How Did John Dewey Impact On Education

“Arriving at one goal, is the starting point to another”(JD). John Dewey was perhaps the most significant educational reformer, whose legacy has lasted for centuries and will for many more. He was a family man, teacher, scholar, and public a public figure who left a huge impression on multiple generations (Hildebrand). He was an essential muckraker, who helped bring to light, the societal injustices during the twentieth century. John Dewey should be especially known for his educational reform, social reform, concern for public problems, and his philosophical ideas and methods.
John Dewey left a notable impact on the education system, which is still seen today. His belief that education must engage with experience has remained to be an important
key in educational methods. As a young boy he was raised in a wealthy family, but was greatly influenced by his religious mother to make a difference in the world. Dewey attended the University of Vermont, where he rejected the educational method of realism (Field). Here he met H.A.P. Torrey, a philosophy teacher who helped set Dewey in motion for philosophical success (Field). He decided to start his philosophy career after teacher high school for a few years (Field). Dewey attended graduate school at John Hopkins University. He came under the guidance of “two powerful and engaging intellects who were to have a lasting influence on him” (Fields). George S. Morris showed Dewey the model of nature characteristics and G. Stanley Hall, a very popular philosopher at the time, who equipped him with “an appreciation of the power of scientific methodology as applied to human sciences” (Fields). These viewpoints presented to Dewey, sparked his general ideas for throughout his philosophical progress. After receiving his doctorate, he accepted a teaching offer at the University of Michigan. As Dewey taught at Michigan, he wrote his first two books: Psychology and Leibniz’s New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding, which were based on german Hegelian idealism. While at Michigan he met James H. Tufts, an important philosopher who Dewey later partnered with to write Ethics.
Dewey moved to teach at the University of Chicago in 1894. “It was during his years at Chicago that Dewey's early idealism gave way to an empirically based theory of knowledge that was in concert with the then developing American school of thought known as pragmatism” (Field). Dewey then founded his own laboratory school in Chicago, where he published his first large-scale book, The School and Society (Field). After disagreements in Chicago, he joined the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. Here his philosophical thought took flight. He was surrounded by many of the most brilliant philosophers in America. He soon became known as not only as a great philosopher, but also as a vital commentator on social issues such as women’s suffrage and also the unionization of teachers. As his fame grew, he was invited to speak during multiple conferences. During this time, some of his most important work was written. Many people saw him as such an important person that he was asked to participate in the Commision of Inquiry during the Moscow trials (Field).
“The central focus of Dewey’s philosophical interests” is known as the “theory of knowledge” (Field).
One aspect that this theory consisted of is practical starting point. In it Dewey said, “Why should it be assumed that there is a single overarching principle of morality or a dualism between subject and object in perception? There should be a bottom-up approach to find actual experience instead of accepting assumptions” (Hildebrand). Dewey also urged that other philosophers should avoid detrimental schemes and assumptions and rather looks for experience in the lives of themselves and others (Hildebrand). He suggested that it is in experience that people find answers and logic for upcoming affairs (Hildebrand). The other aspect of this theory was melioristic motive. In this Dewey shows that “philosophical questions about knowledge and truth can never be completely walled off from efforts to create and preserve value” (Hildebrand). Meliorism is the belief that life is not good or bad, but can only be improved through human interference with processes that would otherwise be natural. Philosophy is only in existence to make life better for everyone (Hildebrand). If philosophy is more than just rational amusement, it has to employ with the everyday problems of men (Hildebrand). Dewey tried to make the theory of knowledge transparent and made it show that “the world is not passively perceived and thereby known; active manipulation of the environment is involved integrally in the
process of learning from the start” (Field).
Dewey’s teachings in ethics and social theory were not the only things associated with his theory of knowledge.
Social dimension was also related to his theory both in processes and consequences (Field). The theory of knowledge cannot be fully understood without looking at how it ties in with social aims and standards (Field). Dewey rejected the idea of society being composed of multiple simple elements, known as the Hobbesian social contract theory. He claimed in Experience and Nature that a person is a social presence from the start to the finish and that can only be comprehended within social institutions. Moral and social problems are exercised with the direction of force to the success of socially defined points that are beneficial of a “satisfying life for individuals within the social context” (Field). Dewey was very ambiguous on the meaning of what counts for a satisfying life because of his belief that life is not good or bad, but openly ready for changes to be made (Field). In his book Ethics, he writes about these points, as being a series of significance in things that endorse themselves in simple reflection. In some of his other works, such as Art as Experience and also Human Nature and Conduct, he writes about the settlement of problematic situations along with the resolution of bad customs, the absolution from dullness so that people can benefit from pleasure, and an increase in a person's gratefulness for the world and the culture in which surrounds it. He
helped show the correct method for dealing with moral and social problems which was: “an empirical method that is tied to an examination of problematic situations, the gathering of relevant facts, and the imaginative consideration of possible solutions that, when utilized, bring about a reconstruction and resolution of the original situations” (Field). Dewey stressed in his writings to take an open minded approach when confronting problems that stand in the way of a person attaining their goal in life and to also examine the consequences associated with the decision that is make. This method became known as “method of intelligence”(Field). Dewey criticized the traditional method of ethical thought because it tended to search for solutions to social and moral situations in very simple ways, which were unsuitable for dealing with the ever changing human environment. He especially argued that philosophy can play an essential role in the evaluation of consequences for his method of intelligence.
Dewey, the man who changed the education system based many of his methods on philosophical issues that posed problematic. He started this progressive movement, trying to make life better for the people of America and he was very successful in doing so by helping people understand many of his intellectually advanced methods. John Dewey passed away in 1953, but his legacy has continued to live on for centuries and will for centuries to come. Over his lifetime he wrote about 700 articles, 40 books, and over 140 journals. His work to cause social and educational reformation was seen by many different philosophers as a pure way “to apply the principles of an empirical naturalism to the perennial questions of philosophy, providing a beneficial clarification of issues and the concepts used to address them” (Field). He took the role of a leader to another level. He was the founder and president of many organizations such as the American Association of University Professors, League for Independent Political Action, and the American Psychological Association. To some he wasn’t just a leader, he was a hero. He helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was an active member of the teacher’s union movement.