Democracy and Education · Chapter
Renewal of Life by Transmission explained
Dewey argues that society's continuity depends on education as the transmission of habits, beliefs, and practices from mature to immature members.
What happens
Dewey argues that society's continuity depends on education as the transmission of habits, beliefs, and practices from mature to immature members. Life is a self-renewing process, and social life requires deliberate communication to bridge the gap between the newborn's immaturity and the group's accumulated knowledge, preventing relapse into barbarism.
Themes in this chapter
Education as Life and Growth
Life is defined as a self-renewing process, and education is the means by which social life is continuously renewed through transmission.
Social Function of Education
Education is presented as the essential mechanism for preserving and perpetuating the social group's characteristic life.
Environment and Indirect Education
The chapter emphasizes that the immature must be initiated into the interests and practices of the mature, highlighting the environment's role in shaping learning.
Key passages
“Education, and education alone, spans the gap.”
Only education can bridge the divide between the immature newborn and the mature social group.
Dewey asserts the unique and indispensable role of education in societal continuity.
“Society exists through a process of transmission quite as much as biological life.”
Social survival depends on the transmission of culture and knowledge, just as biological life depends on reproduction.
This highlights the parallel between biological and social renewal.
“Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.”
Living beings sustain themselves by actively using and adapting to their surroundings.
Dewey establishes the foundational concept of life as dynamic and interactive.