A Democratic Education

In the opening chapters of Democracy and Education, John Dewey depicted education as a process through which societies bequeathed their practices, beliefs, and tools to their young. This allowed them to preserve their practices across time and space, and also assured that successive generations were not required to continually reinvent the past. Consequently, it was possible for progress to occur. It is significant to note that Dewey viewed education as a naturally occurring phenomenon. In his opinion, learning resembled an apprenticeship process of sorts. Children learned by observing adults, and by working alongside them in daily undertakings, whether at home or in the community. As the body of knowledge needed to sustain a society grew in size and scope, it became necessary to adopt new methods to pass on culturally relevant information to the young. For Dewey, formal schooling represented one such approach, albeit a less effective one.

A recurring theme in the book suggested that formal schooling represented an artificial means of learning. In Dewey’s opinion, schools viewed education as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end. As a result, they mistook learning for the acquisition of knowledge, rather than the mastery of practices. Consequently, they sought to impart information to students using transmission processes. Seldom were students given the opportunity to interact with information in a manner that allowed them to appreciate its cognitive and emotional dimensions. As a result, Dewey felt they remained unprepared to carry the habits they formed in school with them to other contexts and problems.

In order to address formal schooling’s shortcomings, Dewey examined education as it occurred in more natural settings. He argued, for example, that efforts to achieve social control via the application of external forces and constraints were likely to prove ineffective. Instead, he felt control was best achieved when students entered into learning communities. Membership in such communities entailed a commitment to work toward mutually agreed upon ends, and a willingness to regulate one’s activities. It also necessitated a willingness to recognize other’s right to exercise their strengths and talents. For Dewey, relationships of this sort fostered a more robust form of moral development than was possible under more traditional models that sought to impose external restraints.

By aligning education with personal growth, Dewey portrayed learning as a life-long process, rather than a clearly defined end. In doing so, he dispelled the myth that suggested children were empty vessels into which knowledge was poured. Like adults, children possessed a wealth of experiences and interests. In spite of the allegations leveled against him by critics, he did not encourage adults to indulge the whims of children. To the contrary, he felt doing so would arrest their development, and reinforce habits that were socially undesirable. Instead, he encouraged teachers to use children’s interests to introduce them to the cultural tools and practices that would allow them to participate as functioning members of society.

For Dewey, education, learning, and personal growth were the results of individuals’ relationships with society. This view of education was significant in that it eschewed the idea that learning was an individual accomplishment. Whereas schools sought to mold students to socially prescribed norms, Dewey encouraged them to equip pupils with the tools they needed to reinvent society. He stressed the importance of fostering interpersonal relationships, and highlighted the destructive nature that accompanied illusory beliefs in one’s independence. As a result, it was possible to recognize his vision regarding the role schools ought to play in a democratic society. In Dewey’s opinion, schools were to foster learning communities that allowed students to apply their talents to mutually agreed upon ends. By dedicating themselves to a common good, students constructed moral codes that fostered self-control, the result of which diminished the need for external restraints, and prepared them to participate as members of a democratic society.