An Honest Review for ‘Democracy And Education’

August 9th, 2011 Filed under: Democratic Beliefs — Contributing Writer

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In this landmark work on public education, Dewey discusses methods of providing quality public education in a democratic society. First published close to 90 years ago, it sounded the call for a revolution in education, stressing growth, experience, and activity as factors that promote a democratic character in students.


Review:

Fantastic; a book I would recommend to just about anyone. To address some of the critics mentioned in the other reviews: RE: “Dewey Dogma” (1) There is absolutely no pretense of an application of the scientific method, hence there can be no mis-application; (2) This book strikes me personally as one of the least dogmatic things I’ve ever read in my life. The ideas are fresh, original, and beautiful crafted and ordered; (3) “Education is Socialization” – an equation of broadly construed “-tions” that results in a statement that one can neither agree nor disagree with.

I could be wrong, but nowhere did I read these ideas as explicit recommendations to be implemented, rather I read this book as a general exploration of educational aims and processes. Dewey (justifiably in my opinion) explores closely connected concepts which I imagine are left out of other educational texts, which is why some with pre-professional backgrounds in education count the length and depth of this book as a negative.

His writing, in my opinion, is clear and concise (at least in comparison with other great philosophers) – writing that I would personally aspire to. His ideas, and I can’t say this enough, are some of the most original I’ve come across. We didn’t really cover the pragmatists in any of my philosophy classes. Reading this makes me wish we had.

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  1. One Response to “An Honest Review for ‘Democracy And Education’”

  2. By Sarah on Sep 27, 2011 | Reply

    nice

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