Stone Jones
Installment 1
Section 9
Text: The Collected Works of John Dewey (Democracy and Education)
Thinking of education as a broad transmission of
information, behaviors, thinking, etc. from one person to another (or from one
generation to another) as John Dewey did, it is easy to recognize that education
is an essential aspect of a society for that society to grow and to continue
its existence. Dewey argues this point in the opening chapter of Democracy and
Education. He shows that society is made possible through the transmission of
ideas and practices. Without any form of education, a society would cease to
exist the same as it would cease if all the members of that society were to die
at once. As Dewey puts it, “the fact that some are born as some die, makes
possible through transmission of ideas and practices the constant reweaving of
the social fabric. Yet this renewal is not automatic. Unless pains are taken to
see that genuine and thorough transmission takes place, the most civilized
group will relapse into barbarism and then into savagery.” What he is saying
here is that if the older generation doesn’t make efforts to teach and educate
the upcoming generations, not only will their civilization stop progressing, it
could begin to move backward. He applies this ideology on a small scale to the transmission
of behaviors to a child by saying that young humans would be incapable of
mastering the bare minimum behaviors of survival (as some animal species’ young
is capable of). This ideology can also be applied on a larger scale to show that
technological progress, social progress, etc. will all be lost if the current generation
isn’t willing to work toward ensuring that these ideas are transmitted to the
next generation.
Of course, the scenario of a society ceasing to exist
altogether is an extreme case. This ideology can be applied a little less
strictly and can be used to build an argument for modern debates. One such debate
would be in the argument for expanding public education. Based on Dewey’s ideas
that education is essential to keep a society moving forward, it should
naturally follow that the more educated the people of a society are, the faster
the society can progress and grow. If transmitting ideas and behaviors is
essential for a society to exist, then a society should want to transmit those
ideas and educate as many of its members as possible at the highest level possible.
In our modern society, a step in this direction would be to make post-secondary
education free (or at least more affordable.) Doing so would give everyone the
opportunity to become more educated, vicariously propelling forward and
advancing our society faster than ever before. While Dewey argues that
education requires a balance between formal and informal, the intentional and
the experiential forms of education, I don’t think he would ever argue that
increasing the amount of formal education in a society for as many people as
possible would ever be harmful or have a negative impact on the advancement of
that society. I think he would agree that increasing educational opportunities
for people would be a step in a positive direction for a society so long as we
don’t leave informal education behind entirely in our expansion of the formal.
"I think he would agree that increasing educational opportunities for people would be a step in a positive direction for a society" - no question.
ReplyDeleteMaybe say more about "informal education," lifelong learning etc. - ? And put in some links & visuals...