The School and Society

By: John Dewey

Book Overview

First published in 1899, The School and Society describes John Dewey's experiences with his own famous Laboratory School, started in 1896.

Dewey's experiments at the Labora­tory School reflected his original social and educational philosophy based on American experience and concepts of democracy, not on European education models then in vogue. This forerunner of the major works shows Dewey's per­vasive concern with the need for a rich, dynamic, and viable society.

In his introduction to this volume, Joe R. Burnett states Dewey's theme. Industrialization, urbanization, science, and technology have created a revolution the schools cannot ignore. Dewey carries this theme through eight chapters: The School and Social Progress; The School and the Life of the Child; Waste in Education; Three Years of the University Elementary School; The Psychology of Elementary Education; Froebel's Educa­tional Principles; The Psychology of Occupations; and the Development of Attention.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080930967X
• ISBN13: 9780809309672
• Release Date: April 1980
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Dewey and me

I liked the book overall. The content was excellent, and the educational ideas which Mr. Dewey expressed, are terrific. To me, the style of the writing was the problem. The book was written in 1899, and the wordy, pedantic style was common at that time. The main ideas in the book are hands-on education, and students' learning by doing. The first three chapters were taken from a lecture by Mr. Dewey that he delivered three years after he opened his University Elementary School in Chicago. The fourth chapter began by telling some of the financial information about the school. The average cost per student was $120. Mr. Dewey thought that advances in education were not keeping pace with advancements in society. He found it interesting that fourth graders in Moline, Illinois, did not realize that the Mississippi River in their geography books, had anything to do with the stream of water that flowed by their homes. This is a fairly small book, but I recommend The School and Society, if you can find the time to read it several times.