specific physical symbols. Just as the 29), not response to direct physical stimuli. And mean- race developed especial symbols as tools of calculation ing exists only with reference to a context, which is ex- and mathematical reasonings, because the use of the fin- cluded by any scheme which identifies knowledge with a gers as numerical symbols got in the way, so the indi- combination of sense-impressions. The theory, so far as vidual must progress from concrete to abstract symbols— educationally applied, led either to a magnification of that is, symbols whose meaning is realized only through mere physical excitations or else to a mere heaping up of conceptual thinking. And undue absorption at the outset isolated objects and qualities. in the physical object of sense hampers this growth. (c) (b) While direct impression has the advantage of being A thoroughly false psychology of mental development first hand, it also has the disadvantage of being limited underlay sensationalistic empiricism. Experience is in truth in range. Direct acquaintance with the natural surround- a matter of activities, instinctive and impulsive, in their ings of the home environment so as to give reality to interactions with things. What even an infant “experi- ideas about portions of the earth beyond the reach of the ences” is not a passively received quality impressed by senses, and as a means of arousing intellectual curiosity, an object, but the effect which some activity of han- is one thing. As an end-all and be-all of geographical dling, throwing, pounding, tearing, etc., has upon an knowledge it is fatally restricted. In precisely analogous object, and the consequent effect of the object upon the fashion, beans, shoe pegs, and counters may be helpful direction of activities. (See ante, p. 140.) Fundamentally aids to a realization of numerical relations, but when (as we shall see in more detail), the ancient notion of employed except as aids to thought—the apprehension experience as a practical matter is truer to fact that the of meaning—they become an obstacle to the growth of modern notion of it as a mode of knowing by means of

278 John Dewey sensations. The neglect of the deep-seated active and which appealed more directly to thought. Consequently motor factors of experience is a fatal defect of the tradi- it left unimpaired the scope of informational and abstract, tional empirical philosophy. Nothing is more uninterest- or “rationalistic” studies. ing and mechanical than a scheme of object lessons which ignores and as far as may be excludes the natural ten- 3. Experience as Experimentation. It has already been dency to learn about the qualities of objects by the uses intimated that sensational empiricism represents neither to which they are put through trying to do something the idea of experience justified by modern psychology with them. nor the idea of knowledge suggested by modern scien- It is obvious, accordingly, that even if the philosophy tific procedure. With respect to the former, it omits the of experience represented by modern empiricism had re- primary position of active response which puts things to ceived more general theoretical assent than has been ac- use and which learns about them through discovering corded to it, it could not have furnished a satisfactory the consequences that result from use. It would seem as philosophy of the learning process. Its educational influ- if five minutes’ unprejudiced observation of the way an ence was confined to injecting a new factor into the older infant gains knowledge would have sufficed to overthrow curriculum, with incidental modifications of the older stud- the notion that he is passively engaged in receiving im- ies and methods. It introduced greater regard for obser- pressions of isolated ready-made qualities of sound, color, vation of things directly and through pictures and graphic hardness, etc. For it would be seen that the infant reacts descriptions, and it reduced the importance attached to to stimuli by activities of handling, reaching, etc., in verbal symbolization. But its own scope was so meager order to see what results follow upon motor response to a that it required supplementation by information concern- sensory stimulation; it would be seen that what is learned ing matters outside of sense-perception and by matters are not isolated qualities, but the behavior which may be

279 Democracy & Education expected from a thing, and the changes in things and tion carried out under conditions of deliberate control. persons which an activity may be expected to produce. To the Greek, it seemed absurd that such an activity as, In other words, what he learns are connections. Even say, the cobbler punching holes in leather, or using wax such qualities as red color, sound of a high pitch, have to and needle and thread, could give an adequate knowl- be discriminated and identified on the basis of the ac- edge of the world. It seemed almost axiomatic that for tivities they call forth and the consequences these ac- true knowledge we must have recourse to concepts com- tivities effect. We learn what things are hard and what ing from a reason above experience. But the introduction are soft by finding out through active experimentation of the experimental method signified precisely that such what they respectively will do and what can be done and operations, carried on under conditions of control, are what cannot be done with them. In like fashion, children just the ways in which fruitful ideas about nature are learn about persons by finding out what responsive ac- obtained and tested. In other words, it is only needed to tivities these persons exact and what these persons will conduct such an operation as the pouring of an acid on a do in reply to the children’s activities. And the combina- metal for the purpose of getting knowledge instead of for tion of what things do to us (not in impressing qualities the purpose of getting a trade result, in order to lay hold on a passive mind) in modifying our actions, furthering of the principle upon which the science of nature was some of them and resisting and checking others, and what henceforth to depend. Sense perceptions were indeed in- we can do to them in producing new changes constitutes dispensable, but there was less reliance upon sense per- experience. The methods of science by which the revolu- ceptions in their natural or customary form than in the tion in our knowledge of the world dating from the sev- older science. They were no longer regarded as contain- enteenth century, was brought about, teach the same ing within themselves some “form” or “species” of uni- lesson. For these methods are nothing but experimenta- versal kind in a disguised mask of sense which could be

280 John Dewey stripped off by rational thought. On the contrary, the gestions. When trying, or experimenting, ceases to be first thing was to alter and extend the data of sense blinded by impulse or custom, when it is guided by an perception: to act upon the given objects of sense by the aim and conducted by measure and method, it becomes lens of the telescope and microscope, and by all sorts of reasonable—rational. When what we suffer from things, experimental devices. To accomplish this in a way which what we undergo at their hands, ceases to be a matter of would arouse new ideas (hypotheses, theories) required chance circumstance, when it is transformed into a con- even more general ideas (like those of mathematics) than sequence of our own prior purposive endeavors, it be- were at the command of ancient science. But these gen- comes rationally significant—enlightening and instruc- eral conceptions were no longer taken to give knowledge tive. The antithesis of empiricism and rationalism loses in themselves. They were implements for instituting, con- the support of the human situation which once gave it ducting, interpreting experimental inquiries and formu- meaning and relative justification. lating their results. The bearing of this change upon the opposition of purely The logical outcome is a new philosophy of experience practical and purely intellectual studies is self-evident. and knowledge, a philosophy which no longer puts expe- The distinction is not intrinsic but is dependent upon rience in opposition to rational knowledge and explana- conditions, and upon conditions which can be regulated. tion. Experience is no longer a mere summarizing of what Practical activities may be intellectually narrow and trivial; has been done in a more or less chance way in the past; they will be so in so far as they are routine, carried on it is a deliberate control of what is done with reference under the dictates of authority, and having in view merely to making what happens to us and what we do to things some external result. But childhood and youth, the pe- as fertile as possible of suggestions (of suggested mean- riod of schooling, is just the time when it is possible to ings) and a means for trying out the validity of the sug- carry them on in a different spirit. It is inexpedient to

281 Democracy & Education repeat the discussions of our previous chapters on think- and the world of men and things. Purposive education or ing and on the evolution of educative subject matter from schooling should present such an environment that this childlike work and play to logically organized subject interaction will effect acquisition of those meanings which matter. The discussions of this chapter and the prior one are so important that they become, in turn, instruments should, however, give an added meaning to those re- of further learnings. (ante, Ch. XI.) As has been repeat- sults. edly pointed out, activity out of school is carried on un- (i) Experience itself primarily consists of the active der conditions which have not been deliberately adapted relations subsisting between a human being and his natu- to promoting the function of understanding and forma- ral and social surroundings. In some cases, the initiative tion of effective intellectual dispositions. The results are in activity is on the side of the environment; the human vital and genuine as far as they go, but they are limited being undergoes or suffers certain checkings and deflec- by all kinds of circumstances. Some powers are left quite tions of endeavors. In other cases, the behavior of sur- undeveloped and undirected; others get only occasional rounding things and persons carries to a successful issue and whimsical stimulations; others are formed into hab- the active tendencies of the individual, so that in the its of a routine skill at the expense of aims and resource- end what the individual undergoes are consequences which ful initiative and inventiveness. It is not the business of he has himself tried to produce. In just the degree in the school to transport youth from an environment of which connections are established between what hap- activity into one of cramped study of the records of other pens to a person and what he does in response, and be- men’s learning; but to transport them from an environ- tween what he does to his environment and what it does ment of relatively chance activities (accidental in the in response to him, his acts and the things about him relation they bear to insight and thought) into one of acquire meaning. He learns to understand both himself activities selected with reference to guidance of learn-

282 John Dewey ing. A slight inspection of the improved methods which intellectual content upon which their personal actions have already shown themselves effective in education will depend. But this fact only gives an added reason why reveal that they have laid hold, more or less consciously, schooling should use these pursuits so as to enable the upon the fact that “intellectual” studies instead of being coming generation to acquire a comprehension now too opposed to active pursuits represent an intellectualizing generally lacking, and thus enable persons to carry on of practical pursuits. It remains to grasp the principle their pursuits intelligently instead of blindly. (iii) The with greater firmness. most direct blow at the traditional separation of doing (ii) The changes which are taking place in the content and knowing and at the traditional prestige of purely “in- of social life tremendously facilitate selection of the sort tellectual” studies, however, has been given by the of activities which will intellectualize the play and work progress of experimental science. If this progress has of the school. When one bears in mind the social envi- demonstrated anything, it is that there is no such thing ronment of the Greeks and the people of the Middle Ages, as genuine knowledge and fruitful understanding except where such practical activities as could be successfully as the offspring of doing. The analysis and rearrange- carried on were mostly of a routine and external sort and ment of facts which is indispensable to the growth of even servile in nature, one is not surprised that educa- knowledge and power of explanation and right classifica- tors turned their backs upon them as unfitted to culti- tion cannot be attained purely mentally—just inside the vate intelligence. But now that even the occupations of head. Men have to do something to the things when they the household, agriculture, and manufacturing as well as wish to find out something; they have to alter condi- transportation and intercourse are instinct with applied tions. This is the lesson of the laboratory method, and science, the case stands otherwise. It is true that many the lesson which all education has to learn. The labora- of those who now engage in them are not aware of the tory is a discovery of the condition under which labor

283 Democracy & Education may become intellectually fruitful and not merely exter- depreciation. This influence fell in with many others to nally productive. If, in too many cases at present, it re- magnify, in higher education, all the methods and topics sults only in the acquisition of an additional mode of which involved the least use of sense-observation and technical skill, that is because it still remains too largely bodily activity. The modern age began with a revolt against but an isolated resource, not resorted to until pupils are this point of view, with an appeal to experience, and an mostly too old to get the full advantage of it, and even attack upon so-called purely rational concepts on the ground then is surrounded by other studies where traditional that they either needed to be ballasted by the results of methods isolate intellect from activity. concrete experiences, or else were mere expressions of prejudice and institutionalized class interest, calling themselves Summary. The Greeks were induced to philosophize by rational for protection. But various circumstances led to the increasing failure of their traditional customs and considering experience as pure cognition, leaving out of beliefs to regulate life. Thus they were led to criticize account its intrinsic active and emotional phases, and to custom adversely and to look for some other source of identifying it with a passive reception of isolated “sensa- authority in life and belief. Since they desired a rational tions.” Hence the education reform effected by the new standard for the latter, and had identified with experi- theory was confined mainly to doing away with some of ence the customs which had proved unsatisfactory sup- the bookishness of prior methods; it did not accomplish a ports, they were led to a flat opposition of reason and consistent reorganization. experience. The more the former was exalted, the more Meantime, the advance of psychology, of industrial meth- the latter was depreciated. Since experience was identi- ods, and of the experimental method in science makes fied with what men do and suffer in particular and chang- another conception of experience explicitly desirable and ing situations of life, doing shared in the philosophic possible. This theory reinstates the idea of the ancients

284 John Dewey that experience is primarily practical, not cognitive—a Chapter Twenty-one: Physical and Social matter of doing and undergoing the consequences of do- Studies: Naturalism and Humanism ing. But the ancient theory is transformed by realizing that doing may be directed so as to take up into its own Allusion has already been made to the conflict of natural content all which thought suggests, and so as to result in science with literary studies for a place in the curricu- securely tested knowledge. “Experience” then ceases to lum. The solution thus far reached consists essentially in be empirical and becomes experimental. Reason ceases a somewhat mechanical compromise whereby the field is to be a remote and ideal faculty, and signifies all the divided between studies having nature and studies hav- resources by which activity is made fruitful in meaning. ing man as their theme. The situation thus presents us Educationally, this change denotes such a plan for the with another instance of the external adjustment of edu- studies and method of instruction as has been developed cational values, and focuses attention upon the philoso- in the previous chapters. phy of the connection of nature with human affairs. In general, it may be said that the educational division finds a reflection in the dualistic philosophies. Mind and the world are regarded as two independent realms of existence having certain points of contact with each other. From this point of view it is natural that each sphere of existence should have its own separate group of studies connected with it; it is even natural that the growth of scientific studies should be viewed with suspicion as marking a tendency of materialistic philosophy to en-

285 Democracy & Education croach upon the domain of spirit. Any theory of educa- the discovery of the good or end of man, and is discon- tion which contemplates a more unified scheme of edu- tented with the Socratic conviction that all we know is cation than now exists is under the necessity of facing our own ignorance, he connects the discussion of the the question of the relation of man to nature. good of man with consideration of the essential good or end of nature itself. To attempt to determine the end of 1. The Historic Background of Humanistic Study. It is man apart from a knowledge of the ruling end which gives noteworthy that classic Greek philosophy does not present law and unity to nature is impossible. It is thus quite the problem in its modern form. Socrates indeed appears consistent with his philosophy that he subordinates lit- to have thought that science of nature was not attain- erary studies (under the name of music) to mathematics able and not very important. The chief thing to know is and to physics as well as to logic and metaphysics. But the nature and end of man. Upon that knowledge hangs on the other hand, knowledge of nature is not an end in all that is of deep significance—all moral and social itself; it is a necessary stage in bringing the mind to a achievement. Plato, however, makes right knowledge of realization of the supreme purpose of existence as the man and society depend upon knowledge of the essential law of human action, corporate and individual. To use features of nature. His chief treatise, entitled the Repub- the modern phraseology, naturalistic studies are indis- lic, is at once a treatise on morals, on social organiza- pensable, but they are in the interests of humanistic and tion, and on the metaphysics and science of nature. Since ideal ends. he accepts the Socratic doctrine that right achievement Aristotle goes even farther, if anything, in the direc- in the former depends upon rational knowledge, he is tion of naturalistic studies. He subordinates (ante, p. 254) compelled to discuss the nature of knowledge. Since he civic relations to the purely cognitive life. The highest accepts the idea that the ultimate object of knowledge is end of man is not human but divine—participation in

286 John Dewey pure knowing which constitutes the divine life. Such know- tion. We cannot do better than quote the words of Hatch ing deals with what is universal and necessary, and finds, to indicate the consequences for educational theory and therefore, a more adequate subject matter in nature at practice. “Greece on one hand had lost political power, its best than in the transient things of man. If we take and on the other possessed in her splendid literature an what the philosophers stood for in Greek life, rather than inalienable heritage. It was natural that she should turn the details of what they say, we might summarize by say- to letters. It was natural also that the study of letters ing that the Greeks were too much interested in free in- should be reflected upon speech. The mass of men in the quiry into natural fact and in the aesthetic enjoyment of Greek world tended to lay stress on that acquaintance nature, and were too deeply conscious of the extent in with the literature of bygone generations, and that habit which society is rooted in nature and subject to its laws, of cultivated speech, which has ever since been com- to think of bringing man and nature into conflict. Two monly spoken of as education. Our own comes by direct factors conspire in the later period of ancient life, how- tradition from it. It set a fashion which until recently has ever, to exalt literary and humanistic studies. One is the uniformly prevailed over the entire civilized world. We increasingly reminiscent and borrowed character of cul- study literature rather than nature because the Greeks ture; the other is the political and rhetorical bent of Ro- did so, and because when the Romans and the Roman man life. provincials resolved to educate their sons, they employed Greek achievement in civilization was native; the civi- Greek teachers and followed in Greek paths.” 1 lization of the Alexandrians and Romans was inherited The so-called practical bent of the Romans worked in from alien sources. Consequently it looked back to the the same direction. In falling back upon the recorded records upon which it drew, instead of looking out di- ideas of the Greeks, they not only took the short path to rectly upon nature and society, for material and inspira- attaining a cultural development, but they procured just

287 Democracy & Education the kind of material and method suited to their adminis- mother speech. trative talents. For their practical genius was not directed The full scope of this fact escapes us, moreover, until to the conquest and control of nature but to the con- we recognize that this subject matter compelled recourse quest and control of men. to a dialectical method. Scholasticism frequently has been Mr. Hatch, in the passage quoted, takes a good deal of used since the time of the revival of learning as a term of history for granted in saying that we have studied litera- reproach. But all that it means is the method of The ture rather than nature because the Greeks, and the Ro- Schools, or of the School Men. In its essence, it is noth- mans whom they taught, did so. What is the link that ing but a highly effective systematization of the meth- spans the intervening centuries? The question suggests ods of teaching and learning which are appropriate to that barbarian Europe but repeated on a larger scale and transmit an authoritative body of truths. Where litera- with increased intensity the Roman situation. It had to ture rather than contemporary nature and society fur- go to school to Greco-Roman civilization; it also bor- nishes material of study, methods must be adapted to rowed rather than evolved its culture. Not merely for its defining, expounding, and interpreting the received ma- general ideas and their artistic presentation but for its terial, rather than to inquiry, discovery, and invention. models of law it went to the records of alien peoples. And And at bottom what is called Scholasticism is the whole- its dependence upon tradition was increased by the domi- hearted and consistent formulation and application of nant theological interests of the period. For the authori- the methods which are suited to instruction when the ties to which the Church appealed were literatures com- material of instruction is taken ready-made, rather than posed in foreign tongues. Everything converged to iden- as something which students are to find out for them- tify learning with linguistic training and to make the lan- selves. So far as schools still teach from textbooks and guage of the learned a literary language instead of the rely upon the principle of authority and acquisition rather

288 John Dewey than upon that of discovery and inquiry, their methods 2. The Modern Scientific Interest in Nature. The move- are Scholastic—minus the logical accuracy and system of ment of the fifteenth century which is variously termed Scholasticism at its best. Aside from laxity of method the revival of learning and the renascence was character- and statement, the only difference is that geographies ized by a new interest in man’s present life, and accord- and histories and botanies and astronomies are now part ingly by a new interest in his relationships with nature. of the authoritative literature which is to be mastered. It was naturalistic, in the sense that it turned against As a consequence, the Greek tradition was lost in which the dominant supernaturalistic interest. It is possible that a humanistic interest was used as a basis of interest in the influence of a return to classic Greek pagan literature nature, and a knowledge of nature used to support the in bringing about this changed mind has been overesti- distinctively human aims of man. Life found its support in mated. Undoubtedly the change was mainly a product of authority, not in nature. The latter was moreover an object contemporary conditions. But there can be no doubt that of considerable suspicion. Contemplation of it was danger- educated men, filled with the new point of view, turned ous, for it tended to draw man away from reliance upon eagerly to Greek literature for congenial sustenance and the documents in which the rules of living were already reinforcement. And to a considerable extent, this inter- contained. Moreover nature could be known only through est in Greek thought was not in literature for its own observation; it appealed to the senses—which were merely sake, but in the spirit it expressed. The mental freedom, material as opposed to a purely immaterial mind. Further- the sense of the order and beauty of nature, which ani- more, the utilities of a knowledge of nature were purely mated Greek expression, aroused men to think and ob- physical and secular; they connected with the bodily and serve in a similar untrammeled fashion. The history of temporal welfare of man, while the literary tradition conscience in the sixteenth century shows that the dawning cerned his spiritual and eternal well-being. sciences of physical nature largely borrowed their points

289 Democracy & Education of departure from the new interest in Greek literature. As learning to minimize the influence of experimental sci- Windelband has said, the new science of nature was the ence. The men who taught were rarely trained in science; daughter of humanism. The favorite notion of the time the men who were scientifically competent worked in pri- was that man was in microcosm that which the universe vate laboratories and through the medium of academies was in macrocosm. which promoted research, but which were not organized This fact raises anew the question of how it was that as teaching bodies. Finally, the aristocratic tradition which nature and man were later separated and a sharp division looked down upon material things and upon the senses made between language and literature and the physical and the hands was still mighty. sciences. Four reasons may be suggested. (a) The old tra- (b) The Protestant revolt brought with it an immense dition was firmly entrenched in institutions,. Politics, law, increase of interest in theological discussion and contro- and diplomacy remained of necessity branches of authori- versies. The appeal on both sides was to literary docu- tative literature, for the social sciences did not develop ments. Each side had to train men in ability to study and until the methods of the sciences of physics and chemis- expound the records which were relied upon. The demand try, to say nothing of biology, were much further advanced. for training men who could defend the chosen faith against The same is largely true of history. Moreover, the meth- the other side, who were able to propagandize and to ods used for effective teaching of the languages were prevent the encroachments of the other side, was such well developed; the inertia of academic custom was on that it is not too much to say that by the middle of the their side. Just as the new interest in literature, espe- seventeenth century the linguistic training of gymnasia cially Greek, had not been allowed at first to find lodg- and universities had been captured by the revived theo- ment in the scholastically organized universities, so when logical interest, and used as a tool of religious education it found its way into them it joined hands with the older and ecclesiastical controversy. Thus the educational de-

290 John Dewey scent of the languages as they are found in education to- to give up their futile, never-finished effort to dominate day is not direct from the revival of learning, but from its one another to engage in the cooperative task of domi- adaptation to theological ends. nating nature in the interests of humanity. (c) The natural sciences were themselves conceived in In the main, Bacon prophesied the direction of subse- a way which sharpened the opposition of man and na- quent progress. But he “anticipated” the advance. He did ture. Francis Bacon presents an almost perfect example not see that the new science was for a long time to be of the union of naturalistic and humanistic interest. Sci- worked in the interest of old ends of human exploitation. ence, adopting the methods of observation and experi- He thought that it would rapidly give man new ends. mentation, was to give up the attempt to “anticipate” Instead, it put at the disposal of a class the means to nature—to impose preconceived notions upon her —and secure their old ends of aggrandizement at the expense was to become her humble interpreter. In obeying nature of another class. The industrial revolution followed, as he intellectually, man would learn to command her practi- foresaw, upon a revolution in scientific method. But it is cally. “Knowledge is power.” This aphorism meant that taking the revolution many centuries to produce a new through science man is to control nature and turn her mind. Feudalism was doomed by the applications of the energies to the execution of his own ends. Bacon at- new science, for they transferred power from the landed tacked the old learning and logic as purely controversial, nobility to the manufacturing centers. But capitalism having to do with victory in argument, not with discov- rather than a social humanism took its place. Production ery of the unknown. Through the new method of thought and commerce were carried on as if the new science had which was set forth in his new logic an era of expansive no moral lesson, but only technical lessons as to econo- discoveries was to emerge, and these discoveries were to mies in production and utilization of saving in self-inter- bear fruit in inventions for the service of man. Men were est. Naturally, this application of physical science (which

291 Democracy & Education was the most conspicuously perceptible one) strength- enemy to man’s higher interests. ened the claims of professed humanists that science was Greek and medieval knowledge accepted the world in materialistic in its tendencies. It left a void as to man’s its qualitative variety, and regarded nature’s processes as distinctively human interests which go beyond making, having ends, or in technical phrase as teleological. New saving, and expending money; and languages and litera- science was expounded so as to deny the reality of all ture put in their claim to represent the moral and ideal qualities in real, or objective, existence. Sounds, colors, interests of humanity. ends, as well as goods and bads, were regarded as purely (d) Moreover, the philosophy which professed itself subjective—as mere impressions in the mind. Objective based upon science, which gave itself out as the accred- existence was then treated as having only quantitative ited representative of the net significance of science, was aspects—as so much mass in motion, its only differences either dualistic in character, marked by a sharp division being that at one point in space there was a larger ag- between mind (characterizing man) and matter, consti- gregate mass than at another, and that in some spots tuting nature; or else it was openly mechanical, reducing there were greater rates of motion than at others. Lack- the signal features of human life to illusion. In the former ing qualitative distinctions, nature lacked significant va- case, it allowed the claims of certain studies to be pecu- riety. Uniformities were emphasized, not diversities; the liar consignees of mental values, and indirectly strength- ideal was supposed to be the discovery of a single math- ened their claim to superiority, since human beings would ematical formula applying to the whole universe at once incline to regard human affairs as of chief importance at from which all the seeming variety of phenomena could least to themselves. In the latter case, it called out a be derived. This is what a mechanical philosophy means. reaction which threw doubt and suspicion upon the value Such a philosophy does not represent the genuine pur- of physical science, giving occasion for treating it as an port of science. It takes the technique for the thing it-

292 John Dewey self; the apparatus and the terminology for reality, the leave out what is most interesting and most important to method for its subject matter. Science does confine its mankind. statements to conditions which enable us to predict and control the happening of events, ignoring the qualities 3. The Present Educational Problem. In truth, experi- of the events. Hence its mechanical and quantitative char- ence knows no division between human concerns and a acter. But in leaving them out of account, it does not purely mechanical physical world. Man’s home is nature; exclude them from reality, nor relegate them to a purely his purposes and aims are dependent for execution upon mental region; it only furnishes means utilizable for ends. natural conditions. Separated from such conditions they Thus while in fact the progress of science was increasing become empty dreams and idle indulgences of fancy. From man’s power over nature, enabling him to place his cher- the standpoint of human experience, and hence of edu- ished ends on a firmer basis than ever before, and also to cational endeavor, any distinction which can be justly diversify his activities almost at will, the philosophy which made between nature and man is a distinction between professed to formulate its accomplishments reduced the the conditions which have to be reckoned with in the world to a barren and monotonous redistribution of mat- formation and execution of our practical aims, and the ter in space. Thus the immediate effect of modern sci- aims themselves. This philosophy is vouched for by the ence was to accentuate the dualism of matter and mind, doctrine of biological development which shows that man and thereby to establish the physical and the humanistic is continuous with nature, not an alien entering her pro- studies as two disconnected groups. Since the difference cesses from without. It is reinforced by the experimental between better and worse is bound up with the qualities method of science which shows that knowledge accrues of experience, any philosophy of science which excludes in virtue of an attempt to direct physical energies in ac- them from the genuine content of reality is bound to cord with ideas suggested in dealing with natural objects

293 Democracy & Education in behalf of social uses. Every step forward in the social of human interests, but at cross-fertilizing both the natural sciences—the studies termed history, economics, poli- sciences and the various human disciplines such as his- tics, sociology—shows that social questions are capable tory, literature, economics, and politics. Pedagogically, of being intelligently coped with only in the degree in the problem is simpler than the attempt to teach the which we employ the method of collected data, forming sciences as mere technical bodies of information and tech- hypotheses, and testing them in action which is charac- nical forms of physical manipulation, on one side; and to teristic of natural science, and in the degree in which we teach humanistic studies as isolated subjects, on the other. utilize in behalf of the promotion of social welfare the For the latter procedure institutes an artificial separation technical knowledge ascertained by physics and chemis- in the pupils’ experience. Outside of school pupils meet try. Advanced methods of dealing with such perplexing with natural facts and principles in connection with vari- problems as insanity, intemperance, poverty, public sani- ous modes of human action. (See ante, p. 30.) In all the tation, city planning, the conservation of natural re- social activities in which they have shared they have had sources, the constructive use of governmental agencies to understand the material and processes involved. To for furthering the public good without weakening per- start them in school with a rupture of this intimate asso- sonal initiative, all illustrate the direct dependence of ciation breaks the continuity of mental development, our important social concerns upon the methods and re- makes the student feel an indescribable unreality in his sults of natural science. studies, and deprives him of the normal motive for inter- With respect then to both humanistic and naturalistic est in them. studies, education should take its departure from this There is no doubt, of course, that the opportunities of close interdependence. It should aim not at keeping sci- education should be such that all should have a chance ence as a study of nature apart from literature as a record who have the disposition to advance to specialized abil-

294 John Dewey ity in science, and thus devote themselves to its pursuit separation which is unavoidable when one begins with as their particular occupation in life. But at present, the technically organized subject matter. Even if all students pupil too often has a choice only between beginning with were embryonic scientific specialists, it is questionable a study of the results of prior specialization where the whether this is the most effective procedure. Considering material is isolated from his daily experiences, or with that the great majority are concerned with the study of miscellaneous nature study, where material is presented sciences only for its effect upon their mental habits—in at haphazard and does not lead anywhere in particular. making them more alert, more open-minded, more in- The habit of introducing college pupils into segregated clined to tentative acceptance and to testing of ideas scientific subject matter, such as is appropriate to the propounded or suggested,—and for achieving a better man who wishes to become an expert in a given field, is understanding of their daily environment, it is certainly carried back into the high schools. Pupils in the latter ill-advised. Too often the pupil comes out with a smat- simply get a more elementary treatment of the same thing, tering which is too superficial to be scientific and too with difficulties smoothed over and topics reduced to the technical to be applicable to ordinary affairs. level of their supposed ability. The cause of this proce- The utilization of ordinary experience to secure an ad- dure lies in following tradition, rather than in conscious vance into scientific material and method, while keeping adherence to a dualistic philosophy. But the effect is the the latter connected with familiar human interests, is same as if the purpose were to inculcate an idea that the easier to-day than it ever was before. The usual experi- sciences which deal with nature have nothing to do with ence of all persons in civilized communities to-day is man, and vice versa. A large part of the comparative in- intimately associated with industrial processes and re- effectiveness of the teaching of the sciences, for those sults. These in turn are so many cases of science in ac- who never become scientific specialists, is the result of a tion. The stationary and traction steam engine, gasoline

295 Democracy & Education engine, automobile, telegraph and telephone, the elec- text. To see a scientific fact or law in its human as well as tric motor enter directly into the lives of most individu- in its physical and technical context is to enlarge its als. Pupils at an early age are practically acquainted with significance and give it increased cultural value. Its di- these things. Not only does the business occupation of rect economic application, if by economic is meant some- their parents depend upon scientific applications, but thing having money worth, is incidental and secondary, household pursuits, the maintenance of health, the sights but a part of its actual connections. The important thing seen upon the streets, embody scientific achievements is that the fact be grasped in its social connections—its and stimulate interest in the connected scientific prin- function in life. ciples. The obvious pedagogical starting point of scien- On the other hand, “humanism” means at bottom being tific instruction is not to teach things labeled science, imbued with an intelligent sense of human interests. The but to utilize the familiar occupations and appliances to social interest, identical in its deepest meaning with a direct observation and experiment, until pupils have ar- moral interest, is necessarily supreme with man. Knowl- rived at a knowledge of some fundamental principles by edge about man, information as to his past, familiarity understanding them in their familiar practical workings. with his documented records of literature, may be as tech- The opinion sometimes advanced that it is a deroga- nical a possession as the accumulation of physical de- tion from the “purity” of science to study it in its active tails. Men may keep busy in a variety of ways, making incarnation, instead of in theoretical abstraction, rests money, acquiring facility in laboratory manipulation, or upon a misunderstanding. AS matter of fact, any subject in amassing a store of facts about linguistic matters, or is cultural in the degree in which it is apprehended in its the chronology of literary productions. Unless such activ- widest possible range of meanings. Perception of mean- ity reacts to enlarge the imaginative vision of life, it is ings depends upon perception of connections, of con- on a level with the busy work of children. It has the

296 John Dewey letter without the spirit of activity. It readily degener- lution which has brought different peoples in such close ates itself into a miser’s accumulation, and a man prides contact with one another through colonization and com- himself on what he has, and not on the meaning he finds merce that no matter how some nations may still look in the affairs of life. Any study so pursued that it in- down upon others, no country can harbor the illusion creases concern for the values of life, any study produc- that its career is decided wholly within itself. The same ing greater sensitiveness to social well-being and greater revolution has abolished agricultural serfdom, and cre- ability to promote that well-being is humane study. The ated a class of more or less organized factory laborers humanistic spirit of the Greeks was native and intense with recognized political rights, and who make claims for but it was narrow in scope. Everybody outside the Hel- a responsible role in the control of industry—claims which lenic circle was a barbarian, and negligible save as a pos- receive sympathetic attention from many among the well- sible enemy. Acute as were the social observations and to- do, since they have been brought into closer connec- speculations of Greek thinkers, there is not a word in tions with the less fortunate classes through the break- their writings to indicate that Greek civilization was not ing down of class barriers. self-inclosed and self-sufficient. There was, apparently, This state of affairs may be formulated by saying that no suspicion that its future was at the mercy of the de- the older humanism omitted economic and industrial con- spised outsider. Within the Greek community, the intense ditions from its purview. Consequently, it was one sided. social spirit was limited by the fact that higher culture Culture, under such circumstances, inevitably represented was based on a substratum of slavery and economic serf- the intellectual and moral outlook of the class which was dom—classes necessary to the existence of the state, as in direct social control. Such a tradition as to culture is, Aristotle declared, and yet not genuine parts of it. The as we have seen (ante, p. 260), aristocratic; it empha- development of science has produced an industrial revo- sizes what marks off one class from another, rather than

297 Democracy & Education fundamental common interests. Its standards are in the naturalistic and the humanistic with a tendency to re- past; for the aim is to preserve what has been gained duce the latter to the literary records of the past. This rather than widely to extend the range of culture. dualism is not characteristic (as were the others which The modifications which spring from taking greater ac- we have noted) of Greek thought. It arose partly because count of industry and of whatever has to do with making a of the fact that the culture of Rome and of barbarian living are frequently condemned as attacks upon the cul- Europe was not a native product, being borrowed directly ture derived from the past. But a wider educational out- or indirectly from Greece, and partly because political look would conceive industrial activities as agencies for and ecclesiastic conditions emphasized dependence upon making intellectual resources more accessible to the masses, the authority of past knowledge as that was transmitted and giving greater solidity to the culture of those having in literary documents. superior resources. In short, when we consider the close At the outset, the rise of modern science prophesied a connection between science and industrial development restoration of the intimate connection of nature and hu- on the one hand, and between literary and aesthetic culti- manity, for it viewed knowledge of nature as the means vation and an aristocratic social organization on the other, of securing human progress and well-being. But the more we get light on the opposition between technical scien- immediate applications of science were in the interests tific studies and refining literary studies. We have before of a class rather than of men in common; and the re- us the need of overcoming this separation in education if ceived philosophic formulations of scientific doctrine society is to be truly democratic. tended either to mark it off as merely material from man as spiritual and immaterial, or else to reduce mind to a Summary. The philosophic dualism between man and na- subjective illusion. In education, accordingly, the ten- ture is reflected in the division of studies between the dency was to treat the sciences as a separate body of

298 John Dewey studies, consisting of technical information regarding the Chapter Twenty-two: The Individual and the World physical world, and to reserve the older literary studies as distinctively humanistic. The account previously given 1. Mind as Purely Individual. We have been concerned of the evolution of knowledge, and of the educational with the influences which have effected a division be- scheme of studies based upon it, are designed to over- tween work and leisure, knowing and doing, man and come the separation, and to secure recognition of the nature. These influences have resulted in splitting up the place occupied by the subject matter of the natural sci- subject matter of education into separate studies. They ences in human affairs. have also found formulation in various philosophies which have opposed to each other body and mind, theoretical 1 The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Chris- knowledge and practice, physical mechanism and ideal tian Church. pp. 43-44. purpose. Upon the philosophical side, these various dualisms culminate in a sharp demarcation of individual minds from the world, and hence from one another. While the connection of this philosophical position with educational procedure is not so obvious as is that of the points considered in the last three chapters, there are certain educational considerations which correspond to it; such as the antithesis supposed to exist between subject matter (the counterpart of the world) and method (the counterpart of mind); such as the tendency to treat interest as something purely private, without intrinsic

299 Democracy & Education connection with the material studied. Aside from inci- tal method. Without such a method individuals could not dental educational bearings, it will be shown in this chap- engage in knowing, and be checked up by the results of ter that the dualistic philosophy of mind and the world the inquiries of others. Without such liability to test by implies an erroneous conception of the relationship be- others, the minds of men could not be intellectually re- tween knowledge and social interests, and between indi- sponsible; results were to be accepted because of their viduality or freedom, and social control and authority. aesthetic consistency, agreeable quality, or the prestige of The identification of the mind with the individual self their authors. In the barbarian period, individuals were in and of the latter with a private psychic consciousness is a still more humble attitude to truth; important knowl- comparatively modern. In both the Greek and medieval edge was supposed to be divinely revealed, and nothing periods, the rule was to regard the individual as a chan- remained for the minds of individuals except to work it nel through which a universal and divine intelligence op- over after it had been received on authority. Aside from erated. The individual was in no true sense the knower; the more consciously philosophic aspects of these move- the knower was the “Reason” which operated through ments, it never occurs to any one to identify mind and the him. The individual interfered at his peril, and only to personal self wherever beliefs are transmitted by custom. the detriment of the truth. In the degree in which the In the medieval period there was a religious individual- individual rather than reason “knew,” conceit, error, and ism. The deepest concern of life was the salvation of the opinion were substituted for true knowledge. In Greek individual soul. In the later Middle Ages, this latent indi- life, observation was acute and alert; and thinking was vidualism found conscious formulation in the nominalis- free almost to the point of irresponsible speculations. tic philosophies, which treated the structure of knowl- Accordingly the consequences of the theory were only edge as something built up within the individual through such as were consequent upon the lack of an experimen- his own acts, and mental states. With the rise of eco-

300 John Dewey nomic and political individualism after the sixteenth cen- theory of knowledge. The identification of mind with the tury, and with the development of Protestantism, the times self, and the setting up of the self as something inde- were ripe for an emphasis upon the rights and duties of pendent and self-sufficient, created such a gulf between the individual in achieving knowledge for himself. This the knowing mind and the world that it became a ques- led to the view that knowledge is won wholly through tion how knowledge was possible at all. Given a subject - personal and private experiences. As a consequence, mind, - the knower—and an object—the thing to be known— the source and possessor of knowledge, was thought of wholly separate from one another, it is necessary to frame as wholly individual. Thus upon the educational side, we a theory to explain how they get into connection with find educational reformers, like Montaigne, Bacon, Locke, each other so that valid knowledge may result. This prob- henceforth vehemently denouncing all learning which is lem, with the allied one of the possibility of the world acquired on hearsay, and asserting that even if beliefs acting upon the mind and the mind acting upon the world, happen to be true, they do not constitute knowledge became almost the exclusive preoccupation of philosophic unless they have grown up in and been tested by per- thought. sonal experience. The reaction against authority in all The theories that we cannot know the world as it really spheres of life, and the intensity of the struggle, against is but only the impressions made upon the mind, or that great odds, for freedom of action and inquiry, led to such there is no world beyond the individual mind, or that an emphasis upon personal observations and ideas as in knowledge is only a certain association of the mind’s own effect to isolate mind, and set it apart from the world to states, were products of this preoccupation. We are not be known. directly concerned with their truth; but the fact that such This isolation is reflected in the great development of desperate solutions were widely accepted is evidence of that branch of philosophy known as epistemology—the the extent to which mind had been set over the world of

301 Democracy & Education realities. The increasing use of the term “consciousness” isolation from the world, but a more intimate connection as an equivalent for mind, in the supposition that there with it. They wanted to form their beliefs about it at first is an inner world of conscious states and processes, inde- hand, instead of through tradition. They wanted closer pendent of any relationship to nature and society, an union with their fellows so that they might influence one inner world more truly and immediately known than any- another more effectively and might combine their respec- thing else, is evidence of the same fact. In short, practi- tive actions for mutual aims. cal individualism, or struggle for greater freedom of So far as their beliefs were concerned, they felt that a thought in action, was translated into philosophic sub- great deal which passed for knowledge was merely the jectivism. accumulated opinions of the past, much of it absurd and its correct portions not understood when accepted on 2. Individual Mind as the Agent of Reorganization. It authority. Men must observe for themselves, and form should be obvious that this philosophic movement mis- their own theories and personally test them. Such a conceived the significance of the practical movement. method was the only alternative to the imposition of Instead of being its transcript, it was a perversion. Men dogma as truth, a procedure which reduced mind to the were not actually engaged in the absurdity of striving to formal act of acquiescing in truth. Such is the meaning be free from connection with nature and one another. of what is sometimes called the substitution of inductive They were striving for greater freedom in nature and so- experimental methods of knowing for deductive. In some ciety. They wanted greater power to initiate changes in sense, men had always used an inductive method in deal- the world of things and fellow beings; greater scope of ing with their immediate practical concerns. Architec- movement and consequently greater freedom in observa- ture, agriculture, manufacture, etc. , had to be based upon tions and ideas implied in movement. They wanted not observation of the activities of natural objects, and ideas

302 John Dewey about such affairs had to be checked, to some extent, by viduals—in theory—from one another. It would have per- results. But even in such things there was an undue reli- ceived that such disconnection, such rupture of continuance upon mere custom, followed blindly rather than ity, denied in advance the possibility of success in their understandingly. And this observational-experimental endeavors. As matter of fact every individual has grown method was restricted to these “practical” matters, and a up, and always must grow up, in a social medium. His sharp distinction maintained between practice and theo- responses grow intelligent, or gain meaning, simply be- retical knowledge or truth. (See Ch. XX.) The rise of free cause he lives and acts in a medium of accepted mean- cities, the development of travel, exploration, and com- ings and values. (See ante, p. 30.) Through social inter- merce, the evolution of new methods of producing com- course, through sharing in the activities embodying be- modities and doing business, threw men definitely upon liefs, he gradually acquires a mind of his own. The con- their own resources. The reformers of science like Galileo, ception of mind as a purely isolated possession of the Descartes, and their successors, carried analogous meth- self is at the very antipodes of the truth. The self achieves ods into ascertaining the facts about nature. An interest mind in the degree in which knowledge of things is in- in discovery took the place of an interest in systematiz- carnate in the life about him; the self is not a separate ing and “proving” received beliefs. mind building up knowledge anew on its own account. A just philosophic interpretation of these movements Yet there is a valid distinction between knowledge which would, indeed, have emphasized the rights and responsi- is objective and impersonal, and thinking which is sub- bilities of the individual in gaining knowledge and per- jective and personal. In one sense, knowledge is that sonally testing beliefs, no matter by what authorities they which we take for granted. It is that which is settled, were vouched for. But it would not have isolated the in- disposed of, established, under control. What we fully dividual from the world, and consequently isolated indi- know, we do not need to think about. In common phrase,

303 Democracy & Education it is certain, assured. And this does not mean a mere Men set out from what had passed as knowledge, and feeling of certainty. It denotes not a sentiment, but a critically investigated the grounds upon which it rested; practical attitude, a readiness to act without reserve or they noted exceptions; they used new mechanical appli- quibble. Of course we may be mistaken. What is taken for ances to bring to light data inconsistent with what had knowledge—for fact and truth—at a given time may not been believed; they used their imaginations to conceive be such. But everything which is assumed without ques- a world different from that in which their forefathers had tion, which is taken for granted in our intercourse with put their trust. The work was a piecemeal, a retail, busi- one another and nature is what, at the given time, is ness. One problem was tackled at a time. The net results called knowledge. Thinking on the contrary, starts, as we of all the revisions amounted, however, to a revolution of have seen, from doubt or uncertainty. It marks an inquir- prior conceptions of the world. What occurred was a reor- ing, hunting, searching attitude, instead of one of mas- ganization of prior intellectual habitudes, infinitely more tery and possession. Through its critical process true efficient than a cutting loose from all connections would knowledge is revised and extended, and our convictions have been. as to the state of things reorganized. Clearly the last few This state of affairs suggests a definition of the role of centuries have been typically a period of revision and the individual, or the self, in knowledge; namely, the re- reorganization of beliefs. Men did not really throw away direction, or reconstruction of accepted beliefs. Every new all transmitted beliefs concerning the realities of exist- idea, every conception of things differing from that au- ence, and start afresh upon the basis of their private, thorized by current belief, must have its origin in an in- exclusive sensations and ideas. They could not have done dividual. New ideas are doubtless always sprouting, but a so if they had wished to, and if it had been possible society governed by custom does not encourage their de- general imbecility would have been the only outcome. velopment. On the contrary, it tends to suppress them,

304 John Dewey just because they are deviations from what is current. pivot upon which reconstruction of beliefs turned, thus The man who looks at things differently from others is in maintaining the continuity of the individual with the world such a community a suspect character; for him to persist of nature and fellow men. They regarded the individual is generally fatal. Even when social censorship of beliefs mind as a separate entity, complete in each person, and is not so strict, social conditions may fail to provide the isolated from nature and hence from other minds. Thus a appliances which are requisite if new ideas are to be ad- legitimate intellectual individualism, the attitude of criti- equately elaborated; or they may fail to provide any ma- cal revision of former beliefs which is indispensable to terial support and reward to those who entertain them. progress, was explicitly formulated as a moral and social Hence they remain mere fancies, romantic castles in the individualism. When the activities of mind set out from air, or aimless speculations. The freedom of observation customary beliefs and strive to effect transformations of and imagination involved in the modern scientific revo- them which will in turn win general conviction, there is lution were not easily secured; they had to be fought for; no opposition between the individual and the social. The many suffered for their intellectual independence. But, intellectual variations of the individual in observation, upon the whole, modern European society first permit- imagination, judgment, and invention are simply the agen- ted, and then, in some fields at least, deliberately en- cies of social progress, just as conformity to habit is the couraged the individual reactions which deviate from what agency of social conservation. But when knowledge is custom prescribes. Discovery, research, inquiry in new regarded as originating and developing within an indi- lines, inventions, finally came to be either the social fash- vidual, the ties which bind the mental life of one to that ion, or in some degree tolerable. However, as we have of his fellows are ignored and denied. already noted, philosophic theories of knowledge were When the social quality of individualized mental opera- not content to conceive mind in the individual as the tions is denied, it becomes a problem to find connections

305 Democracy & Education which will unite an individual with his fellows. Moral in- revolts, and corruptions inhering in an individual apart dividualism is set up by the conscious separation of dif- from external authoritative guidance. In fact, as distinct ferent centers of life. It has its roots in the notion that from principle, intellectual individualism is tolerated in the consciousness of each person is wholly private, a self- certain technical regions—in subjects like mathematics inclosed continent, intrinsically independent of the ideas, and physics and astronomy, and in the technical inven- wishes, purposes of everybody else. But when men act, tions resulting therefrom. But the applicability of a simi- they act in a common and public world. This is the prob- lar method to morals, social, legal, and political matters, lem to which the theory of isolated and independent con- is denied. In such matters, dogma is still to be supreme; scious minds gave rise: Given feelings, ideas, desires, certain eternal truths made known by revelation, intu- which have nothing to do with one another, how can ition, or the wisdom of our forefathers set unpassable actions proceeding from them be controlled in a social or limits to individual observation and speculation. The evils public interest? Given an egoistic consciousness, how can from which society suffers are set down to the efforts of action which has regard for others take place? misguided individuals to transgress these boundaries. Moral philosophies which have started from such pre- Between the physical and the moral sciences, lie inter- mises have developed four typical ways of dealing with mediate sciences of life, where the territory is only grudg- the question. (i) One method represents the survival of ingly yielded to freedom of inquiry under the pressure of the older authoritative position, with such concessions accomplished fact. Although past history has demon- and compromises as the progress of events has made ab- strated that the possibilities of human good are widened solutely inevitable. The deviations and departures char- and made more secure by trusting to a responsibility built acterizing an individual are still looked upon with suspi- up within the very process of inquiry, the “authority” cion; in principle they are evidences of the disturbances, theory sets apart a sacred domain of truth which must be

306 John Dewey protected from the inroads of variation of beliefs. Educa- influence was greater in destruction of old falsities than tionally, emphasis may not be put on eternal truth, but it in the construction of new ties and associations among is put on the authority of book and teacher, and indi- men. Its formal and empty nature, due to conceiving rea- vidual variation is discouraged. son as something complete in itself apart from subject (ii) Another method is sometimes termed rationalism matter, its hostile attitude toward historical institutions, or abstract intellectualism. A formal logical faculty is set its disregard of the influence of habit, instinct, and emo- up in distinction from tradition and history and all con- tion, as operative factors in life, left it impotent in the crete subject matter. This faculty of reason is endowed suggestion of specific aims and methods. Bare logic, how- with power to influence conduct directly. Since it deals ever important in arranging and criticizing existing sub- wholly with general and impersonal forms, when differ- ject matter, cannot spin new subject matter out of itself. ent persons act in accord with logical findings, their ac- In education, the correlative is trust in general ready- tivities will be externally consistent. There is no doubt of made rules and principles to secure agreement, irrespec- the services rendered by this philosophy. It was a power- tive of seeing to it that the pupil’s ideas really agree with ful factor in the negative and dissolving criticism of doc- one another. trines having nothing but tradition and class interest (iii) While this rationalistic philosophy was develop- behind them; it accustomed men to freedom of discus- ing in France, English thought appealed to the intelli- sion and to the notion that beliefs had to be submitted gent self-interest of individuals in order to secure outer to criteria of reasonableness. It undermined the power of unity in the acts which issued from isolated streams of prejudice, superstition, and brute force, by habituating consciousness. Legal arrangements, especially penal ad- men to reliance upon argument, discussion. and persua- ministration, and governmental regulations, were to be sion. It made for clarity and order of exposition. But its such as to prevent the acts which proceeded from regard

307 Democracy & Education for one’s own private sensations from interfering with philosophy promoted a wider and more democratic social the feelings of others. Education was to instill in indi- concern. But it was tainted by the narrowness of its fun- viduals a sense that non-interference with others and damental premise: the doctrine that every individual acts some degree of positive regard for their welfare were nec- only from regard for his own pleasures and pains, and essary for security in the pursuit of one’s own happiness. that so-called generous and sympathetic acts are only Chief emphasis was put, however, upon trade as a means indirect ways of procuring and assuring one’s own com- of bringing the conduct of one into harmony with that of fort. In other words, it made explicit the consequences others. In commerce, each aims at the satisfaction of his inhering in any doctrine which makes mental life a self- own wants, but can gain his own profit only by furnish- inclosed thing, instead of an attempt to redirect and re- ing some commodity or service to another. Thus in aim- adapt common concerns. It made union among men a ing at the increase of his own private pleasurable states matter of calculation of externals. It lent itself to the of consciousness, he contributes to the consciousness of contemptuous assertions of Carlyle that it was a doctrine others. Again there is no doubt that this view expressed of anarchy plus a constable, and recognized only a “cash and furthered a heightened perception of the values of nexus” among men. The educational equivalents of this conscious life, and a recognition that institutional ar- doctrine in the uses made of pleasurable rewards and rangements are ultimately to be judged by the contribu- painful penalties are only too obvious. (iv) Typical Ger- tions which they make to intensifying and enlarging the man philosophy followed another path. It started from scope of conscious experience. It also did much to rescue what was essentially the rationalistic philosophy of work, industry, and mechanical devices from the contempt Descartes and his French successors. But while French in which they had been held in communities founded thought upon the whole developed the idea of reason in upon the control of a leisure class. In both ways, this opposition to the religious conception of a divine mind

308 John Dewey residing in individuals, German thought (as in Hegel) made the isolated individualism into which it had fallen in France a synthesis of the two. Reason is absolute. Nature is in- and England. It served also to make the organization of carnate reason. History is reason in its progressive un- the state more constructively interested in matters of folding in man. An individual becomes rational only as public concern. It left less to chance, less to mere indi- he absorbs into himself the content of rationality in na- vidual logical conviction, less to the workings of private ture and in social institutions. For an absolute reason is self-interest. It brought intelligence to bear upon the not, like the reason of rationalism, purely formal and conduct of affairs; it accentuated the need of nationally empty; as absolute it must include all content within organized education in the interests of the corporate state. itself. Thus the real problem is not that of controlling It sanctioned and promoted freedom of inquiry in all tech- individual freedom so that some measure of social order nical details of natural and historical phenomena. But in and concord may result, but of achieving individual free- all ultimate moral matters, it tended to reinstate the prin- dom through developing individual convictions in accord ciple of authority. It made for efficiency of organization with the universal law found in the organization of the more than did any of the types of philosophy previously state as objective Reason. While this philosophy is usu- mentioned, but it made no provision for free experimen- ally termed absolute or objective idealism, it might bet- tal modification of this organization. Political democracy, ter be termed, for educational purposes at least, institu- with its belief in the right of individual desire and pur- tional idealism. (See ante, p. 59.) It idealized historical pose to take part in readapting even the fundamental institutions by conceiving them as incarnations of an constitution of society, was foreign to it. immanent absolute mind. There can be no doubt that this philosophy was a powerful influence in rescuing phi- 3. Educational Equivalents. It is not necessary to con- losophy in the beginning of the nineteenth century from sider in detail the educational counterparts of the vari-

309 Democracy & Education ous defects found in these various types of philosophy. It the demand for freedom is the need of conditions which suffices to say that in general the school has been the will enable an individual to make his own special contri- institution which exhibited with greatest clearness the bution to a group interest, and to partake of its activities assumed antithesis between purely individualistic meth- in such ways that social guidance shall be a matter of his ods of learning and social action, and between freedom own mental attitude, and not a mere authoritative dicta- and social control. The antithesis is reflected in the ab- tion of his acts. Because what is often called discipline sence of a social atmosphere and motive for learning, and “government” has to do with the external side of and the consequent separation, in the conduct of the conduct alone, a similar meaning is attached, by reac- school, between method of instruction and methods of tion, to freedom. But when it is perceived that each idea government; and in the slight opportunity afforded indi- signifies the quality of mind expressed in action, the sup- vidual variations. When learning is a phase of active un- posed opposition between them falls away. Freedom means dertakings which involve mutual exchange, social control essentially the part played by thinking—which is per- enters into the very process of learning. When the social sonal—in learning:—it means intellectual initiative, in- factor is absent, learning becomes a carrying over of some dependence in observation, judicious invention, foresight presented material into a purely individual consciousness, of consequences, and ingenuity of adaptation to them. and there is no inherent reason why it should give a more But because these are the mental phase of behavior, socialized direction to mental and emotional disposition. the needed play of individuality—or freedom—cannot There is tendency on the part of both the upholders and be separated from opportunity for free play of physical the opponents of freedom in school to identify it with movements. Enforced physical quietude may be unfavor- absence of social direction, or, sometimes, with merely able to realization of a problem, to undertaking the ob- physical unconstraint of movement. But the essence of servations needed to define it, and to performance of the

310 John Dewey experiments which test the ideas suggested. Much has working with others and working as an individual. On the been said about the importance of “self-activity” in edu- contrary, certain capacities of an individual are not brought cation, but the conception has too frequently been re- out except under the stimulus of associating with others. stricted to something merely internal—something exclud- That a child must work alone and not engage in group ing the free use of sensory and motor organs. Those who activities in order to be free and let his individuality de- are at the stage of learning from symbols, or who are velop, is a notion which measures individuality by spatial engaged in elaborating the implications of a problem or distance and makes a physical thing of it. idea preliminary to more carefully thought-out activity, Individuality as a factor to be respected in education may need little perceptible overt activity. But the whole has a double meaning. In the first place, one is mentally cycle of self-activity demands an opportunity for investi- an individual only as he has his own purpose and prob- gation and experimentation, for trying out one’s ideas lem, and does his own thinking. The phrase “think for upon things, discovering what can be done with materi- one’s self’ is a pleonasm. Unless one does it for one’s als and appliances. And this is incompatible with closely self, it isn’t thinking. Only by a pupil’s own observations, restricted physical activity. Individual activity has some- reflections, framing and testing of suggestions can what times been taken as meaning leaving a pupil to work by he already knows be amplified and rectified. Thinking is himself or alone. Relief from need of attending to what as much an individual matter as is the digestion of food. any one else is doing is truly required to secure calm and In the second place, there are variations of point of view, concentration. Children, like grown persons, require a of appeal of objects, and of mode of attack, from person judicious amount of being let alone. But the time, place, to person. When these variations are suppressed in the and amount of such separate work is a matter of detail, alleged interests of uniformity, and an attempt is made not of principle. There is no inherent opposition between to have a single mold of method of study and recitation,

311 Democracy & Education mental confusion and artificiality inevitably result. Origi- unreasonable to expect that learning may take place un- nality is gradually destroyed, confidence in one’s own der such conditions that from the standpoint of the learner quality of mental operation is undermined, and a docile there is genuine discovery. While immature students will subjection to the opinion of others is inculcated, or else not make discoveries from the standpoint of advanced ideas run wild. The harm is greater now than when the students, they make them from their own standpoint, whole community was governed by customary beliefs, whenever there is genuine learning. (ii) In the normal because the contrast between methods of learning in process of becoming acquainted with subject matter al- school and those relied upon outside the school is greater. ready known to others, even young pupils react in unex- That systematic advance in scientific discovery began pected ways. There is something fresh, something not when individuals were allowed, and then encouraged, to capable of being fully anticipated by even the most ex- utilize their own peculiarities of response to subject mat- perienced teacher, in the ways they go at the topic, and ter, no one will deny. If it is said in objection, that pupils in the particular ways in which things strike them. Too in school are not capable of any such originality, and often all this is brushed aside as irrelevant; pupils are hence must be confined to appropriating and reproduc- deliberately held to rehearsing material in the exact form ing things already known by the better informed, the in which the older person conceives it. The result is that reply is twofold. (i) We are concerned with originality of what is instinctively original in individuality, that which attitude which is equivalent to the unforced response of marks off one from another, goes unused and undirected. one’s own individuality, not with originality as measured Teaching then ceases to be an educative process for the by product. No one expects the young to make original teacher. At most he learns simply to improve his existing discoveries of just the same facts and principles as are technique; he does not get new points of view; he fails to embodied in the sciences of nature and man. But it is not experience any intellectual companionship. Hence both

312 John Dewey teaching and learning tend to become conventional and When, however, education takes cognizance of the union mechanical with all the nervous strain on both sides of mind and body in acquiring knowledge, we are not therein implied. obliged to insist upon the need of obvious, or external, As maturity increases and as the student has a greater freedom. It is enough to identify the freedom which is background of familiarity upon which a new topic is pro- involved in teaching and studying with the thinking by jected, the scope of more or less random physical experi- which what a person already knows and believes is en- mentation is reduced. Activity is defined or specialized in larged and refined. If attention is centered upon the con- certain channels. To the eyes of others, the student may ditions which have to be met in order to secure a situa- be in a position of complete physical quietude, because tion favorable to effective thinking, freedom will take his energies are confined to nerve channels and to the care of itself. The individual who has a question which connected apparatus of the eyes and vocal organs. But being really a question to him instigates his curiosity, because this attitude is evidence of intense mental con- which feeds his eagerness for information that will help centration on the part of the trained person, it does not him cope with it, and who has at command an equipment follow that it should be set up as a model for students who which will permit these interests to take effect, is intel- still have to find their intellectual way about. And even lectually free. Whatever initiative and imaginative vision with the adult, it does not cover the whole circuit of men- he possesses will be called into play and control his im- tal energy. It marks an intermediate period, capable of pulses and habits. His own purposes will direct his ac- being lengthened with increased mastery of a subject, but tions. Otherwise, his seeming attention, his docility, his always coming between an earlier period of more general memorizings and reproductions, will partake of intellec- and conspicuous organic action and a later time of putting tual servility. Such a condition of intellectual subjection to use what has been apprehended. is needed for fitting the masses into a society where the

313 Democracy & Education many are not expected to have aims or ideas of their cal phase, it generated the problem of the possibility of a own, but to take orders from the few set in authority. It purely individual consciousness acting on behalf of gen- is not adapted to a society which intends to be demo- eral or social interests,—the problem of social direction. cratic. While the philosophies which have been elaborated to deal with these questions have not affected education Summary. True individualism is a product of the relax- directly, the assumptions underlying them have found ation of the grip of the authority of custom and tradi- expression in the separation frequently made between tions as standards of belief. Aside from sporadic instances, study and government and between freedom of individu- like the height of Greek thought, it is a comparatively ality and control by others. Regarding freedom, the im- modern manifestation. Not but that there have always portant thing to bear in mind is that it designates a mental been individual diversities, but that a society dominated attitude rather than external unconstraint of movements, by conservative custom represses them or at least does but that this quality of mind cannot develop without a not utilize them and promote them. For various reasons, fair leeway of movements in exploration, experimenta- however, the new individualism was interpreted philo- tion, application, etc. A society based on custom will sophically not as meaning development of agencies for utilize individual variations only up to a limit of confor- revising and transforming previously accepted beliefs, but mity with usage; uniformity is the chief ideal within each as an assertion that each individual’s mind was complete class. A progressive society counts individual variations in isolation from everything else. In the theoretical phase as precious since it finds in them the means of its own of philosophy, this produced the epistemological prob- growth. Hence a democratic society must, in consistency lem: the question as to the possibility of any cognitive with its ideal, allow for intellectual freedom and the play relationship of the individual to the world. In its practi- of diverse gifts and interests in its educational measures.

314 John Dewey Chapter Twenty-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education tion of certain states and attitudes of consciousness, separate from either social direction or service. It has been 1. The Meaning of Vocation. At the present time the an escape from the former, and a solace for the necessity conflict of philosophic theories focuses in discussion of of the latter. the proper place and function of vocational factors in So deeply entangled are these philosophic dualisms with education. The bald statement that significant differences the whole subject of vocational education, that it is nec- in fundamental philosophical conceptions find their chief essary to define the meaning of vocation with some full- issue in connection with this point may arouse incredu- ness in order to avoid the impression that an education lity: there seems to be too great a gap between the re- which centers about it is narrowly practical, if not merely mote and general terms in which philosophic ideas are pecuniary. A vocation means nothing but such a direc- formulated and the practical and concrete details of vo- tion of life activities as renders them perceptibly signifi- cational education. But a mental review of the intellec- cant to a person, because of the consequences they actual presuppositions underlying the oppositions in edu- complish, and also useful to his associates. The opposite cation of labor and leisure, theory and practice, body and of a career is neither leisure nor culture, but aimlessness, mind, mental states and the world, will show that they capriciousness, the absence of cumulative achievement culminate in the antithesis of vocational and cultural edu- in experience, on the personal side, and idle display, para- cation. Traditionally, liberal culture has been linked to sitic dependence upon the others, on the social side. the notions of leisure, purely contemplative knowledge Occupation is a concrete term for continuity. It includes and a spiritual activity not involving the active use of the development of artistic capacity of any kind, of spe- bodily organs. Culture has also tended, latterly, to be cial scientific ability, of effective citizenship, as well as associated with a purely private refinement, a cultiva- professional and business occupations, to say nothing of

315 Democracy & Education mechanical labor or engagement in gainful pursuits. some organized political unit, and so on. We naturally We must avoid not only limitation of conception of vo- name his vocation from that one of the callings which cation to the occupations where immediately tangible distinguishes him, rather than from those which he has commodities are produced, but also the notion that vo- in common with all others. But we should not allow our- cations are distributed in an exclusive way, one and only selves to be so subject to words as to ignore and virtually one to each person. Such restricted specialism is impos- deny his other callings when it comes to a consideration sible; nothing could be more absurd than to try to edu- of the vocational phases of education. cate individuals with an eye to only one line of activity. (ii) As a man’s vocation as artist is but the emphati- In the first place, each individual has of necessity a vari- cally specialized phase of his diverse and variegated vo- ety of callings, in each of which he should be intelli- cational activities, so his efficiency in it, in the humane gently effective; and in the second place any one occu- sense of efficiency, is determined by its association with pation loses its meaning and becomes a routine keeping other callings. A person must have experience, he must busy at something in the degree in which it is isolated live, if his artistry is to be more than a technical accom- from other interests. plishment. He cannot find the subject matter of his artis- (i) No one is just an artist and nothing else, and in so tic activity within his art; this must be an expression of far as one approximates that condition, he is so much what he suffers and enjoys in other relationships—a thing the less developed human being; he is a kind of mon- which depends in turn upon the alertness and sympathy strosity. He must, at some period of his life, be a member of his interests. What is true of an artist is true of any of a family; he must have friends and companions; he other special calling. There is doubtless—in general ac- must either support himself or be supported by others, cord with the principle of habit—a tendency for every and thus he has a business career. He is a member of distinctive vocation to become too dominant, too exclu-

316 John Dewey sive and absorbing in its specialized aspect. This means adequate play, working with the minimum of friction and emphasis upon skill or technical method at the expense the maximum of satisfaction. With reference to other of meaning. Hence it is not the business of education to members of a community, this adequacy of action signi- foster this tendency, but rather to safeguard against it, fies, of course, that they are getting the best service the so that the scientific inquirer shall not be merely the person can render. It is generally believed, for example, scientist, the teacher merely the pedagogue, the clergy- that slave labor was ultimately wasteful even from the man merely one who wears the cloth, and so on. purely economic point of view—that there was not sufficient stimulus to direct the energies of slaves, and that 2. The Place of Vocational Aims in Education. Bearing there was consequent wastage. Moreover, since slaves were in mind the varied and connected content of the voca- confined to certain prescribed callings, much talent must tion, and the broad background upon which a particular have remained unavailable to the community, and hence calling is projected, we shall now consider education for there was a dead loss. Slavery only illustrates on an obvi- the more distinctive activity of an individual. ous scale what happens in some degree whenever an in- 1. An occupation is the only thing which balances the dividual does not find himself in his work. And he cannot distinctive capacity of an individual with his social ser- completely find himself when vocations are looked upon vice. To find out what one is fitted to do and to secure an with contempt, and a conventional ideal of a culture which opportunity to do it is the key to happiness. Nothing is is essentially the same for all is maintained. Plato (ante, more tragic than failure to discover one’s true business p. 88) laid down the fundamental principle of a philoso- in life, or to find that one has drifted or been forced by phy of education when he asserted that it was the busi- circumstance into an uncongenial calling. A right occu- ness of education to discover what each person is good pation means simply that the aptitudes of a person are in for, and to train him to mastery of that mode of excel-

317 Democracy & Education lence, because such development would also secure the the external product is the aim, fulfills the requirements fulfillment of social needs in the most harmonious way. which were laid down earlier in connection with the dis- His error was not in qualitative principle, but in his lim- cussion of aims, interest, and thinking. (See Chapters ited conception of the scope of vocations socially needed; VIII, X, XII.) a limitation of vision which reacted to obscure his per- A calling is also of necessity an organizing principle for ception of the infinite variety of capacities found in dif- information and ideas; for knowledge and intellectual ferent individuals. growth. It provides an axis which runs through an im- 2. An occupation is a continuous activity having a pur- mense diversity of detail; it causes different experiences, pose. Education through occupations consequently com- facts, items of information to fall into order with one bines within itself more of the factors conducive to learn- another. The lawyer, the physician, the laboratory inves- ing than any other method. It calls instincts and habits tigator in some branch of chemistry, the parent, the citi- into play; it is a foe to passive receptivity. It has an end zen interested in his own locality, has a constant work- in view; results are to be accomplished. Hence it appeals ing stimulus to note and relate whatever has to do with to thought; it demands that an idea of an end be steadily his concern. He unconsciously, from the motivation of maintained, so that activity cannot be either routine or his occupation, reaches out for all relevant information, capricious. Since the movement of activity must be pro- and holds to it. The vocation acts as both magnet to gressive, leading from one stage to another, observation attract and as glue to hold. Such organization of knowl- and ingenuity are required at each stage to overcome edge is vital, because it has reference to needs; it is so obstacles and to discover and readapt means of execu- expressed and readjusted in action that it never becomes tion. In short, an occupation, pursued under conditions stagnant. No classification, no selection and arrangement where the realization of the activity rather than merely of facts, which is consciously worked out for purely ab-

318 John Dewey stract ends, can ever compare in solidity or effectiveness carelessness), but it will be at the expense of those quali- with that knit under the stress of an occupation; in com- ties of alert observation and coherent and ingenious plan- parison the former sort is formal, superficial, and cold. ning which make an occupation intellectually rewarding. 3. The only adequate training for occupations is train- In an autocratically managed society, it is often a con- ing through occupations. The principle stated early in scious object to prevent the development of freedom and this book (see Chapter VI) that the educative process is responsibility, a few do the planning and ordering, the its own end, and that the only sufficient preparation for others follow directions and are deliberately confined to later responsibilities comes by making the most of imme- narrow and prescribed channels of endeavor. However diately present life, applies in full force to the vocational much such a scheme may inure to the prestige and profit phases of education. The dominant vocation of all human of a class, it is evident that it limits the development of beings at all times is living —intellectual and moral the subject class; hardens and confines the opportuni- growth. In childhood and youth, with their relative free- ties for learning through experience of the master class, dom from economic stress, this fact is naked and uncon- and in both ways hampers the life of the society as a cealed. To predetermine some future occupation for which whole. (See ante, p. 260.) education is to be a strict preparation is to injure the The only alternative is that all the earlier preparation possibilities of present development and thereby to re- for vocations be indirect rather than direct; namely, duce the adequacy of preparation for a future right em- through engaging in those active occupations which are ployment. To repeat the principle we have had occasion indicated by the needs and interests of the pupil at the to appeal to so often, such training may develop a ma- time. Only in this way can there be on the part of the chine-like skill in routine lines (it is far from being sure educator and of the one educated a genuine discovery of to do so, since it may develop distaste, aversion, and personal aptitudes so that the proper choice of a special-

319 Democracy & Education ized pursuit in later life may be indicated. Moreover, the gence of others who have a calling which permits more discovery of capacity and aptitude will be a constant pro- flexible play and readjustment. And while ordinary us- cess as long as growth continues. It is a conventional ages of language may not justify terming a flexible atti- and arbitrary view which assumes that discovery of the tude of readjustment a choice of a new and further call- work to be chosen for adult life is made once for all at ing, it is such in effect. If even adults have to be on the some particular date. One has discovered in himself, say, lookout to see that their calling does not shut down on an interest, intellectual and social, in the things which them and fossilize them, educators must certainly be care- have to do with engineering and has decided to make ful that the vocational preparation of youth is such as to that his calling. At most, this only blocks out in outline engage them in a continuous reorganization of aims and the field in which further growth is to be directed. It is a methods. sort of rough sketch for use in direction of further activities. It is the discovery of a profession in the sense in 3. Present Opportunities and Dangers. In the past, edu- which Columbus discovered America when he touched its cation has been much more vocational in fact than in shores. Future explorations of an indefinitely more de- name. (i) The education of the masses was distinctly tailed and extensive sort remain to be made. When edu- utilitarian. It was called apprenticeship rather than educators conceive vocational guidance as something which cation, or else just learning from experience. The schools leads up to a definitive, irretrievable, and complete choice, devoted themselves to the three R’s in the degree in which both education and the chosen vocation are likely to be ability to go through the forms of reading, writing, and rigid, hampering further growth. In so far, the calling figuring were common elements in all kinds of labor. Tak- chosen will be such as to leave the person concerned in a ing part in some special line of work, under the direction permanently subordinate position, executing the intelli- of others, was the out-of-school phase of this education.

320 John Dewey The two supplemented each other; the school work in its Moreover, display, the adornment of person, the kind of narrow and formal character was as much a part of ap- social companionship and entertainment which give pres- prenticeship to a calling as that explicitly so termed. tige, and the spending of money, have been made into (ii) To a considerable extent, the education of the domi- definite callings. Unconsciously to themselves the higher nant classes was essentially vocational—it only happened institutions of learning have been made to contribute to that their pursuits of ruling and of enjoying were not preparation for these employments. Even at present, what called professions. For only those things were named vo- is called higher education is for a certain class (much cations or employments which involved manual labor, la- smaller than it once was) mainly preparation for engag- boring for a reward in keep, or its commuted money ing effectively in these pursuits. equivalent, or the rendering of personal services to spe- In other respects, it is largely, especially in the most cific persons. For a long time, for example, the profession advanced work, training for the calling of teaching and of the surgeon and physician ranked almost with that of special research. By a peculiar superstition, education the valet or barber—partly because it had so much to do which has to do chiefly with preparation for the pursuit with the body, and partly because it involved rendering of conspicuous idleness, for teaching, and for literary direct service for pay to some definite person. But if we callings, and for leadership, has been regarded as non- go behind words, the business of directing social con- vocational and even as peculiarly cultural. The literary cerns, whether politically or economically, whether in war training which indirectly fits for authorship, whether of or peace, is as much a calling as anything else; and where books, newspaper editorials, or magazine articles, is es- education has not been completely under the thumb of pecially subject to this superstition: many a teacher and tradition, higher schools in the past have been upon the author writes and argues in behalf of a cultural and hu- whole calculated to give preparation for this business. mane education against the encroachments of a special-

321 Democracy & Education ized practical education, without recognizing that his own and envy of those who can pursue lives of idle conspicu- education, which he calls liberal, has been mainly train- ous display, better moral sentiment condemns such lives. ing for his own particular calling. He has simply got into Social responsibility for the use of time and personal ca- the habit of regarding his own business as essentially pacity is more generally recognized than it used to be. cultural and of overlooking the cultural possibilities of (ii) In the second place, those vocations which are other employments. At the bottom of these distinctions specifically industrial have gained tremendously in im- is undoubtedly the tradition which recognizes as employ- portance in the last century and a half. Manufacturing ment only those pursuits where one is responsible for his and commerce are no longer domestic and local, and con- work to a specific employer, rather than to the ultimate sequently more or less incidental, but are world-wide. employer, the community. They engage the best energies of an increasingly large There are, however, obvious causes for the present con- number of persons. The manufacturer, banker, and cap- scious emphasis upon vocational education—for the dis- tain of industry have practically displaced a hereditary position to make explicit and deliberate vocational im- landed gentry as the immediate directors of social af- plications previously tacit. (i) In the first place, there is fairs. The problem of social readjustment is openly indus- an increased esteem, in democratic communities, of what- trial, having to do with the relations of capital and labor. ever has to do with manual labor, commercial occupa- The great increase in the social importance of conspicu- tions, and the rendering of tangible services to society. ous industrial processes has inevitably brought to the In theory, men and women are now expected to do some- front questions having to do with the relationship of thing in return for their support—intellectual and eco- schooling to industrial life. No such vast social readjust- nomic—by society. Labor is extolled; service is a much- ment could occur without offering a challenge to an edu- lauded moral ideal. While there is still much admiration cation inherited from different social conditions, and

322 John Dewey without putting up to education new problems. a narrow range, because work was done with tools under (iii) In the third place, there is the fact already repeat- the direct command of the worker. Now the operator has edly mentioned: Industry has ceased to be essentially an to adjust himself to his machine, instead of his tool to empirical, rule-of-thumb procedure, handed down by cus- his own purposes. While the intellectual possibilities of tom. Its technique is now technological: that is to say, industry have multiplied, industrial conditions tend to based upon machinery resulting from discoveries in math- make industry, for great masses, less of an educative re- ematics, physics, chemistry, bacteriology, etc. The eco- source than it was in the days of hand production for nomic revolution has stimulated science by setting prob- local markets. The burden of realizing the intellectual lems for solution, by producing greater intellectual re- possibilities inhering in work is thus thrown back on the spect for mechanical appliances. And industry received school. back payment from science with compound interest. As a (iv) In the fourth place, the pursuit of knowledge has consequence, industrial occupations have infinitely greater become, in science, more experimental, less dependent intellectual content and infinitely larger cultural possi- upon literary tradition, and less associated with dialecti- bilities than they used to possess. The demand for such cal methods of reasoning, and with symbols. As a result, education as will acquaint workers with the scientific and the subject matter of industrial occupation presents not social bases and bearings of their pursuits becomes im- only more of the content of science than it used to, but perative, since those who are without it inevitably sink greater opportunity for familiarity with the method by to the role of appendages to the machines they operate. which knowledge is made. The ordinary worker in the fac- Under the old regime all workers in a craft were approxi- tory is of course under too immediate economic pressure mately equals in their knowledge and outlook. Personal to have a chance to produce a knowledge like that of the knowledge and ingenuity were developed within at least worker in the laboratory. But in schools, association with

323 Democracy & Education machines and industrial processes may be had under con- work should be gradual, not involving a radical change of ditions where the chief conscious concern of the stu- attitude but carrying into work the elements of play, plus dents is insight. The separation of shop and laboratory, continuous reorganization in behalf of greater control. where these conditions are fulfilled, is largely conven- The reader will remark that these five points practically tional, the laboratory having the advantage of permit- resume the main contentions of the previous part of the ting the following up of any intellectual interest a prob- work. Both practically and philosophically, the key to the lem may suggest; the shop the advantage of emphasizing present educational situation lies in a gradual reconstruc- the social bearings of the scientific principle, as well as, tion of school materials and methods so as to utilize vari- with many pupils, of stimulating a livelier interest. ous forms of occupation typifying social callings, and to (v) Finally, the advances which have been made in the bring out their intellectual and moral content. This re- psychology of learning in general and of childhood in construction must relegate purely literary methods —in- particular fall into line with the increased importance of cluding textbooks—and dialectical methods to the posi- industry in life. For modern psychology emphasizes the tion of necessary auxiliary tools in the intelligent devel- radical importance of primitive unlearned instincts of ex- opment of consecutive and cumulative activities. ploring, experimentation, and “trying on.” It reveals that But our discussion has emphasized the fact that this learning is not the work of something ready-made called educational reorganization cannot be accomplished by mind, but that mind itself is an organization of original merely trying to give a technical preparation for indus- capacities into activities having significance. As we have tries and professions as they now operate, much less by already seen (ante, p. 204), in older pupils work is to merely reproducing existing industrial conditions in the educative development of raw native activities what play school. The problem is not that of making the schools an is for younger pupils. Moreover, the passage from play to adjunct to manufacture and commerce, but of utilizing

324 John Dewey the factors of industry to make school life more active, tance between them. It denotes a state of affairs in which more full of immediate meaning, more connected with the interest of each in his work is uncoerced and intelli- out-of-school experience. The problem is not easy of so- gent: based upon its congeniality to his own aptitudes. lution. There is a standing danger that education will It goes without saying that we are far from such a social perpetuate the older traditions for a select few, and ef- state; in a literal and quantitative sense, we may never fect its adjustment to the newer economic conditions arrive at it. But in principle, the quality of social changes more or less on the basis of acquiescence in the already accomplished lies in this direction. There are more untransformed, unrationalized, and unsocialized phases ample resources for its achievement now than ever there of our defective industrial regime. Put in concrete terms, have been before. No insuperable obstacles, given the there is danger that vocational education will be inter- intelligent will for its realization, stand in the way. preted in theory and practice as trade education: as a Success or failure in its realization depends more upon means of securing technical efficiency in specialized fu- the adoption of educational methods calculated to effect ture pursuits. Education would then become an instru- the change than upon anything else. For the change is ment of perpetuating unchanged the existing industrial essentially a change in the quality of mental disposi- order of society, instead of operating as a means of its tion—an educative change. This does not mean that we transformation. The desired transformation is not diffi- can change character and mind by direct instruction and cult to define in a formal way. It signifies a society in exhortation, apart from a change in industrial and politi- which every person shall be occupied in something which cal conditions. Such a conception contradicts our basic makes the lives of others better worth living, and which idea that character and mind are attitudes of participa- accordingly makes the ties which bind persons together tive response in social affairs. But it does mean that we more perceptible—which breaks down the barriers of dis- may produce in schools a projection in type of the soci-

325 Democracy & Education ety we should like to realize, and by forming minds in sion in a hardened form. Taking its stand upon a dogma accord with it gradually modify the larger and more recal- of social predestination, it would assume that some are citrant features of adult society. Sentimentally, it may to continue to be wage earners under economic condi- seem harsh to say that the greatest evil of the present tions like the present, and would aim simply to give them regime is not found in poverty and in the suffering which what is termed a trade education—that is, greater tech- it entails, but in the fact that so many persons have nical efficiency. Technical proficiency is often sadly lack- callings which make no appeal to them, which are pur- ing, and is surely desirable on all accounts—not merely sued simply for the money reward that accrues. For such for the sake of the production of better goods at less callings constantly provoke one to aversion, ill will, and cost, but for the greater happiness found in work. For no a desire to slight and evade. Neither men’s hearts nor one cares for what one cannot half do. But there is a their minds are in their work. On the other hand, those great difference between a proficiency limited to imme- who are not only much better off in worldly goods, but diate work, and a competency extended to insight into who are in excessive, if not monopolistic, control of the its social bearings; between efficiency in carrying out activities of the many are shut off from equality and gen- the plans of others and in one forming one’s own. At erality of social intercourse. They are stimulated to pur- present, intellectual and emotional limitation character- suits of indulgence and display; they try to make up for izes both the employing and the employed class. While the distance which separates them from others by the the latter often have no concern with their occupation impression of force and superior possession and enjoy- beyond the money return it brings, the former’s outlook ment which they can make upon others. may be confined to profit and power. The latter interest It would be quite possible for a narrowly conceived generally involves much greater intellectual initiation and scheme of vocational education to perpetuate this divi- larger survey of conditions. For it involves the direction

326 John Dewey and combination of a large number of diverse factors, while as specific trade preparation, is to treat the schools as an the interest in wages is restricted to certain direct muscu- agency for transferring the older division of labor and lar movements. But none the less there is a limitation of leisure, culture and service, mind and body, directed and intelligence to technical and non- humane, non-liberal directive class, into a society nominally democratic. Such channels, so far as the work does not take in its social a vocational education inevitably discounts the scien- bearings. And when the animating motive is desire for pri- tific and historic human connections of the materials and vate profit or personal power, this limitation is inevitable. processes dealt with. To include such things in narrow In fact, the advantage in immediate social sympathy and trade education would be to waste time; concern for them humane disposition often lies with the economically un- would not be “practical.” They are reserved for those who fortunate, who have not experienced the hardening ef- have leisure at command—the leisure due to superior fects of a one-sided control of the affairs of others. economic resources. Such things might even be danger- Any scheme for vocational education which takes its ous to the interests of the controlling class, arousing point of departure from the industrial regime that now discontent or ambitions “beyond the station” of those exists, is likely to assume and to perpetuate its divisions working under the direction of others. But an education and weaknesses, and thus to become an instrument in which acknowledges the full intellectual and social mean- accomplishing the feudal dogma of social predestination. ing of a vocation would include instruction in the his- Those who are in a position to make their wishes good, toric background of present conditions; training in sci- will demand a liberal, a cultural occupation, and one which ence to give intelligence and initiative in dealing with fits for directive power the youth in whom they are di- material and agencies of production; and study of eco- rectly interested. To split the system, and give to others, nomics, civics, and politics, to bring the future worker less fortunately situated, an education conceived mainly into touch with the problems of the day and the various

327 Democracy & Education methods proposed for its improvement. Above all, it would activity which renders service to others and engages per- train power of readaptation to changing conditions so sonal powers in behalf of the accomplishment of results. that future workers would not become blindly subject to The question of the relation of vocation to education a fate imposed upon them. This ideal has to contend not brings to a focus the various problems previously dis- only with the inertia of existing educational traditions, cussed regarding the connection of thought with bodily but also with the opposition of those who are entrenched activity; of individual conscious development with asso- in command of the industrial machinery, and who realize ciated life; of theoretical culture with practical behavior that such an educational system if made general would having definite results; of making a livelihood with the threaten their ability to use others for their own ends. worthy enjoyment of leisure. In general, the opposition But this very fact is the presage of a more equitable and to recognition of the vocational phases of life in educa- enlightened social order, for it gives evidence of the de- tion (except for the utilitarian three R’s in elementary pendence of social reorganization upon educational re- schooling) accompanies the conservation of aristocratic construction. It is accordingly an encouragement to those ideals of the past. But, at the present juncture, there is a believing in a better order to undertake the promotion of movement in behalf of something called vocational train- a vocational education which does not subject youth to ing which, if carried into effect, would harden these ideas the demands and standards of the present system, but into a form adapted to the existing industrial regime. which utilizes its scientific and social factors to develop This movement would continue the traditional liberal or a courageous intelligence, and to make intelligence prac- cultural education for the few economically able to enjoy tical and executive. it, and would give to the masses a narrow technical trade education for specialized callings, carried on under the Summary. A vocation signifies any form of continuous control of others. This scheme denotes, of course, simply

328 John Dewey a perpetuation of the older social division, with its coun- ties. With the representatives of the more privileged por- terpart intellectual and moral dualisms. But it means its tion of the community, it would increase sympathy for continuation under conditions where it has much less labor, create a disposition of mind which can discover justification for existence. For industrial life is now so the culturing elements in useful activity, and increase a dependent upon science and so intimately affects all forms sense of social responsibility. The crucial position of the of social intercourse, that there is an opportunity to uti- question of vocational education at present is due, in lize it for development of mind and character. Moreover, other words, to the fact that it concentrates in a specific a right educational use of it would react upon intelli- issue two fundamental questions:—Whether intelligence gence and interest so as to modify, in connection with is best exercised apart from or within activity which puts legislation and administration, the socially obnoxious nature to human use, and whether individual culture is features of the present industrial and commercial order. best secured under egoistic or social conditions. No dis- It would turn the increasing fund of social sympathy to cussion of details is undertaken in this chapter, because constructive account, instead of leaving it a somewhat this conclusion but summarizes the discussion of the pre- blind philanthropic sentiment. vious chapters, XV to XXII, inclusive. It would give those who engage in industrial callings desire and ability to share in social control, and ability to become masters of their industrial fate. It would enable them to saturate with meaning the technical and mechanical features which are so marked a feature of our machine system of production and distribution. So much for those who now have the poorer economic opportuni-

329 Democracy & Education Chapter Twenty-four: Philosophy of Education adults and youth, partly deliberately instituted to effect social continuity. This process was seen to involve con- 1. A Critical Review. Although we are dealing with the trol and growth of both the immature individual and the philosophy of education, DO definition of philosophy has group in which he lives. yet been given; nor has there been an explicit consider- This consideration was formal in that it took no spe- ation of the nature of a philosophy of education. This cific account of the quality of the social group concerned— topic is now introduced by a summary account of the the kind of society aiming at its own perpetuation through logical order implied in the previous discussions, for the education. The general discussion was then specified by purpose of bringing out the philosophic issues involved. application to social groups which are intentionally pro- Afterwards we shall undertake a brief discussion, in more gressive, and which aim at a greater variety of mutually specifically philosophical terms, of the theories of knowl- shared interests in distinction from those which aim sim- edge and of morals implied in different educational ide- ply at the preservation of established customs. Such so- als as they operate in practice. The prior chapters fall cieties were found to be democratic in quality, because logically into three parts. of the greater freedom allowed the constituent members, I. The first chapters deal with education as a social and the conscious need of securing in individuals a con- need and function. Their purpose is to outline the gen- sciously socialized interest, instead of trusting mainly to eral features of education as the process by which social the force of customs operating under the control of a groups maintain their continuous existence. Education superior class. The sort of education appropriate to the was shown to be a process of renewal of the meanings of development of a democratic community was then ex- experience through a process of transmission, partly in- plicitly taken as the criterion of the further, more de- cidental to the ordinary companionship or intercourse of tailed analysis of education.

330 John Dewey II. This analysis, based upon the democratic criterion, value, material, and method, each checking every other, was seen to imply the ideal of a continuous reconstruc- and, when each is kept properly bounded by the others, tion or reorganizing of experience, of such a nature as to forming a kind of “balance of powers” in education. We increase its recognized meaning or social content, and as then proceeded to an analysis of the various assumptions to increase the capacity of individuals to act as directive underlying this segregation. On the practical side, they guardians of this reorganization. (See Chapters VI-VII.) were found to have their cause in the divisions of society This distinction was then used to outline the respective into more or less rigidly marked-off classes and groups— characters of subject matter and method. It also defined in other words, in obstruction to full and flexible social their unity, since method in study and learning upon this interaction and intercourse. These social ruptures of con- basis is just the consciously directed movement of reor- tinuity were seen to have their intellectual formulation ganization of the subject matter of experience. From this in various dualisms or antitheses—such as that of labor point of view the main principles of method and subject and leisure, practical and intellectual activity, man and matter of learning were developed (Chapters XIII-XIV.) nature, individuality and association, culture and voca- III. Save for incidental criticisms designed to illustrate tion. In this discussion, we found that these different principles by force of contrast, this phase of the discus- issues have their counterparts in formulations which have sion took for granted the democratic criterion and its been made in classic philosophic systems; and that they application in present social life. In the subsequent chap- involve the chief problems of philosophy—such as mind ters (XVIII-XXII) we considered the present limitation of (or spirit) and matter, body and mind, the mind and the its actual realization. They were found to spring from the world, the individual and his relationships to others, etc. notion that experience consists of a variety of segregated Underlying these various separations we found the fun- domains, or interests, each having its own independent damental assumption to be an isolation of mind from

331 Democracy & Education activity involving physical conditions, bodily organs, 2. The Nature of Philosophy. Our further task is to ex- material appliances, and natural objects. Consequently, tract and make explicit the idea of philosophy implicit in there was indicated a philosophy which recognizes the these considerations. We have already virtually described, origin, place, and function of mind in an activity which though not defined, philosophy in terms of the problems controls the environment. Thus we have completed the with which it deals: and that thing nor even to the ag- circuit and returned to the conceptions of the first por- gregate of known things, but to the considerations which tion of this book: such as the biological continuity of govern conduct. human impulses and instincts with natural energies; the Hence philosophy cannot be defined simply from the dependence of the growth of mind upon participation in side of subject matter. For this reason, the definition of conjoint activities having a common purpose; the influ- such conceptions as generality, totality, and ultimate- ence of the physical environment through the uses made ness is most readily reached from the side of the disposi- of it in the social medium; the necessity of utilization of tion toward the world which they connote. In any literal individual variations in desire and thinking for a progres- and quantitative sense, these terms do not apply to the sively developing society; the essential unity of method subject matter of knowledge, for completeness and final- and subject matter; the intrinsic continuity of ends and ity are out of the question. The very nature of experience means; the recognition of mind as thinking which per- as an ongoing, changing process forbids. In a less rigid ceives and tests the meanings of behavior. These con- sense, they apply to science rather than to philosophy. ceptions are consistent with the philosophy which sees For obviously it is to mathematics, physics, chemistry, intelligence to be the purposive reorganization, through biology, anthropology, history, etc. that we must go, not action, of the material of experience; and they are incon- to philosophy, to find out the facts of the world. It is for sistent with each of the dualistic philosophies mentioned. the sciences to say what generalizations are tenable about

332 John Dewey the world and what they specifically are. But when we endurance in the face of difficulty and loss; it is even ask what sort of permanent disposition of action toward supposed to be a power to bear pain without complaint. the world the scientific disclosures exact of us we are This meaning is a tribute to the influence of the Stoic raising a philosophic question. philosophy rather than an attribute of philosophy in general. But in so far as it suggests that the wholeness char- From this point of view, “totality” does not mean the acteristic of philosophy is a power to learn, or to extract hopeless task of a quantitative summation. It means rather meaning, from even the unpleasant vicissitudes of expe- consistency of mode of response in reference to the plu- rience and to embody what is learned in an ability to go rality of events which occur. Consistency does not mean on learning, it is justified in any scheme. An analogous literal identity; for since the same thing does not happen interpretation twice, an exact repetition of a reaction involves some applies to the generality and ultimateness of philoso- maladjustment. Totality means continuity—the carrying phy. Taken literally, they are absurd pretensions; they in- on of a former habit of action with the readaptation nec- dicate insanity. Finality does not mean, however, that essary to keep it alive and growing. Instead of signifying experience is ended and exhausted, but means the dispo- a ready-made complete scheme of action, it means keep- sition to penetrate to deeper levels of meaning—to go ing the balance in a multitude of diverse actions, so that below the surface and find out the connections of any each borrows and gives significance to every other. Any event or object, and to keep at it. In like manner the person who is open-minded and sensitive to new percep- philosophic attitude is general in the sense that it is tions, and who has concentration and responsibility in averse to taking anything as isolated; it tries to place an connecting them has, in so far, a philosophic disposi- act in its context—which constitutes its significance. It tion. One of the popular senses of philosophy is calm and is of assistance to connect philosophy with thinking in

333 Democracy & Education its distinction from knowledge. Knowledge, grounded conflict with one another, the need for philosophy is not knowledge, is science; it represents objects which have perceptible. But when the scientific interest conflicts with, been settled, ordered, disposed of rationally. Thinking, say, the religious, or the economic with the scientific or on the other hand, is prospective in reference. It is occa- aesthetic, or when the conservative concern for order is sioned by an unsettlement and it aims at overcoming a at odds with the progressive interest in freedom, or when disturbance. Philosophy is thinking what the known de- institutionalism clashes with individuality, there is a mands of us—what responsive attitude it exacts. It is an stimulus to discover some more comprehensive point of idea of what is possible, not a record of accomplished view from which the divergencies may be brought to- fact. Hence it is hypothetical, like all thinking. It pre- gether, and consistency or continuity of experience resents an assignment of something to be done—some- covered. Often these clashes may be settled by an indi- thing to be tried. Its value lies not in furnishing solu- vidual for himself; the area of the struggle of aims is tions (which can be achieved only in action) but in de- limited and a person works out his own rough accommo- fining difficulties and suggesting methods for dealing with dations. Such homespun philosophies are genuine and them. Philosophy might almost be described as thinking often adequate. But they do not result in systems of phi- which has become conscious of itself—which has gener- losophy. These arise when the discrepant claims of dif- alized its place, function, and value in experience. ferent ideals of conduct affect the community as a whole, More specifically, the demand for a “total” attitude arises and the need for readjustment is general. These traits because there is the need of integration in action of the explain some things which are often brought as objec- conflicting various interests in life. Where interests are tions against philosophies, such as the part played in so superficial that they glide readily into one another, or them by individual speculation, and their controversial where they are not sufficiently organized to come into diversity, as well as the fact that philosophy seems to be

334 John Dewey repeatedly occupied with much the same questions dif- ness. A community devoted to industrial pursuits, active ferently stated. Without doubt, all these things charac- in business and commerce, is not likely to see the needs terize historic philosophies more or less. But they are not and possibilities of life in the same way as a country with objections to philosophy so much as they are to human high aesthetic culture and little enterprise in turning the nature, and even to the world in which human nature is energies of nature to mechanical account. A social group set. If there are genuine uncertainties in life, philoso- with a fairly continuous history will respond mentally to phies must reflect that uncertainty. If there are different a crisis in a very different way from one which has felt diagnoses of the cause of a difficulty, and different pro- the shock of abrupt breaks. Even if the same data were posals for dealing with it; if, that is, the conflict of inter- present, they would be evaluated differently. But the dif- ests is more or less embodied in different sets of persons, ferent sorts of experience attending different types of there must be divergent competing philosophies. With life prevent just the same data from presenting them- respect to what has happened, sufficient evidence is all selves, as well as lead to a different scheme of values. As that is needed to bring agreement and certainty. The thing for the similarity of problems, this is often more a matter itself is sure. But with reference to what it is wise to do of appearance than of fact, due to old discussions being in a complicated situation, discussion is inevitable pre- translated into the terms of contemporary perplexities. cisely because the thing itself is still indeterminate. One But in certain fundamental respects the same predica- would not expect a ruling class living at ease to have the ments of life recur from time to time with only such same philosophy of life as those who were having a hard changes as are due to change of social context, including struggle for existence. If the possessing and the dispos- the growth of the sciences. sessed had the same fundamental disposition toward the The fact that philosophic problems arise because of wide- world, it would argue either insincerity or lack of serious- spread and widely felt difficulties in social practice is

335 Democracy & Education disguised because philosophers become a specialized class thrive, where they are at home, and where acceptance or which uses a technical language, unlike the vocabulary rejection makes a difference in practice. If we are willing in which the direct difficulties are stated. But where a to conceive education as the process of forming funda- system becomes influential, its connection with a con- mental dispositions, intellectual and emotional, toward flict of interests calling for some program of social ad- nature and fellow men, philosophy may even be defined justment may always be discovered. At this point, the as the general theory of education. Unless a philosophy intimate connection between philosophy and education is to remain symbolic—or verbal—or a sentimental in- appears. In fact, education offers a vantage ground from dulgence for a few, or else mere arbitrary dogma, its au- which to penetrate to the human, as distinct from the diting of past experience and its program of values must technical, significance of philosophic discussions. The take effect in conduct. Public agitation, propaganda, leg- student of philosophy “in itself’ is always in danger of islative and administrative action are effective in pro- taking it as so much nimble or severe intellectual exer- ducing the change of disposition which a philosophy in- cise—as something said by philosophers and concerning dicates as desirable, but only in the degree in which they them alone. But when philosophic issues are approached are educative—that is to say, in the degree in which from the side of the kind of mental disposition to which they modify mental and moral attitudes. And at the best, they correspond, or the differences in educational prac- such methods are compromised by the fact they are used tice they make when acted upon, the life-situations which with those whose habits are already largely set, while they formulate can never be far from view. If a theory education of youth has a fairer and freer field of opera- makes no difference in educational endeavor, it must be tion. On the other side, the business of schooling tends artificial. The educational point of view enables one to to become a routine empirical affair unless its aims and envisage the philosophic problems where they arise and methods are animated by such a broad and sympathetic

336 John Dewey survey of its place in contemporary life as it is the busi- cal arts, the sciences become methods of managing things ness of philosophy to provide. Positive science always so as to utilize their energies for recognized aims. By the implies practically the ends which the community is con- educative arts philosophy may generate methods of uti- cerned to achieve. Isolated from such ends, it is matter lizing the energies of human beings in accord with seri- of indifference whether its disclosures are used to cure ous and thoughtful conceptions of life. Education is the disease or to spread it; to increase the means of suste- laboratory in which philosophic distinctions become con- nance of life or to manufacture war material to wipe life crete and are tested. out. If society is interested in one of these things rather It is suggestive that European philosophy originated than another, science shows the way of attainment. Phi- (among the Athenians) under the direct pressure of edu- losophy thus has a double task: that of criticizing exist- cational questions. The earlier history of philosophy, de- ing aims with respect to the existing state of science, veloped by the Greeks in Asia Minor and Italy, so far as pointing out values which have become obsolete with its range of topics is concerned, is mainly a chapter in the command of new resources, showing what values are the history of science rather than of philosophy as that merely sentimental because there are no means for their word is understood to-day. It had nature for its subject, realization; and also that of interpreting the results of and speculated as to how things are made and changed. specialized science in their bearing on future social en- Later the traveling teachers, known as the Sophists, be- deavor. It is impossible that it should have any success gan to apply the results and the methods of the natural in these tasks without educational equivalents as to what philosophers to human conduct. to do and what not to do. For philosophic theory has no When the Sophists, the first body of professional edu- Aladdin’s lamp to summon into immediate existence the cators in Europe, instructed the youth in virtue, the po- values which it intellectually constructs. In the mechani- litical arts, and the management of city and household,

337 Democracy & Education philosophy began to deal with the relation of the indi- highest of all excellences, compared with which the vir- vidual to the universal, to some comprehensive class, or tues of neighborliness and the citizen’s life were second- to some group; the relation of man and nature, of tradi- ary? Or, on the other hand, was the vaunted intellectual tion and reflection, of knowledge and action. Can virtue, knowledge more than empty and vain pretense, demoral- approved excellence in any line, be learned, they asked? izing to character and destructive of the social ties that What is learning? It has to do with knowledge. What, bound men together in their community life? Was not the then, is knowledge? How is it achieved? Through the only true, because the only moral, life gained through senses, or by apprenticeship in some form of doing, or by obedient habituation to the customary practices of the reason that has undergone a preliminary logical disci- community? And was not the new education an enemy to pline? Since learning is coming to know, it involves a good citizenship, because it set up a rival standard to passage from ignorance to wisdom, from privation to full- the established traditions of the community? ness from defect to perfection, from non-being to being, In the course of two or three generations such ques- in the Greek way of putting it. How is such a transition tions were cut loose from their original practical bearing possible? Is change, becoming, development really pos- upon education and were discussed on their own account; sible and if so, how? And supposing such questions an- that is, as matters of philosophy as an independent branch swered, what is the relation of instruction, of knowledge, of inquiry. But the fact that the stream of European philo- to virtue? This last question led to opening the problem sophical thought arose as a theory of educational proce- of the relation of reason to action, of theory to practice, dure remains an eloquent witness to the intimate con- since virtue clearly dwelt in action. Was not knowing, the nection of philosophy and education. “Philosophy of edu- activity of reason, the noblest attribute of man? And con- cation” is not an external application of ready-made ideas sequently was not purely intellectual activity itself the to a system of practice having a radically different origin

338 John Dewey and purpose: it is only an explicit formulation of the prob- with just these questions as they affect the relationship lems of the formation of right mental and moral habi- of mind and body, theory and practice, man and nature, tudes in respect to the difficulties of contemporary social the individual and social, etc. In our concluding chapters life. The most penetrating definition of philosophy which we shall sum up the prior discussions with respect first to can be given is, then, that it is the theory of education the philosophy of knowledge, and then to the philosophy in its most general phases. of morals. The reconstruction of philosophy, of education, and of social ideals and methods thus go hand in hand. If there Summary. After a review designed to bring out the philo- is especial need of educational reconstruction at the sophic issues implicit in the previous discussions, phi- present time, if this need makes urgent a reconsideration losophy was defined as the generalized theory of educa- of the basic ideas of traditional philosophic systems, it is tion. Philosophy was stated to be a form of thinking, because of the thoroughgoing change in social life ac- which, like all thinking, finds its origin in what is uncer- companying the advance of science, the industrial revo- tain in the subject matter of experience, which aims to lution, and the development of democracy. Such practi- locate the nature of the perplexity and to frame hypoth- cal changes cannot take place without demanding an eses for its clearing up to be tested in action. Philo- educational reformation to meet them, and without lead- sophic thinking has for its differentia the fact that the ing men to ask what ideas and ideals are implicit in these uncertainties with which it deals are found in widespread social changes, and what revisions they require of the social conditions and aims, consisting in a conflict of ideas and ideals which are inherited from older and unorganized interests and institutional claims. Since the like cultures. Incidentally throughout the whole book, only way of bringing about a harmonious readjustment explicitly in the last few chapters, we have been dealing of the opposed tendencies is through a modification of

339 Democracy & Education emotional and intellectual disposition, philosophy is at Chapter Twenty-five: Theories of Knowledge once an explicit formulation of the various interests of life and a propounding of points of view and methods 1. Continuity versus Dualism. A number of theories of through which a better balance of interests may be ef- knowing have been criticized in the previous pages. In fected. Since education is the process through which the spite of their differences from one another, they all agree needed transformation may be accomplished and not rein one fundamental respect which contrasts with the main a mere hypothesis as to what is desirable, we reach theory which has been positively advanced. The latter a justification of the statement that philosophy is the assumes continuity; the former state or imply certain basic theory of education as a deliberately conducted practice. divisions, separations, or antitheses, technically called dualisms. The origin of these divisions we have found in the hard and fast walls which mark off social groups and classes within a group: like those between rich and poor, men and women, noble and baseborn, ruler and ruled. These barriers mean absence of fluent and free intercourse. This absence is equivalent to the setting up of different types of life-experience, each with isolated subject matter, aim, and standard of values. Every such social condition must be formulated in a dualistic philosophy, if philosophy is to be a sincere account of experience. When it gets beyond dualism—as many philosophies do in form— it can only be by appeal to something higher than any-

340 John Dewey thing found in experience, by a flight to some transcen- cultural significance. Rational knowledge is supposed to dental realm. And in denying duality in name such theo- be something which touches reality in ultimate, intellec- ries restore it in fact, for they end in a division between tual fashion; to be pursued for its own sake and properly things of this world as mere appearances and an inacces- to terminate in purely theoretical insight, not debased sible essence of reality. by application in behavior. Socially, the distinction cor- So far as these divisions persist and others are added responds to that of the intelligence used by the working to them, each leaves its mark upon the educational sys- classes and that used by a learned class remote from tem, until the scheme of education, taken as a whole, is concern with the means of living. Philosophically, the a deposit of various purposes and procedures. The out- difference turns about the distinction of the particular come is that kind of check and balance of segregated and universal. Experience is an aggregate of more or less factors and values which has been described. (See Chap- isolated particulars, acquaintance with each of which must ter XVIII.) The present discussion is simply a formula- be separately made. Reason deals with universals, with tion, in the terminology of philosophy, of various anti- general principles, with laws, which lie above the welter thetical conceptions involved in the theory of knowing. of concrete details. In the educational precipitate, the In the first place, there is the opposition of empirical pupil is supposed to have to learn, on one hand, a lot of and higher rational knowing. The first is connected with items of specific information, each standing by itself, everyday affairs, serves the purposes of the ordinary in- and upon the other hand, to become familiar with a cer- dividual who has no specialized intellectual pursuit, and tain number of laws and general relationships. Geogra- brings his wants into some kind of working connection phy, as often taught, illustrates the former; mathemat- with the immediate environment. Such knowing is depre- ics, beyond the rudiments of figuring, the latter. For all ciated, if not despised, as purely utilitarian, lacking in practical purposes, they represent two independent worlds.

341 Democracy & Education Another antithesis is suggested by the two senses of ism is that of activity and passivity in knowing. Purely the word “learning.” On the one hand, learning is the empirical and physical things are often supposed to be sum total of what is known, as that is handed down by known by receiving impressions. Physical things some- books and learned men. It is something external, an ac- how stamp themselves upon the mind or convey them- cumulation of cognitions as one might store material com- selves into consciousness by means of the sense organs. modities in a warehouse. Truth exists ready-made some- Rational knowledge and knowledge of spiritual things is where. Study is then the process by which an individual supposed, on the contrary, to spring from activity initi- draws on what is in storage. On the other hand, learning ated within the mind, an activity carried on better if it is means something which the individual does when he stud- kept remote from all sullying touch of the senses and ies. It is an active, personally conducted affair. The dual- external objects. The distinction between sense training ism here is between knowledge as something external, and object lessons and laboratory exercises, and pure ideas or, as it is often called, objective, and knowing as some- contained in books, and appropriated—so it is thought— thing purely internal, subjective, psychical. There is, on by some miraculous output of mental energy, is a fair one side, a body of truth, ready-made, and, on the other, expression in education of this distinction. Socially, it a ready-made mind equipped with a faculty of knowing— reflects a division between those who are controlled by if it only wills to exercise it, which it is often strangely direct concern with things and those who are free to loath to do. The separation, often touched upon, between cultivate. themselves. subject matter and method is the educational equivalent Another current opposition is that said to exist between of this dualism. Socially the distinction has to do with the intellect and the emotions. The emotions are con- the part of life which is dependent upon authority and ceived to be purely private and personal, having nothing that where individuals are free to advance. Another dual- to do with the work of pure intelligence in apprehending

342 John Dewey facts and truths,—except perhaps the single emotion of means. We shall not repeat what has been said about the intellectual curiosity. The intellect is a pure light; the source of this dualism in the division of society into a emotions are a disturbing heat. The mind turns outward class laboring with their muscles for material sustenance to truth; the emotions turn inward to considerations of and a class which, relieved from economic pressure, de- personal advantage and loss. Thus in education we have votes itself to the arts of expression and social direction. that systematic depreciation of interest which has been Nor is it necessary to speak again of the educational evils noted, plus the necessity in practice, with most pupils, which spring from the separation. We shall be content to of recourse to extraneous and irrelevant rewards and pen- summarize the forces which tend to make the untenabil- alties in order to induce the person who has a mind (much ity of this conception obvious and to replace it by the as his clothes have a pocket) to apply that mind to the idea of continuity. (i) The advance of physiology and the truths to be known. Thus we have the spectacle of pro- psychology associated with it have shown the connec- fessional educators decrying appeal to interest while they tion of mental activity with that of the nervous system. uphold with great dignity the need of reliance upon ex- Too often recognition of connection has stopped short at aminations, marks, promotions and emotions, prizes, and this point; the older dualism of soul and body has been the time-honored paraphernalia of rewards and punish- replaced by that of the brain and the rest of the body. ments. The effect of this situation in crippling the teacher’s But in fact the nervous system is only a specialized mecha- sense of humor has not received the attention which it nism for keeping all bodily activities working together. deserves. Instead of being isolated from them, as an organ of know- All of these separations culminate in one between knowing from organs of motor response, it is the organ by ing and doing, theory and practice, between mind as the which they interact responsively with one another. The end and spirit of action and the body as its organ and brain is essentially an organ for effecting the reciprocal

343 Democracy & Education adjustment to each other of the stimuli received from take account of or reckon with the results already attained— the environment and responses directed upon it. Note the basis of all responsibility. No one who has realized the that the adjusting is reciprocal; the brain not only en- full force of the facts of the connection of knowing with ables organic activity to be brought to bear upon any the nervous system and of the nervous system with the object of the environment in response to a sensory stimu- readjusting of activity continuously to meet new condi- lation, but this response also determines what the next tions, will doubt that knowing has to do with reorganizing stimulus will be. See what happens, for example, when a activity, instead of being something isolated from all ac- carpenter is at work upon a board, or an etcher upon his tivity, complete on its own account. plate—or in any case of a consecutive activity. While (ii) The development of biology clinches this lesson, each motor response is adjusted to the state of affairs with its discovery of evolution. For the philosophic sig- indicated through the sense organs, that motor response nificance of the doctrine of evolution lies precisely in its shapes the next sensory stimulus. Generalizing this illus- emphasis upon continuity of simpler and more complex tration, the brain is the machinery for a constant reorga- organic forms until we reach man. The development of nizing of activity so as to maintain its continuity; that is organic forms begins with structures where the adjust- to say, to make such modifications in future action as are ment of environment and organism is obvious, and where required because of what has already been done. The con- anything which can be called mind is at a minimum. As tinuity of the work of the carpenter distinguishes it from a activity becomes more complex, coordinating a greater routine repetition of identically the same motion, and from number of factors in space and time, intelligence plays a a random activity where there is nothing cumulative. What more and more marked role, for it has a larger span of the makes it continuous, consecutive, or concentrated is that future to forecast and plan for. The effect upon the theory each earlier act prepares the way for later acts, while these of knowing is to displace the notion that it is the activity

344 John Dewey of a mere onlooker or spectator of the world, the notion edge except where our activity has actually produced cer- which goes with the idea of knowing as something com- tain physical changes in things, which agree with and plete in itself. For the doctrine of organic development confirm the conception entertained. Short of such spe- means that the living creature is a part of the world, cific changes, our beliefs are only hypotheses, theories, sharing its vicissitudes and fortunes, and making itself suggestions, guesses, and are to be entertained tenta- secure in its precarious dependence only as it intellectu- tively and to be utilized as indications of experiments to ally identifies itself with the things about it, and, fore- be tried. (ii) On the other hand, the experimental method casting the future consequences of what is going on, of thinking signifies that thinking is of avail; that it is of shapes its own activities accordingly. If the living, expe- avail in just the degree in which the anticipation of fu- riencing being is an intimate participant in the activities ture consequences is made on the basis of thorough ob- of the world to which it belongs, then knowledge is a servation of present conditions. Experimentation, in other mode of participation, valuable in the degree in which it words, is not equivalent to blind reacting. Such surplus is effective. It cannot be the idle view of an unconcerned activity—a surplus with reference to what has been ob- spectator. served and is now anticipated—is indeed an unescapable (iii) The development of the experimental method as factor in all our behavior, but it is not experiment save as the method of getting knowledge and of making sure it is consequences are noted and are used to make predic- knowledge, and not mere opinion—the method of both tions and plans in similar situations in the future. The discovery and proof—is the remaining great force in bring- more the meaning of the experimental method is per- ing about a transformation in the theory of knowledge. ceived, the more our trying out of a certain way of treat- The experimental method has two sides. (i) On one hand, ing the material resources and obstacles which confront it means that we have no right to call anything knowl- us embodies a prior use of intelligence. What we call

345 Democracy & Education magic was with respect to many things the experimental are better adapted, as John Stuart Mill said, to make method of the savage; but for him to try was to try his disciples than inquirers. But every advance in the influ- luck, not his ideas. The scientific experimental method ence of the experimental method is sure to aid in outlaw- is, on the contrary, a trial of ideas; hence even when ing the literary, dialectic, and authoritative methods of practically—or immediately—unsuccessful, it is intellec- forming beliefs which have governed the schools of the tual, fruitful; for we learn from our failures when our past, and to transfer their prestige to methods which will endeavors are seriously thoughtful. procure an active concern with things and persons, di- The experimental method is new as a scientific re- rected by aims of increasing temporal reach and deploy- source—as a systematized means of making knowledge, ing greater range of things in space. In time the theory though as old as life as a practical device. Hence it is not of knowing must be derived from the practice which is surprising that men have not recognized its full scope. most successful in making knowledge; and then that theory For the most part, its significance is regarded as belong- will be employed to improve the methods which are less ing to certain technical and merely physical matters. It successful. will doubtless take a long time to secure the perception that it holds equally as to the forming and testing of 2. Schools of Method. There are various systems of phi- ideas in social and moral matters. Men still want the crutch losophy with characteristically different conceptions of of dogma, of beliefs fixed by authority, to relieve them of the method of knowing. Some of them are named scho- the trouble of thinking and the responsibility of direct- lasticism, sensationalism, rationalism, idealism, realism, ing their activity by thought. They tend to confine their empiricism, transcendentalism, pragmatism, etc. Many of own thinking to a consideration of which one among the them have been criticized in connection with the discus- rival systems of dogma they will accept. Hence the schools sion of some educational problem. We are here concerned

346 John Dewey with them as involving deviations from that method which curs in the running of the machine. But a man who un- has proved most effective in achieving knowledge, for a derstands the machine is the man who knows what he is consideration of the deviations may render clearer the about. He knows the conditions under which a given habit true place of knowledge in experience. In brief, the func- works, and is in a position to introduce the changes which tion of knowledge is to make one experience freely avail- will readapt it to new conditions. able in other experiences. The word “freely” marks the In other words, knowledge is a perception of those con- difference between the principle of knowledge and that nections of an object which determine its applicability in of habit. Habit means that an individual undergoes a a given situation. To take an extreme example; savages modification through an experience, which modification react to a flaming comet as they are accustomed to react forms a predisposition to easier and more effective ac- to other events which threaten the security of their life. tion in a like direction in the future. Thus it also has the Since they try to frighten wild animals or their enemies function of making one experience available in subse- by shrieks, beating of gongs, brandishing of weapons, quent experiences. Within certain limits, it performs this etc., they use the same methods to scare away the comet. function successfully. But habit, apart from knowledge, To us, the method is plainly absurd—so absurd that we does not make allowance for change of conditions, for fail to note that savages are simply falling back upon novelty. Prevision of change is not part of its scope, for habit in a way which exhibits its limitations. The only habit assumes the essential likeness of the new situation reason we do not act in some analogous fashion is be- with the old. Consequently it often leads astray, or comes cause we do not take the comet as an isolated, discon- between a person and the successful performance of his nected event, but apprehend it in its connections with task, just as the skill, based on habit alone, of the me- other events. We place it, as we say, in the astronomical chanic will desert him when something unexpected oc- system. We respond to its connections and not simply to

347 Democracy & Education the immediate occurrence. Thus our attitude to it is much edge has all the practical value attaching to efficient hab- freer. We may approach it, so to speak, from any one of its in any case. (ii) But it also increases the meaning, the the angles provided by its connections. We can bring into experienced significance, attaching to an experience. A play, as we deem wise, any one of the habits appropriate situation to which we respond capriciously or by routine to any one of the connected objects. Thus we get at a has only a minimum of conscious significance; we get noth- new event indirectly instead of immediately—by inven- ing mentally from it. But wherever knowledge comes into tion, ingenuity, resourcefulness. An ideally perfect knowl- play in determining a new experience there is mental re- edge would represent such a network of interconnections ward; even if we fail practically in getting the needed con- that any past experience would offer a point of advan- trol we have the satisfaction of experiencing a meaning tage from which to get at the problem presented in a new instead of merely reacting physically. experience. In fine, while a habit apart from knowledge While the content of knowledge is what has happened, supplies us with a single fixed method of attack, knowl- what is taken as finished and hence settled and sure, the edge means that selection may be made from a much reference of knowledge is future or prospective. For knowl- wider range of habits. edge furnishes the means of understanding or giving Two aspects of this more general and freer availability of meaning to what is still going on and what is to be done. former experiences for subsequent ones may be distin- The knowledge of a physician is what he has found out by guished. (See ante, p. 77.) (i) One, the more tangible, is personal acquaintance and by study of what others have increased power of control. What cannot be managed di- ascertained and recorded. But it is knowledge to him be- rectly may be handled indirectly; or we can interpose bar- cause it supplies the resources by which he interprets the riers between us and undesirable consequences; or we may unknown things which confront him, fills out the partial evade them if we cannot overcome them. Genuine knowl- obvious facts with connected suggested phenomena, fore-

348 John Dewey sees their probable future, and makes plans accordingly. cannot entertain the conception of a world in which knowl- When knowledge is cut off from use in giving meaning to edge of its past would not be helpful in forecasting and what is blind and baffling, it drops out of consciousness giving meaning to its future. We ignore the prospective entirely or else becomes an object of aesthetic contem- reference just because it is so irretrievably implied. plation. There is much emotional satisfaction to be had Yet many of the philosophic schools of method which from a survey of the symmetry and order of possessed have been mentioned transform the ignoring into a vir- knowledge, and the satisfaction is a legitimate one. But tual denial. They regard knowledge as something com- this contemplative attitude is aesthetic, not intellectual. plete in itself irrespective of its availability in dealing It is the same sort of joy that comes from viewing a with what is yet to be. And it is this omission which finished picture or a well composed landscape. It would vitiates them and which makes them stand as sponsors make no difference if the subject matter were totally dif- for educational methods which an adequate conception ferent, provided it had the same harmonious organiza- of knowledge condemns. For one has only to call to mind tion. Indeed, it would make no difference if it were wholly what is sometimes treated in schools as acquisition of invented, a play of fancy. Applicability to the world means knowledge to realize how lacking it is in any fruitful con- not applicability to what is past and gone—that is out of nection with the ongoing experience of the students— the question by the nature of the case; it means applica- how largely it seems to be believed that the mere appro- bility to what is still going on, what is still unsettled, in priation of subject matter which happens to be stored in the moving scene in which we are implicated. The very books constitutes knowledge. No matter how true what is fact that we so easily overlook this trait, and regard state- learned to those who found it out and in whose experiments of what is past and out of reach as knowledge is ence it functioned, there is nothing which makes it knowl- because we assume the continuity of past and future. We edge to the pupils. It might as well be something about

349 Democracy & Education Mars or about some fanciful country unless it fructifies in correspond to an exclusive emphasis upon the particular the individual’s own life. and the general respectively—or upon bare facts on one At the time when scholastic method developed, it had side and bare relations on the other. In real knowledge, relevancy to social conditions. It was a method for sys- there is a particularizing and a generalizing function tematizing and lending rational sanction to material ac- working together. So far as a situation is confused, it has cepted on authority. This subject matter meant so much to be cleared up; it has to be resolved into details, as that it vitalized the defining and systematizing brought sharply defined as possible. Specified facts and qualities to bear upon it. Under present conditions the scholastic constitute the elements of the problem to be dealt with, method, for most persons, means a form of knowing which and it is through our sense organs that they are speci- has no especial connection with any particular subject fied. As setting forth the problem, they may well be termed matter. It includes making distinctions, definitions, divi- particulars, for they are fragmentary. Since our task is to sions, and classifications for the mere sake of making discover their connections and to recombine them, for us them—with no objective in experience. The view of at the time they are partial. They are to be given mean- thought as a purely physical activity having its own forms, ing; hence, just as they stand, they lack it. Anything which are applied to any material as a seal may be stamped which is to be known, whose meaning has still to be on any plastic stuff, the view which underlies what is made out, offers itself as particular. But what is already termed formal logic is essentially the scholastic method known, if it has been worked over with a view to making generalized. The doctrine of formal discipline in educa- it applicable to intellectually mastering new particulars, tion is the natural counterpart of the scholastic method. is general in function. Its function of introducing con- The contrasting theories of the method of knowledge nection into what is otherwise unconnected constitutes which go by the name of sensationalism and rationalism its generality. Any fact is general if we use it to give

350 John Dewey meaning to the elements of a new experience. “Reason” feature is to maintain the continuity of knowing with an is just the ability to bring the subject matter of prior activity which purposely modifies the environment. It experience to bear to perceive the significance of the holds that knowledge in its strict sense of something subject matter of a new experience. A person is reason- possessed consists of our intellectual resources—of all able in the degree in which he is habitually open to see- the habits that render our action intelligent. Only that ing an event which immediately strikes his senses not as which has been organized into our disposition so as to an isolated thing but in its connection with the common enable us to adapt the environment to our needs and to experience of mankind. adapt our aims and desires to the situation in which we Without the particulars as they are discriminated by live is really knowledge. Knowledge is not just something the active responses of sense organs, there is no material which we are now conscious of, but consists of the dispo- for knowing and no intellectual growth. Without placing sitions we consciously use in understanding what now these particulars in the context of the meanings wrought happens. Knowledge as an act is bringing some of our out in the larger experience of the past—without the use dispositions to consciousness with a view to straighten- of reason or thought—particulars are mere excitations or ing out a perplexity, by conceiving the connection be- irritations. The mistake alike of the sensational and the tween ourselves and the world in which we live. rationalistic schools is that each fails to see that the function of sensory stimulation and thought is relative Summary. Such social divisions as interfere with free and to reorganizing experience in applying the old to the new, full intercourse react to make the intelligence and know- thereby maintaining the continuity or consistency of life. ing of members of the separated classes one-sided. Those The theory of the method of knowing which is advanced whose experience has to do with utilities cut off from the in these pages may be termed pragmatic. Its essential larger end they subserve are practical empiricists; those

351 Democracy & Education who enjoy the contemplation of a realm of meanings in the method by which one experience is made available in whose active production they have had no share are prac- giving direction and meaning to another. The recent ad- tical rationalists. Those who come in direct contact with vances in physiology, biology, and the logic of the ex- things and have to adapt their activities to them imme- perimental sciences supply the specific intellectual in- diately are, in effect, realists; those who isolate the mean- strumentalities demanded to work out and formulate such ings of these things and put them in a religious or so- a theory. Their educational equivalent is the connection called spiritual world aloof from things are, in effect, of the acquisition of knowledge in the schools with ac- idealists. Those concerned with progress, who are striv- tivities, or occupations, carried on in a medium of asso- ing to change received beliefs, emphasize the individual ciated life. factor in knowing; those whose chief business it is to withstand change and conserve received truth emphasize the universal and the fixed—and so on. Philosophic systems in their opposed theories of knowledge present an explicit formulation of the traits characteristic of these cut-off and one-sided segments of experience—one-sided because barriers to intercourse prevent the experience of one from being enriched and supplemented by that of others who are differently situated. In an analogous way, since democracy stands in principle for free interchange, for social continuity, it must develop a theory of knowledge which sees in knowledge

352 John Dewey Chapter Twenty-six: Theories of Morals world, soul and body, end and means, which we have so frequently noted. In morals it takes the form of a sharp 1. The Inner and the Outer. Since morality is concerned demarcation of the motive of action from its consequences, with conduct, any dualisms which are set up between and of character from conduct. Motive and character are mind and activity must reflect themselves in the theory regarded as something purely “inner,” existing exclusively of morals. Since the formulations of the separation in the in consciousness, while consequences and conduct are philosophic theory of morals are used to justify and ide- regarded as outside of mind, conduct having to do simply alize the practices employed in moral training, a brief with the movements which carry out motives; conse- critical discussion is in place. It is a commonplace of quences with what happens as a result. Different schools educational theory that the establishing of character is a identify morality with either the inner state of mind or comprehensive aim of school instruction and discipline. the outer act and results, each in separation from the Hence it is important that we should be on our guard other. Action with a purpose is deliberate; it involves a against a conception of the relations of intelligence to consciously foreseen end and a mental weighing of con- character which hampers the realization of the aim, and siderations pro and eon. It also involves a conscious state on the look-out for the conditions which have to be proof longing or desire for the end. The deliberate choice of vided in order that the aim may be successfully acted an aim and of a settled disposition of desire takes time. upon. The first obstruction which meets us is the cur- During this time complete overt action is suspended. A rency of moral ideas which split the course of activity person who does not have his mind made up, does not into two opposed factors, often named respectively the know what to do. Consequently he postpones definite inner and outer, or the spiritual and the physical. This action so far as possible. His position may be compared division is a culmination of the dualism of mind and the to that of a man considering jumping across a ditch. If

353 Democracy & Education he were sure he could or could not make it, definite ac- into a unified attitude, the organism as a whole acts— tivity in some direction would occur. But if he considers, some definite act is undertaken. We may distinguish, of he is in doubt; he hesitates. During the time in which a course, the more explicitly conscious phase of the con- single overt line of action is in suspense, his activities tinuous activity as mental or psychical. But that only are confined to such redistributions of energy within the identifies the mental or psychical to mean the indetermi- organism as will prepare a determinate course of action. nate, formative state of an activity which in its fullness He measures the ditch with his eyes; he brings himself involves putting forth of overt energy to modify the en- taut to get a feel of the energy at his disposal; he looks vironment. about for other ways across, he reflects upon the impor- Our conscious thoughts, observations, wishes, aversions tance of getting across. All this means an accentuation are important, because they represent inchoate, nascent of consciousness; it means a turning in upon the activities. They fulfill their destiny in issuing, later on, individual’s own attitudes, powers, wishes, etc. into specific and perceptible acts. And these inchoate, Obviously, however, this surging up of personal factors budding organic readjustments are important because they into conscious recognition is a part of the whole activity are our sole escape from the dominion of routine habits in its temporal development. There is not first a purely and blind impulse. They are activities having a new mean- psychical process, followed abruptly by a radically differing in process of development. Hence, normally, there is ent physical one. There is one continuous behavior, pro- an accentuation of personal consciousness whenever our ceeding from a more uncertain, divided, hesitating state instincts and ready formed habits find themselves blocked to a more overt, determinate, or complete state. The ac- by novel conditions. Then we are thrown back upon our- tivity at first consists mainly of certain tensions and ad- selves to reorganize our own attitude before proceeding justments within the organism; as these are coordinated to a definite and irretrievable course of action. Unless

354 John Dewey we try to drive our way through by sheer brute force, we substitute for an actual achievement which involves the must modify our organic resources to adapt them to the pains of thought. So in overt action we acquiesce, and specific features of the situation in which we find our- build up an imaginary world in, mind. This break between selves. The conscious deliberating and desiring which thought and conduct is reflected in those theories which precede overt action are, then, the methodic personal make a sharp separation between mind as inner and con- readjustment implied in activity in uncertain situations. duct and consequences as merely outer. This role of mind in continuous activity is not always For the split may be more than an incident of a particu- maintained, however. Desires for something different, lar individual’s experience. The social situation may be aversion to the given state of things caused by the block- such as to throw the class given to articulate reflection ing of successful activity, stimulates the imagination. The back into their own thoughts and desires without provid- picture of a different state of things does not always ing the means by which these ideas and aspirations can function to aid ingenious observation and recollection to be used to reorganize the environment. Under such con- find a way out and on. Except where there is a disci- ditions, men take revenge, as it were, upon the alien and plined disposition, the tendency is for the imagination hostile environment by cultivating contempt for it, by to run loose. Instead of its objects being checked up by giving it a bad name. They seek refuge and consolation conditions with reference to their practicability in execu- within their own states of mind, their own imaginings tion, they are allowed to develop because of the immedi- and wishes, which they compliment by calling both more ate emotional satisfaction which they yield. When we real and more ideal than the despised outer world. Such find the successful display of our energies checked by periods have recurred in history. In the early centuries of uncongenial surroundings, natural and social, the easiest the Christian era, the influential moral systems of Sto- way out is to build castles in the air and let them be a icism, of monastic and popular Christianity and other re-

355 Democracy & Education ligious movements of the day, took shape under the in- inside of his own consciousness, but what he does—the fluence of such conditions. The more action which might consequences which issue, the charges he actually ef- express prevailing ideals was checked, the more the inner fects. Inner morality was attacked as sentimental, arbi- possession and cultivation of ideals was regarded as self- trary, dogmatic, subjective—as giving men leave to dig- sufficient—as the essence of morality. The external world nify and shield any dogma congenial to their self-inter- in which activity belongs was thought of as morally in- est or any caprice occurring to imagination by calling it different. Everything lay in having the right motive, even an intuition or an ideal of conscience. Results, conduct, though that motive was not a moving force in the world. are what counts; they afford the sole measure of moral- Much the same sort of situation recurred in Germany in ity. Ordinary morality, and hence that of the schoolroom, the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; it is likely to be an inconsistent compromise of both views. led to the Kantian insistence upon the good will as the On one hand, certain states of feeling are made much of; sole moral good, the will being regarded as something the individual must “mean well,” and if his intentions are complete in itself, apart from action and from the changes good, if he had the right sort of emotional conscious- or consequences effected in the world. Later it led to any ness, he may be relieved of responsibility for full results idealization of existing institutions as themselves the em- in conduct. But since, on the other hand, certain things bodiment of reason. have to be done to meet the convenience and the re- The purely internal morality of “meaning well,” of hav- quirements of others, and of social order in general, there ing a good disposition regardless of what comes of it, is great insistence upon the doing of certain things, irre- naturally led to a reaction. This is generally known as spective of whether the individual has any concern or either hedonism or utilitarianism. It was said in effect intelligence in their doing. He must toe the mark; he that the important thing morally is not what a man is must have his nose held to the grindstone; he must obey;

356 John Dewey he must form useful habits; he must learn self-control,— an activity having specific consequences, not as forming all of these precepts being understood in a way which an isolated realm of inner consciousness. emphasizes simply the immediate thing tangibly done, irrespective of the spirit of thought and desire in which 2. The Opposition of Duty and Interest. Probably there it is done, and irrespective therefore of its effect upon is no antithesis more often set up in moral discussion other less obvious doings. than that between acting from “principle” and from “in- It is hoped that the prior discussion has sufficiently terest.” To act on principle is to act disinterestedly, ac- elaborated the method by which both of these evils are cording to a general law, which is above all personal con- avoided. One or both of these evils must result wherever siderations. To act according to interest is, so the allega- individuals, whether young or old, cannot engage in a tion runs, to act selfishly, with one’s own personal profit progressively cumulative undertaking under conditions in view. It substitutes the changing expediency of the which engage their interest and require their reflection. moment for devotion to unswerving moral law. The false For only in such cases is it possible that the disposition idea of interest underlying this opposition has already of desire and thinking should be an organic factor in been criticized (See Chapter X), but some moral aspects overt and obvious conduct. Given a consecutive activity of the question will now be considered. A clew to the embodying the student’s own interest, where a definite matter may be found in the fact that the supporters of result is to be obtained, and where neither routine habit the “interest” side of the controversy habitually use the nor the following of dictated directions nor capricious term “self-interest.” Starting from the premises that un- improvising will suffice, and there the rise of conscious less there is interest in an object or idea, there is no purpose, conscious desire, and deliberate reflection are motive force, they end with the conclusion that even inevitable. They are inevitable as the spirit and quality of when a person claims to be acting from principle or from

357 Democracy & Education a sense of duty, he really acts as he does because there sick in a plague at almost certain danger to his own life “is something in it” for himself. The premise is sound; must be interested in the efficient performance of his the conclusion false. In reply the other school argues profession—more interested in that than in the safety of that since man is capable of generous self-forgetting and his own bodily life. But it is distorting facts to say that even self-sacrificing action, he is capable of acting with- this interest is merely a mask for an interest in some- out interest. Again the premise is sound, and the conclu- thing else which he gets by continuing his customary sion false. The error on both sides lies in a false notion of services—such as money or good repute or virtue; that it the relation of interest and the self. is only a means to an ulterior selfish end. The moment we Both sides assume that the self is a fixed and hence recognize that the self is not something ready-made, but isolated quantity. As a consequence, there is a rigid di- something in continuous formation through choice of lemma between acting for an interest of the self and action, the whole situation clears up. A man’s interest in without interest. If the self is something fixed anteced- keeping at his work in spite of danger to life means that ent to action, then acting from interest means trying to his self is found in that work; if he finally gave up, and get more in the way of possessions for the self—whether preferred his personal safety or comfort, it would mean in the way of fame, approval of others, power over oth- that he preferred to be that kind of a self. The mistake ers, pecuniary profit, or pleasure. Then the reaction from lies in making a separation between interest and self, this view as a cynical depreciation of human nature leads and supposing that the latter is the end to which interest to the view that men who act nobly act with no interest in objects and acts and others is a mere means. In fact, at all. Yet to an unbiased judgment it would appear plain self and interest are two names for the same fact; the that a man must be interested in what he is doing or he kind and amount of interest actively taken in a thing would not do it. A physician who continues to serve the reveals and measures the quality of selfhood which ex-

358 John Dewey ists. Bear in mind that interest means the active or mov- ditions. But, if he has a normally growing or active self, ing identity of the self with a certain object, and the when he finds that his vocation involves such risks, he whole alleged dilemma falls to the ground. willingly adopts them as integral portions of his activity. Unselfishness, for example, signifies neither lack of in- The wider or larger self which means inclusion instead of terest in what is done (that would mean only machine- denial of relationships is identical with a self which en- like indifference) nor selflessness—which would mean larges in order to assume previously unforeseen ties. absence of virility and character. As employed everywhere In such crises of readjustment—and the crisis may be outside of this particular theoretical controversy, the term slight as well as great—there may be a transitional con- “unselfishness” refers to the kind of aims and objects flict of “principle” with “interest.” It is the nature of a which habitually interest a man. And if we make a mental habit to involve ease in the accustomed line of activity. survey of the kind of interests which evoke the use of It is the nature of a readjusting of habit to involve an this epithet, we shall see that they have two intimately effort which is disagreeable—something to which a man associated features. (i) The generous self consciously iden- has deliberately to hold himself. In other words, there is tifies itself with the full range of relationships implied in a tendency to identify the self—or take interest—in what its activity, instead of drawing a sharp line between it- one has got used to, and to turn away the mind with self and considerations which are excluded as alien or aversion or irritation when an unexpected thing which indifferent; (ii) it readjusts and expands its past ideas of involves an unpleasant modification of habit comes up. itself to take in new consequences as they become per- Since in the past one has done one’s duty without having ceptible. When the physician began his career he may to face such a disagreeable circumstance, why not go on not have thought of a pestilence; he may not have con- as one has been? To yield to this temptation means to sciously identified himself with service under such con- narrow and isolate the thought of the self—to treat it as

359 Democracy & Education complete. Any habit, no matter how efficient in the past, ment—which keeps a pupil at his work in spite of tempo- which has become set, may at any time bring this temp- rary diversions and unpleasant obstacles. Where there is tation with it. To act from principle in such an emergency no activity having a growing significance, appeal to prin- is not to act on some abstract principle, or duty at large; ciple is either purely verbal, or a form of obstinate pride it is to act upon the principle of a course of action, in- or an appeal to extraneous considerations clothed with a stead of upon the circumstances which have attended it. dignified title. Undoubtedly there are junctures where mo- The principle of a physician’s conduct is its animating mentary interest ceases and attention flags, and where aim and spirit—the care for the diseased. The principle reinforcement is needed. But what carries a person over is not what justifies an activity, for the principle is but these hard stretches is not loyalty to duty in the ab- another name for the continuity of the activity. If the stract, but interest in his occupation. Duties are “of- activity as manifested in its consequences is undesir- fices”—they are the specific acts needed for the fulfill- able, to act upon principle is to accentuate its evil. And ing of a function—or, in homely language—doing one’s a man who prides himself upon acting upon principle is job. And the man who is genuinely interested in his job likely to be a man who insists upon having his own way is the man who is able to stand temporary discourage- without learning from experience what is the better way. ment, to persist in the face of obstacles, to take the lean He fancies that some abstract principle justifies his course with the fat: he makes an interest out of meeting and of action without recognizing that his principle needs overcoming difficulties and distraction. justification. Assuming, however, that school conditions are such as 3. Intelligence and Character. A noteworthy paradox of- to provide desirable occupations, it is interest in the oc- ten accompanies discussions of morals. On the one hand, cupation as a whole—that is, in its continuous develop- there is an identification of the moral with the rational.

360 John Dewey Reason is set up as a faculty from which proceed ulti- which pupils happen to be already animated by a sympa- mate moral intuitions, and sometimes, as in the Kantian thetic and dignified regard for the sentiments of others. theory, it is said to supply the only proper moral motive. Without such a regard, it has no more influence on char- On the other hand, the value of concrete, everyday intel- acter than information about the mountains of Asia; with ligence is constantly underestimated, and even deliber- a servile regard, it increases dependence upon others, ately depreciated. Morals is often thought to be an affair and throws upon those in authority the responsibility for with which ordinary knowledge has nothing to do. Moral conduct. As a matter of fact, direct instruction in morals knowledge is thought to be a thing apart, and conscience has been effective only in social groups where it was a is thought of as something radically different from con- part of the authoritative control of the many by the few. sciousness. This separation, if valid, is of especial sig- Not the teaching as such but the reinforcement of it by nificance for education. Moral education in school is prac- the whole regime of which it was an incident made it tically hopeless when we set up the development of char- effective. To attempt to get similar results from lessons acter as a supreme end, and at the same time treat the about morals in a democratic society is to rely upon sen- acquiring of knowledge and the development of under- timental magic. standing, which of necessity occupy the chief part of At the other end of the scale stands the Socratic-Pla- school time, as having nothing to do with character. On tonic teaching which identifies knowledge and virtue— such a basis, moral education is inevitably reduced to which holds that no man does evil knowingly but only some kind of catechetical instruction, or lessons about because of ignorance of the good. This doctrine is com- morals. Lessons “about morals” signify as matter of course monly attacked on the ground that nothing is more com- lessons in what other people think about virtues and mon than for a man to know the good and yet do the duties. It amounts to something only in the degree in bad: not knowledge, but habituation or practice, and

361 Democracy & Education motive are what is required. Aristotle, in fact, at once character, goes without saying. But if knowledge means attacked the Platonic teaching on the ground that moral something of the same sort as our conviction gained by virtue is like an art, such as medicine; the experienced trying and testing that sugar is sweet and quinine bitter, practitioner is better than a man who has theoretical the case stands otherwise. Every time a man sits on a knowledge but no practical experience of disease and rem- chair rather than on a stove, carries an umbrella when it edies. The issue turns, however, upon what is meant by rains, consults a doctor when ill—or in short performs knowledge. Aristotle’s objection ignored the gist of Plato’s any of the thousand acts which make up his daily life, he teaching to the effect that man could not attain a theo- proves that knowledge of a certain kind finds direct issue retical insight into the good except as he had passed in conduct. There is every reason to suppose that the through years of practical habituation and strenuous dis- same sort of knowledge of good has a like expression; in cipline. Knowledge of the good was not a thing to be got fact “good” is an empty term unless it includes the satis- either from books or from others, but was achieved through factions experienced in such situations as those men- a prolonged education. It was the final and culminating tioned. Knowledge that other persons are supposed to grace of a mature experience of life. Irrespective of Plato’s know something might lead one to act so as to win the position, it is easy to perceive that the term knowledge approbation others attach to certain actions, or at least is used to denote things as far apart as intimate and vital so as to give others the impression that one agrees with personal realization,—a conviction gained and tested in them; there is no reason why it should lead to personal experience,—and a second- handed, largely symbolic, initiative and loyalty in behalf of the beliefs attributed recognition that persons in general believe so and so—a to them. devitalized remote information. That the latter does not It is not necessary, accordingly, to dispute about the guarantee conduct, that it does not profoundly affect proper meaning of the term knowledge. It is enough for

362 John Dewey educational purposes to note the different qualities cov- in verbal form with that of a chemist; in fact, it is differ- ered by the one name, to realize that it is knowledge ent, for it is knit into connection with different aims and gained at first hand through the exigencies of experience habits, and thus has a different import. which affects conduct in significant ways. If a pupil learns Our prior discussion of subject-matter as proceeding things from books simply in connection with school les- from direct activity having an immediate aim, to the en- sons and for the sake of reciting what he has learned largement of meaning found in geography and history, when called upon, then knowledge will have effect upon and then to scientifically organized knowledge, was based some conduct—namely upon that of reproducing state- upon the idea of maintaining a vital connection between ments at the demand of others. There is nothing surpris- knowledge and activity. What is learned and employed in ing that such “knowledge” should not have much influ- an occupation having an aim and involving cooperation ence in the life out of school. But this is not a reason for with others is moral knowledge, whether consciously so making a divorce between knowledge and conduct, but regarded or not. For it builds up a social interest and for holding in low esteem this kind of knowledge. The confers the intelligence needed to make that interest ef- same thing may be said of knowledge which relates merely fective in practice. Just because the studies of the cur- to an isolated and technical specialty; it modifies action riculum represent standard factors in social life, they are but only in its own narrow line. In truth, the problem of organs of initiation into social values. As mere school moral education in the schools is one with the problem studies, their acquisition has only a technical worth. Ac- of securing knowledge—the knowledge connected with quired under conditions where their social significance is the system of impulses and habits. For the use to which realized, they feed moral interest and develop moral in- any known fact is put depends upon its connections. The sight. Moreover, the qualities of mind discussed under knowledge of dynamite of a safecracker may be identical the topic of method of learning are all of them intrinsi-

363 Democracy & Education cally moral qualities. Open-mindedness, single- definitely stated acts. As a matter of fact, morals are as mindedness, sincerity, breadth of outlook, thoroughness, broad as acts which concern our relationships with oth- assumption of responsibility for developing the conse- ers. And potentially this includes all our acts, even though quences of ideas which are accepted, are moral traits. their social bearing may not be thought of at the time of The habit of identifying moral characteristics with exter- performance. For every act, by the principle of habit, nal conformity to authoritative prescriptions may lead us modifies disposition—it sets up a certain kind of incli- to ignore the ethical value of these intellectual attitudes, nation and desire. And it is impossible to tell when the but the same habit tends to reduce morals to a dead and habit thus strengthened may have a direct and percep- machinelike routine. Consequently while such an attitude tible influence on our association with others. Certain has moral results, the results are morally undesirable— traits of character have such an obvious connection with above all in a democratic society where so much depends our social relationships that we call them “moral” in an upon personal disposition. emphatic sense—truthfulness, honesty, chastity, amiability, etc. But this only means that they are, as compared 4. The Social and the Moral. All of the separations which with some other attitudes, central:—that they carry other we have been criticizing—and which the idea of educa- attitudes with them. They are moral in an emphatic sense tion set forth in the previous chapters is designed to not because they are isolated and exclusive, but because avoid—spring from taking morals too narrowly,—giving they are so intimately connected with thousands of other them, on one side, a sentimental goody-goody turn with- attitudes which we do not explicitly recognize—which out reference to effective ability to do what is socially perhaps we have not even names for. To call them virtues needed, and, on the other side, overemphasizing con- in their isolation is like taking the skeleton for the living vention and tradition so as to limit morals to a list of body. The bones are certainly important, but their impor-

364 John Dewey tance lies in the fact that they support other organs of this spirit can be actively present only when certain con- the body in such a way as to make them capable of inte- ditions are met. grated effective activity. And the same is true of the quali- (i) In the first place, the school must itself be a commu- ties of character which we specifically designate virtues. nity life in all which that implies. Social perceptions and Morals concern nothing less than the whole character, interests can be developed only in a genuinely social me- and the whole character is identical with the man in all dium—one where there is give and take in the building up his concrete make-up and manifestations. To possess vir- of a common experience. Informational statements about tue does not signify to have cultivated a few namable things can be acquired in relative isolation by any one and exclusive traits; it means to be fully and adequately who previously has had enough intercourse with others to what one is capable of becoming through association with have learned language. But realization of the meaning of others in all the offices of life. the linguistic signs is quite another matter. That involves The moral and the social quality of conduct are, in the a context of work and play in association with others. The last analysis, identical with each other. It is then but to plea which has been made for education through contin- restate explicitly the import of our earlier chapters re- ued constructive activities in this book rests upon the fact garding the social function of education to say that the they afford an opportunity for a social atmosphere. In place measure of the worth of the administration, curriculum, of a school set apart from life as a place for learning les- and methods of instruction of the school is the extent to sons, we have a miniature social group in which study and which they are animated by a social spirit. And the great growth are incidents of present shared experience. Play- danger which threatens school work is the absence of grounds, shops, workrooms, laboratories not only direct conditions which make possible a permeating social spirit; the natural active tendencies of youth, but they involve this is the great enemy of effective moral training. For intercourse, communication, and cooperation,—all extend-

365 Democracy & Education ing the perception of connections. sence of a social environment in connection with which (ii) The learning in school should be continuous with learning is a need and a reward is the chief reason for the that out of school. There should be a free interplay be- isolation of the school; and this isolation renders school tween the two. This is possible only when there are nu- knowledge inapplicable to life and so infertile in charac- merous points of contact between the social interests of ter. the one and of the other. A school is conceivable in which there should be a spirit of companionship and shared A narrow and moralistic view of morals is responsible for activity, but where its social life would no more represent the failure to recognize that all the aims and values which or typify that of the world beyond the school walls than are desirable in education are themselves moral. Disci- that of a monastery. Social concern and understanding pline, natural development, culture, social efficiency, are would be developed, but they would not be available moral traits —marks of a person who is a worthy member outside; they would not carry over. The proverbial sepa- of that society which it is the business of education to ration of town and gown, the cultivation of academic further. There is an old saying to the effect that it is not seclusion, operate in this direction. So does such adher- enough for a man to be good; he must be good for some- ence to the culture of the past as generates a reminis- thing. The something for which a man must be good is cent social spirit, for this makes an individual feel more capacity to live as a social member so that what he gets at home in the life of other days than in his own. A from living with others balances with what he contrib- professedly cultural education is peculiarly exposed to utes. What he gets and gives as a human being, a being this danger. An idealized past becomes the refuge and with desires, emotions, and ideas, is not external posses- solace of the spirit; present-day concerns are found sor- sions, but a widening and deepening of conscious life— did, and unworthy of attention. But as a rule, the ab- a more intense, disciplined, and expanding realization of

366 John Dewey meanings. What he materially receives and gives is at of discipline have to be resorted to: knowledge is not most opportunities and means for the evolution of con- integrated into the usual springs of action and the out- scious life. Otherwise, it is neither giving nor taking, but look on life, while morals become moralistic—a scheme a shifting about of the position of things in space, like of separate virtues. the stirring of water and sand with a stick. Discipline, The two theories chiefly associated with the separation culture, social efficiency, personal refinement, improve- of learning from activity, and hence from morals, are those ment of character are but phases of the growth of capac- which cut off inner disposition and motive—the con- ity nobly to share in such a balanced experience. And scious personal factor—and deeds as purely physical and education is not a mere means to such a life. Education is outer; and which set action from interest in opposition such a life. To maintain capacity for such education is to that from principle. Both of these separations are over- the essence of morals. For conscious life is a continual come in an educational scheme where learning is the ac- beginning afresh. companiment of continuous activities or occupations which have a social aim and utilize the materials of typi- Summary. The most important problem of moral educa- cal social situations. For under such conditions, the school tion in the school concerns the relationship of knowl- becomes itself a form of social life, a miniature commu- edge and conduct. For unless the learning which accrues nity and one in close interaction with other modes of in the regular course of study affects character, it is fu- associated experience beyond school walls. All education tile to conceive the moral end as the unifying and culmi- which develops power to share effectively in social life is nating end of education. When there is no intimate or- moral. It forms a character which not only does the par- ganic connection between the methods and materials of ticular deed socially necessary but one which is inter- knowledge and moral growth, particular lessons and modes ested in that continuous readjustment which is essential

367 Democracy & Education to growth. Interest in learning from all the contacts of life is the essential moral interest.

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