In fact, the human young are so immature that if they were left to themselves without the guidance and succor of others, they could not acquire the rudimentary abilities necessary for physical existence. John Dewey More Quotes by John Dewey More Quotes From John Dewey The central problem of an education based upon experience is to select the kind of present experience that live fruitfully and creatively in subsequent experiences. John Dewey educational kind problem No thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another. When it is told it is to the one to whom it is told another fact, not an idea. The communication may stimulate the other person to realize the question for himself and to think out a like idea, or it may smother his intellectual interest and suppress his dawning effort at thought. But what he directly gets cannot be an idea. Only by wrestling with the conditions of the problem at first hand, seeking and finding his own way out, does he think. John Dewey communication wrestling thinking The most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. John Dewey good-man training attitude Where there is giving there must be taking. John Dewey giving Nothing takes root in mind when there is no balance between doing and receiving. John Dewey balance roots mind Doctrine that eliminates or even obscures the function of choice of values and enlistment of desires and emotions in behalf of those chosen weakens personal responsibility for judgment and for action. It thus helps create the attitudes that welcome and support the totalitarian state. John Dewey freedom responsibility attitude Written symbols are even more artificial or conventional than spoken; they cannot be picked up in accidental intercourse with others. In addition, the written form tends to select and record matters which are comparatively foreign to everyday life. John Dewey records everyday matter Science is a systematic means of gaining reliable knowledge. John Dewey systematic mean It is not a nature cure, a system of faith healing, or a physical culture, or a medical treatment, or a semi-occult philosophy. As to what it is, Dewey's brief but striking description appeals most and has the least chance of being proved incorrect: 'It the Alexander Technique bears the same relation to education that education itself bears to all other human activities.' John Dewey technique healing philosophy Our historic imagination is at best slightly developed. We generalise and idealise the past egregiously. We set up little toys to stand as symbols for centuries and the complicated lives of countless individuals. John Dewey imagination history past Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. Without some goals and some efforts to reach it, no man can live. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. John Dewey inspirational-life goal men Men live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common. What they must have in common in order to form a community or society are aims, beliefs, aspirations, knowledge - a common understanding - likemindedness as the sociologists say. John Dewey communication men order The acquisition however perfectly of skills is not an end in itself. They are things to be put to use as a contribution to a common and shared life. John Dewey acquisition skills use Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth, there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more education. John Dewey education science reality In the present state of the world, it is evident that the control we have gained of physical energies, heat, light, electricity, etc., without having first secured control of our use of ourselves is a perilous affair. Without the control of our use of ourselves, our use of other things is blind; it may lead to anything. John Dewey light energy use Forty years spent in wandering in a wilderness like that of the present is not a sad fate - unless one attempts to make himself believe that the wilderness is after all itself the promised land. John Dewey fate believe years Thought is impossible without words. John Dewey impossible The teacher loses the position of external boss or dictator but takes on that of leader of group activities John Dewey boss leader teacher Balance is balancing. John Dewey balance That the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry. John Dewey science knowledge school
