15 h 14 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the future of a democracy depends on how its children learn to live together?
In Democracy and Education, John Dewey asks what schooling is for—and why a free society depends on the answer. He sees democracy as more than voting or government. It is a shared life, where people learn from one another across lines of class and nation.
For Dewey, schools should be small communities, not factories for obedient workers. He explores how experience gives rise to thinking, why learning means growth, and how aims guide action. At stake is the way a society renews itself through its young, and whether education helps people take part in life together.
What you’ll discover
- Schools as living communities Explore why Dewey wants schools to practise the shared life that democracy requires.
- Growth without a finish line Consider an education whose purpose is continued growth, rather than an end beyond itself.
- Thinking rooted in experience Follow Dewey's account of learning back to experience and the thinking that arises from it.
- Aims that guide action Examine how aims grow from present activity and give direction to what people do.
- Divisions worth questioning Rethink the splits between mind and body, theory and practice, labour and leisure.
Who will love it
For teachers, parents, students of philosophy and anyone who wonders what school is really for. For readers who enjoy exploring how learning from experience, shared interests and school communities shape a free society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Education is how a society renews itself
- The school is a chosen environment
- Growth is the aim, and has no end beyond itself
- Democracy is a way of living together
- Aims must grow out of present activity
- Thinking begins in real experience
- Interest, effort and the curriculum
- Breaking the old dualisms
- How the book has fared and been challenged
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- 15-minute summary
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Democrazia e educazione
by John Dewey · 1916
Dewey turns the classroom into a small community where learning from experience helps sustain a free society.
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In short
Democracy and Education is a book by the American philosopher John Dewey, published in 1916. Dewey wrote it after years of teaching at the University of Chicago, where he ran an experimental school, and at Columbia University in New York.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Education is how a society renews itself
Dewey opens with a simple fact about life. Every living thing needs to renew itself, and a human community does this through its young. People die, and the beliefs, skills and hopes of a group survive only if they are passed on. Dewey calls this transmission, and he says it is the first meaning of education.
He notes that this process does not begin in a school. A child learns by living among adults, by joining in their work, copying their speech and absorbing their habits of praise and blame. In a simple tribe this informal sharing may be nearly all the education there is. Dewey wants the reader to see that schooling is only a special case of a much wider process.
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What is Democracy and Education about?
It is John Dewey's account of what education is and why a democratic society needs it. He argues that schools should be real communities where students learn by solving problems and sharing experience, preparing them for a life as active citizens.
What does Dewey mean by democracy in this book?
Dewey sees democracy as a mode of associated living, not only a form of government. A democratic society has many shared interests and free, open contact between groups, so that people learn from one another.
When was Democracy and Education written?
It was published in 1916, after Dewey had taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. It is a work of philosophy, not a story, and it draws on his experience running an experimental school.
The author
John Dewey
1859–1952 · American philosopher and educational reformer
John Dewey (1859–1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. He was born in Burlington, Vermont, and died in New York City. He taught at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. His books include How We Think (1910), Democracy and Education (1916), and Human Nature and Conduct (1922).
More by John Dewey
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