2 h 33 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 2 h 33 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if school becomes a place where children live and work together, rather than a room apart from life?
In The School and Society, John Dewey asks why classrooms remain cut off from the world around them. Factories and cities change how people live, while schools keep older habits. He explores what children lose when work leaves the home—and what education might put back within their reach.
Drawing on the experimental elementary school he runs with Alice Dewey and a team of teachers, Dewey pictures school as a small working community. Learning begins with the child's own activity. His argument challenges fixed desks, separate lessons, and the waste he sees when school and daily life fail to connect.
What you’ll discover
- Learning lost from home Follow Dewey's account of how changes in work reshape children's chances to learn.
- A community in miniature Imagine a school where children live and work together as members of a wider society.
- The active child Explore why Dewey puts children's own activity at the heart of learning.
- Four impulses for growth Consider the natural impulses Dewey believes children bring with them into school.
- The cost of separation Examine his charge that education wastes effort when its parts fail to work together.
Who will love it
For teachers, parents, students of education, and anyone curious about why modern classrooms look the way they do. Readers of democratic thought will find ideas about learning by doing, schools as communities, and education joined to real life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Industry emptied the home of learning
- A school should be a small community
- Start learning from the child's own activity
- Four natural impulses drive a child's growth
- Waste comes from splitting school from life
- What the vision gave and where it is questioned
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 2 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, 5 accounts for the price of one.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then 0,14 USD a day in your first year on the yearly plan and 0,27 USD a day after, or 0,66 USD a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Scuola e società in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Scuola e società
by John Dewey · 1899
John Dewey pictures a school where cooking, weaving and building connect children’s learning to life together.
Challenging2–5 hours to read25 languages
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- 5 accounts for the price of one
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then 0,14 USD a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
In short
The School and Society is a small book with a large aim. In April 1899 John Dewey, then a professor at the University of Chicago, gave three talks to parents and friends of the university's experimental elementary school.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Industry emptied the home of learning
Dewey opens with history rather than classrooms. He says the great changes of the last century were not in schools but in how people live and work. Machines, factories, railways and cities changed the shape of daily life. Education, he argues, cannot be understood or mended without looking at that change.
He asks you to picture a household a few generations earlier. Spinning, weaving, baking, carpentry and the care of animals were done at home, and children took part. A child saw where food and cloth came from and handled the tools. In doing so the child learned patience, order, responsibility and the plain link between effort and result. This was a real education, even if nobody called it one.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
580 USD in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, 5 accounts for the price of one. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
170 USDFREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
120 USDFREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
60 USDFREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
60 USDFREE - 5 accounts for the price of oneA shelf for everyone at home
170 USDFREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Scuola e società
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy the printed book?
Soon. The paperback, hardcover and large print editions are being prepared. Choose Paperback or Hardcover above, leave your email, and we tell you the day you can order it, printed at cost.
How many accounts do I get?
Five, for the price of one: you and 4 more people, each with their own login, shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is The School and Society about?
It collects lectures by John Dewey on how schooling should change after the industrial revolution. He argues schools should be like small communities, built on children's activity, and joined to real life rather than cut off from it.
When did Dewey write The School and Society?
It comes from three lectures given in April 1899 and printed soon after. They describe the experimental elementary school Dewey led at the University of Chicago, often called the Laboratory School. Later editions added more essays.
What does the child as the sun mean in Dewey?
Dewey compares the shift he wants to that of Copernicus. Instead of the school and its subjects being the fixed centre, the child's interests, powers and growth become the centre around which teaching is organized.
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
All 7 booksMore like this
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
