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John Dewey

John Dewey Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous John Dewey Quotes

“A society which makes provision for participation in its good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the different forms of associated life is in so far democratic. Such a society must have a type of education which gives individuals a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind which secure social changes without introducing disorder.”

GivingMindDifferentFormLife IsIndividualSocialTermInterestTypeHabitEqualMembersInstitutionsDemocraticSecureDisorderInteractionIntroducingParticipationSocial ChangeFlexibleProvisionHabits Of MindPersonal InterestSocial Relationships
Book:Democracy And Education
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“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.”

WayKindSchoolPastFormCoursesFoundLeftInterestBehindsStruggleStudyTypeInstitutionsVariousEducationalCharacteristicsLeft BehindDepositsEducational Institutions
Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors
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“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.”

MenWayFormOrderBeliefUnderstandingCommunityCommonVirtueCommunicationAimAspirationSociologists
Book:Democracy And Education
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“While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing.”

IfsTryingMayMeanDoeFormTurnsEnergyForceLosesExistencePiecesIdentityHigherSuperiorsSplitsLiving ThingsCrushed
Book:Democracy And Education
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“Schools are, indeed, one important method of the transmission which forms the dispositions of the immature; but it is only one means, and, compared with other agencies, a relatively superficial means. Only as we have grasped the necessity of more fundamental and persistent modes of tuition can we make sure of placing the scholastic methods in their true context.”

MeanImportantSchoolFormMethodFundamentalsAgencySuperficialDispositionPersistentImmatureTransmissionTuitionScholastics
Book:Democracy And Education
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“The parts of a machine work with a maximum of cooperativeness for a common result, but they do not form a community. If, however, they were all cognizant of the common end and all interested in it so that they regulated their specific activity in view of it, then they would form a community. But this would involve communication. Each would have to know what the other was about and would have to have some way of keeping the other informed as to his own purpose and progress.”

IfsKnowsWayEndsFormPurposeCommunityResultsViewsCommonProgressCommunicationActivityMachinesMaximumCognizant
Book:The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, Volume 9: 1916, Democracy and Education
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“Inside the modern city, in spite of its nominal political unity, there are probably more communities, more differing customs, traditions, aspirations, and forms of government or control, than existed in an entire continent at an earlier epoch.”

GovernmentFormPoliticalCommunityCitiesModernTraditionUnityAspirationSpiteCustomsContinentsForms Of GovernmentEpoch
Book:Democracy and Education - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education
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“For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an ‘ism becomes so involved in reaction against other ‘isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities.”

ThinkingNeedsProblemFormTermPrinciplesMovementPossibilityInvolvedReactionsSpiteControlledConstructiveComprehensiveSurveysIsms
Book:Experience And Education
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“Every one has experienced how learning an appropriate name for what was dim and vague cleared up and crystallized the whole matter. Some meaning seems distinct almost within reach, but is elusive; it refuses to condense into definite form; the attaching of a word somehow (just how, it is almost impossible to say) puts limits around the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity on its own account.”

MatterWholeSeemsFormNamesImpossibleLimitsDrawsAccountsRefuseAppropriateVoidEntityDefiniteVagueStanding OutElusiveWithin Reach
Book:How We Think: Top American Authors
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“Old ideas give way slowly; for they are more than abstract logical forms and categories. They are habits, predispositions, deeply ingrained attitudes of aversion and preference.”

WayGivingIdeasFormAttitudeAcceptanceHabitAbstractRejectionLogicalCategoriesAdoptionPreferenceAversionIdeas And InnovationOld Ideas
Book:The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy and Other Essays in Contemporary Thought
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“I believe that the community's duty to education is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law and punishment, by social agitation and discussion, society can regulate and form itself in a more or less haphazard and chance way. But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move.”

WayBelieveMeanMovingFormLawPurposeI BelieveWishSocialCommunityChanceMoralEconomyDutyShapesResourcesEducationalPunishmentDiscussionOrganizeParamountAgitationMoral DutyHaphazard
Book:The Early Works, 1882-1898: 1895-1898. Early essays
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“I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”

BelieveChildrenEndsUseSchoolFormI BelieveSocialProcessCommunityRaceEducationShareResourcesInstitutionsEducationalPreparationAgencySocial Institutions
Book:Selected educational writings
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“I believe that the teacher's place and work in the school is to be interpreted from this same basis. The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences.”

BelieveChildrenIdeasSchoolFormCertainI BelieveCommunityTeacherInfluenceHabitMembersBasesEducationalSelectResponding
Book:The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, education, democracy
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“To be born, to live and to die is merely to change forms... And what does one form matter any more than another?... Each form has its own sort of happiness and unhappiness. From the elephant down to the flea... from the flea down to the sensitive and living molecule which is the origin of all, there is not a speck in the whole of nature that does not feel pain or pleasure.”

LifeFeelsDoeMatterWholePainFormScienceDiesBornPleasureSensitiveUnhappinessElephantsMoleculesFleasSpecksBorn To Live
Author:John Dewey
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“In laying hands upon the sacred ark of absolute permanency, in treating the forms that had been regarded as types of fixity and perfection as originating and passing away, the Origin of Species introduced a mode of thinking that in the end was bound to transform the logic of knowledge, and hence the treatment of morals, politics, and religion.”

ThinkingIdeasEndsHandsFormReligiousMoralTypePerfectionLogicAbsolutesSacredSpeciesBoundsPassingPassingsTreatmentPassing AwayArkReligion And PoliticsOrigin Of Species
Book:The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, education, democracy
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