Democracy and Education · Chapter
Social Efficiency as Aim explained
This chapter critiques the doctrine of social efficiency as an educational aim, arguing that while it rightly emphasizes the need for individuals to contribute to society, it often errs by advocating subordination of natural powers rather t
What happens
This chapter critiques the doctrine of social efficiency as an educational aim, arguing that while it rightly emphasizes the need for individuals to contribute to society, it often errs by advocating subordination of natural powers rather than their positive utilization. Dewey distinguishes between industrial competency and civic efficiency, warning against narrow vocational training that perpetuates class inequities and against a limited view of citizenship that excludes scientific, artistic, and recreational capacities. True social efficiency, he contends, is the capacity to share in the give and take of experience, fostering intelligent sympathy and breaking down social barriers.
Themes in this chapter
Social Function of Education
Dewey argues that education must prepare individuals for social efficiency, defined as capacity to share in the give and take of experience and to participate in associated life, not merely for subordination to existing social orders.
Division of Labor and Leisure
The chapter emphasizes that industrial competency and the significant utilization of leisure are both essential to social efficiency, countering the tendency to scorn practical training in favor of 'higher' spiritual ideals.
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
Dewey criticizes traditional education for neglecting industrial and civic competencies, and for perpetuating class-based inequities by fitting individuals for predetermined callings based on wealth or social status.
Characters to notice
- Plato
Dewey references Plato's scheme of education, noting that modern industrial education risks an unconscious revival of its defects without its enlightened method of selection.
Key passages
“The error is in implying that we must adopt measures of subordination rather than of utilization to secure efficiency.”
The mistake is thinking that efficiency requires suppressing natural abilities instead of using them productively.
Dewey clarifies that social efficiency should be achieved through positive use of individual capacities, not negative constraint.
“A democratic criterion requires us to develop capacity to the point of competency to choose and make its own career.”
In a democracy, education must enable individuals to develop the ability to freely choose and pursue their own career.
Dewey contrasts this with the practice of predetermining careers based on parental wealth or social status.
“In the broadest sense, social efficiency is nothing less than that socialization of mind which is actively concerned in making experiences more communicable; in breaking down the barriers of social stratification which make individuals impervious to the interests of others.”
Ultimately, social efficiency means cultivating a mind that shares experiences openly and dismantles class divisions that prevent mutual understanding.
Dewey expands the concept beyond mere vocational or civic skills to include empathy, communication, and social solidarity.