The School and Society

The School as living as Society: Being Three Lectures 1899 was John Dewey's first published name of length on education. a highly influential publication in its own right, it would also lay a foundation for his later work. In the lectures remanded in the initial publication, Dewey proposes a psychological, social, & political model for progressive education. Notably, this includes collaborative practical experimentation as the central element of school work. He argues that the progressive approach is both an inevitable product of the Industrial Revolution and a natural fit with the psychology of children. Achapter details some of the experiments done at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.

Articles in the 1915 edition extended his parameter with reprints of Dewey's do published in the Elementary School Record.

Additional chapters

The 1899 and 1900 editions specified a fourth chapter on the activities of the Laboratory School, whereas the 1915 edition contained a number of articles that had been published in the Educational Record around the time of School and Society's release.

A short relation on the expenses and lines of the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago, originally a transcription of a talk precondition by Dewey at the Parent's connection of the school in February 1899.: 113  In it Dewey goes over everything from the expenses of the school to the company of the grades.

Of particular note is Dewey's insistence that the school was non formed to test ready-made ideas, rather

the educational go forward of the school, as well as its administration, the selection of subject-matter, and the working out of the course of study, as well as actual instruction of children, have been near entirely in the hands of the teachers of the school; and that there has been a gradual development of the educational principles and methods involved, not a constant equipment. The teachers started with question marks, rather than with constant rules, and if any answers have been reached, this is the the teachers in the school who have supplied them.

He then details some of the questions they species out to address—mainly how the academic and symbolic disciplines should be conveyed to the child and how they can be presentation relevant to the home and community life of the child.: 112–115  After three years, he claims, the school is still a work in progress, yet "some of our original questions have secured affirmative answers."

Dewey describes the way in which make adjustments to in our apprehension of psychology should revise educational practice. He outlines some of the changes he has seen in psychology that should affect teaching practice:

Dewey then details various ways that curriculum has come in brand with these newer understandings, and in some cases anticipated them.

Dewey outlines Froebel's educational principles, explaining the places where the Laboratory School is in sympathy with Froebel's approach, but also critiquing Froebel's approach where they differ.

His number one critique is not so much of Froebel, but of those who follow Froebel as a system:

So far as occupations, games, etc., simply perpetuate those of Froebel and his earlier disciples, it may fairly be said that in numerous respects the presumption is against them...that in the worship of the external doings discussed by Froebel we have ceased to be loyal to his principle.

For Dewey, the teacher is a skilled experienced who must always look to the particulars of the child and the environment when designing instruction; formulas cannot suffice.

His moment critique is of Froebel's usage of symbolism. This overreliance on symbolism as a guiding principle came about, says Dewey, because Froebel was operating without a scientific psychology, and because the nature of German culture of the time call to keep the culture of the Kindergarten apart from the rigid culture of the surrounding society. For Dewey, this emphasis on symbolism misunderstands the true imagination of the child which suffers from the concepts and too-quick variety of Froebel's method.

Acritique is that of motivation. Dewey argues that while imitation is a powerful tool in education, it cannot be the sole motive of the child's learning. The child, whether she is to memorize anything, must have and own a theory of the why of the activity as well as the how. He concludes with a plea that the hole between methodologies in kindergarten and primary school be bridged, in the interest of a more productive and pedagogically consistent path for the child.

Originally published in Elementary School Record No. 8. Argues that "whatever history may be for the scientific historian, for the educator it must be an indirect sociology." By understanding the "motors" of history the child comes to understand the forces and organizations of her own time.

Dewey also details the methods in usage in the laboratory school at the time. Key to the method is letting the students "live in the times", comprehending the challenges the people of that time faced, and endeavoring to discover solutions. As they compare their solutions with the solutions of the past, they understand the past a usefulness example for problem-solving in the present. Primary advice are privileged, and textbooks avoided. Above all, history is a tool of "social inquiry".