Not only is social life identical with communication, but all communication (and hence all genuine social life) is educative. John Dewey More Quotes by John Dewey More Quotes From John Dewey It may be seriously questioned whether the philosophies... which isolate mind and set it over against the world did not have their origin in the fact that the reflective or theoretical class of men elaborated a large stock of ideas which social conditions did not allow them to act upon and test. Consequently men were thrown back into their own thoughts as ends in themselves. John Dewey classmenphilosophy Since growth is the characteristic of life, education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself. The criterion of the value of school education is the extent in which it creates a desire for continuous growth and supplies means for making the desire effective in fact. John Dewey learningmeanschool Method means that arrangement of subject matter which makes it most effective in use. Never is method something outside of the material. John Dewey educationsciencemean Various epochs of the past have had their own characteristic struggles and interests. Each of these great epochs has left behind itself a kind of cultural deposit, like a geologic stratum. These deposits have found their way into educational institutions in the form of studies, distinct courses of study, distinct types of schools. John Dewey educationalstruggleschool Every subject at some phase of its development should possess, what is for the individual concerned with it, an aesthetic quality. John Dewey phasesqualitydevelopment The problem of education in a democratic society is to do away with ... dualism and to construct a course of studies which makes thought a guide of free practice for all and which makes leisure a reward of accepting responsibility for service, rather than a state of exemption from it. John Dewey rewardsresponsibilitypractice The development of science has produced an industrial revolution which has brought different peoples in such close contact with one another through colonization and commerce that no matter how some nations may still look down upon others, no country can harbor the illusion that its career is decided wholly within itself. John Dewey careersdifferentcountry It is a familiar and significant saying that a problem well put is half-solved. John Dewey significantproblemhalf It may be said that an education which does not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter with it. John Dewey matterdoemay Plato defined a slave as one who accepts from another the purposes which control his conduct. This condition obtains even where there is no slavery in the legal sense. It is found wherever men are engaged in activity which is socially serviceable, but whose service they do not understand and have no personal interest in. John Dewey slaveryplatomen Poetry has historically been allied with religion and morals; it has served the purpose of penetrating the mysterious depths of things. John Dewey moraldepthpurpose An undesirable society, in other words, is one which internally and externally sets up barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience. John Dewey intercoursebarrierscommunication Modern life means democracy, democracy means freeing intelligence for independent effectivenessthe emancipation of mind as an individual organ to do its own work. We naturally associate democracy, to be sure, with freedom of action, but freedom of action without freed capacity of thought behind it is only chaos. John Dewey independentmindmean The religious is any activity pursued in behalf of an ideal end against obstacles and in spite of threats of personal loss because of its general and enduring value. John Dewey religiouslossreligion One might as well say he has sold when no one has bought as to say he has taught when no one has learned. John Dewey taughtmightteacher Man is merely a frequent effect, a monstrosity is a rare one, but both are equally natural, equally inevitable, equally part of the universal and general order. And what is strange about that? All creatures are involved in the life of all others, consequently every species... all nature is in a perpetual state of flux. Every animal is more or less a human being, every mineral more or less a plant, every plant more or less an animal... There is nothing clearly defined in nature. John Dewey animalmenscience A person who is trained to consider his actions, to undertake them deliberately, is in so far forth disciplined. Add to this ability a power to endure in an intelligently chosen course in the face of distraction, confusion, and difficulty, and you have the essence of discipline. John Dewey disciplineconfusionessence We talk much more about individualism and liberty than our ancestors. But as so often happens, when anything becomes conscious, the consciousness is compensatory for absence in practice. John Dewey consciousnesslibertypractice If we learn not humility, we learn nothing. John Dewey humilityifshumble The end justifies the means only when the means used are such as actually bring about the desired and desirable end. John Dewey useddesiremean
