Dewey, John

John Dewey (1859–1952) is considered among the greatest philosophers America ever produced and is arguably the most important philosopher on the subject of education in the history of the nation. Born in 1859 in Burlington, Vermont, he attended the University of Vermont and later earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1884. An early disciple of Hegel, he taught philosophy at the Universities of Minnesota and Michigan before accepting a position at the University of Chicago as chair of the department of philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy. While at Chicago, he established the famous Lab School by which he tested his theories about pedagogy. After some controversy, Dewey moved to Teachers College, Columbia University, where he spent the next four decades.

Dewey was a prodigious writer and thinker, though he was not always clear about his meaning. He was highly influenced by the thinking of Charles Peirce and William James. Dewey's philosophy of education was centered on his notion of science. Science to Dewey was a never-ending process of experimenting and formulating conclusions, something he called “warranted assertions.” Dewey did not believe in final, irrevocable truth but saw human inquiry in progressive terms, moving closer to truth in deliberate steps over time. He applied this method to all facets of human endeavor: schooling, politics, art, and morals.

Dewey specified his views on education methodology in a pamphlet released in 1897 titled My Pedagogic Creed. His views changed the way teachers would teach; that is, the teacher was not there to impose a standardized curriculum but to select those influences highly regarded by the school community. The curriculum was to be conceptualized not as inert subject matter but as a place where the student engaged in a continuing reconstruction of his or her own experiences. The definition of discipline as stemming from the school as a community replaced the notion that the teacher administered it individually. Tests were not to be used as a measure of subject content but as a way to determine the child's fitness for social life. In all, education was conceived as a deliberate, conscious, social process. The child was seen as an active participant, if not a director of his or her own learning. Dewey's philosophy was an attempt to reconcile social conflicts with democracy, industrial expansion, and the tenets of life informed by science. The best explanation for this approach is his book Democracy and Education released in 1916, though many others, including Bertrand Russell, consider his 1899 work The School and Society his most outstanding text. Russell, though an admirer of Dewey's, took issue with his notion of truth as “warranted assertability,” indicating that since the assertions depended upon the future, the extent to which it was within human power to alter the future represented the extent to which any such assertions would have to be compromised.

John Dewey touched nearly every facet of American public education. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, the American Philosophical Society, and he helped found the American Association of University Professors. He also assisted in the creation of the American Federation of Teachers in New York City. His writings [Page 285]and thoughts are still studied in depth in schools of education throughout the nation and much of the world.

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