Democracy and Education · Chapter
Method as General and as Individual explained
This chapter distinguishes between general method—the accumulated techniques and knowledge from past experience—and individual method, which is the personal, creative application of that knowledge.
What happens
This chapter distinguishes between general method—the accumulated techniques and knowledge from past experience—and individual method, which is the personal, creative application of that knowledge. Dewey argues that imposing a uniform method stifles originality and breeds mediocrity, whereas general methods, when used as intellectual tools rather than rigid rules, enhance individual initiative and intelligent action. The teacher and student alike must adapt established methods to unique situations, making method an art of intelligently directed action.
Themes in this chapter
Experience and Learning by Doing
Emphasizes that method is an art of action, requiring personal response and adaptation to unique situations, not passive adherence to rules.
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
Rejects the notion of a single intellectual method imposed on all students, arguing it stifles originality and breeds mediocrity.
Unity of Knowledge and Action
General methods serve as intellectual aids that inform and direct intelligent action, rather than as external prescriptions.
Characters to notice
- Darwin
Cited as a rare genius whose originality was not infected by unwholesome eccentricity, illustrating the ideal of individual method.
Key passages
“How one person’s abilities compare in quantity with those of another is none of the teacher’s business. It is irrelevant to his work. What is required is that every individual shall have opportunities to employ his own powers in activities that have meaning.”
A teacher should not be concerned with ranking students' innate intelligence; instead, the focus should be on providing each student with meaningful activities that allow them to use their own abilities.
Dewey dismisses comparative measurement of ability as irrelevant to education, advocating for individualized, purposeful engagement.
“Imposing an alleged uniform general method upon everybody breeds mediocrity in all but the very exceptional. And measuring originality by deviation from the mass breeds eccentricity in them.”
Forcing a single method on all students produces average results for most and, paradoxically, encourages oddity in the few who are original.
Critique of standardized methods that suppress genuine individuality and creativity.
“The physician’s own personal attitudes, his own ways (individual methods) of dealing with the situation in which he is concerned, are not subordinated to the general principles of procedure, but are facilitated and directed by the latter.”
A doctor's personal approach is not overridden by standard procedures; rather, those procedures guide and enhance his own judgment in each unique case.
Analogizes teaching to medicine: general methods are tools for intelligent adaptation, not replacements for personal judgment.