John Dewey

1859-1952

Pragmatism

Dewey, in My Pedagogic Creed wrote

“I believe that:

• All education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race.
• The only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.

• This educational process has two sides - one psychological and one sociological; and that neither can be subordinated to the other or neglected without evil results following. Of these two sides, the psychological is the basis. The child's own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education.

• The psychological and social sides are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other.

• The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences.

• The teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life.”

Adapted from School Journal vol. 54 (January 1897), pp. 77-80
http://www.applestar.org/capella/Educational%20Philosophers.pdf