The reading under consideration is John Dewey’s The School and Society taken from a collection of his writings edited by Reginald D. Archambault. The reading dwells on Dewey’s ideas of what modern education should be like and what direction it should take to be more efficient and more attractive to students.
The key concepts around which Dewey constructs his reflections are individualism and socialism. He compares the role of these two concepts in education and says that they must be interconnected. Firstly, Dewey claims that most people view education the individualistic standpoint. It is quite natural; but the scope of interests should be enlarged. Education should be as interesting for certain individuals, i.e. pupils, teachers, and parents, as the whole community they live in and for future generations of this community. Only under this condition education can be truly productive.
All these considerations are viewed by Dewey in the context of the Industrial Revolution that brought rapid and irrevocable changes into the society of that time and, consequently, into the perception of education. The author says that the new social environment caused a distinct differentiation between “cultured” people and “workers” which symbolized a distinct differentiation between theory and practice (Dewey, 309). Dewey believes that if the education in school made more emphasis on practice than on theory, more people would prefer to stay at school longer rather than leave after acquiring some rudiments of learning.
It is obvious that the ideas expressed by Dewey more than a century ago can be efficiently applied today. Motivation is a key to productive learning. If students understand the benefits which the acquired knowledge and skills will bring in future, they will be more eager in studying. Educators, in their turn, should understand the demands of the time and direct the educational process appropriately.
Works Cited
Dewey, John. On Education: Selected Writings. Ed. Reginald D. Archambault. University of Chicago Press: 1974.
