Democracy and Education | Page 3

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I have tried to make this the most accurate text possible but I am sure that there are still mistakes. Please feel free to email me any errors or mistakes that you find. Citing the
Chapter and
paragraph. [email protected] and [email protected] are my email addresses for now. David Reed
I would like to dedicate this etext to my mother who was a elementary school teacher for more years than I can remember. Thanks.

Democracy and Education by John Dewey

Chapter One
: Education as a Necessity of Life
Chapter Two
: Education as a Social Function
Chapter Three
: Education as Direction
Chapter Four
: Education as Growth
Chapter Five
: Preparation, Unfolding, and Formal Discipline
Chapter Six
: Education as Conservative and Progressive
Chapter Seven
: The Democratic Conception in Education
Chapter Eight
: Aims in Education
Chapter Nine
: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims
Chapter Ten
: Interest and Discipline
Chapter Eleven
: Experience and Thinking
Chapter Twelve
: Thinking in Education
Chapter Thirteen
: The Nature of Method
Chapter Fourteen
: The Nature of Subject Matter
Chapter Fifteen
: Play and Work in the Curriculum
Chapter Sixteen
: The Significance of Geography and History
Chapter Seventeen
: Science in the Course of Study
Chapter Eighteen
: Educational Values
Chapter Nineteen
: Labor and Leisure
Chapter Twenty
: Intellectual and Practical Studies
Chapter Twenty
-one: Physical and Social Studies: Naturalism and Humanism
Chapter Twenty
-two: The Individual and the World
Chapter Twenty
-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education
Chapter Twenty
-four: Philosophy of Education
Chapter Twenty
-five: Theories of Knowledge
Chapter Twenty
-six: Theories of Morals

Chapter One
: Education as a Necessity of Life
1. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing.
As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.
In all the higher forms this process cannot be kept up indefinitely. After a while they succumb; they die. The creature is not equal to the task of indefinite self-renewal. But continuity of the life process is not dependent upon the prolongation of the existence of any one individual. Reproduction of other forms of life goes on in continuous sequence. And though, as the geological record shows, not merely individuals but also species die out, the life process continues in increasingly complex forms. As some species die out, forms better adapted to utilize the obstacles against which they struggled in vain come into being. Continuity of life means continual readaptation of the environment to the needs of living organisms.
We have been speaking of life in its lowest terms -- as a physical thing. But we use the word "Life" to denote the whole range of experience, individual and racial. When we see a book called the Life of Lincoln we do not expect to find within its covers a treatise on physiology. We look for an account of social antecedents; a description of early surroundings, of the conditions and occupation of the family; of the chief episodes in the development of character; of signal struggles and achievements; of the individual's hopes, tastes, joys and sufferings.