Democracy and Education

Dewey's main work on the philosophy of education, subtitled An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. It begins from the claim that every society must renew itself by passing on its habits and ideals to the young, so education is a necessity of life and a social function, not a private luxury. Dewey defines education as growth and as the continuous reconstruction of experience, rejecting both the view of schooling as preparation for a distant future and the view of it as drill imposed from outside. He argues that democracy is more than a form of government: it is a way of associated living in which people share interests and communicate freely, and schools should practise it. Later chapters treat thinking as inquiry that starts from a real problem, the place of interest and discipline, and the subject matter of the curriculum. Its last chapters attack old dualisms, such as labour and leisure, intellectual and practical studies, and the individual and the world.

It is the classic statement of learning by experience and of the school as a small democracy, and its arguments still sit behind debates about progressive education, curriculum and citizenship.