Democracy and Education · Chapter
The Valuation of Studies explained
Dewey distinguishes between intrinsic and instrumental values, arguing that no hierarchy of studies can be established because each study has unique, irreplaceable worth in experience.
What happens
Dewey distinguishes between intrinsic and instrumental values, arguing that no hierarchy of studies can be established because each study has unique, irreplaceable worth in experience. He emphasizes that education is identical with the process of living a fruitful life, and that studies should be appreciated for their own sake as well as for their use as means to further ends. The chapter critiques attempts to assign fixed values to subjects, advocating instead that value is determined by the specific situation and the needs of the learner.
Themes in this chapter
Education as Life and Growth
Dewey asserts that education is not a means to living but identical with the operation of living a life which is fruitful and inherently significant.
Experience and Learning by Doing
The chapter emphasizes that students discover instrumental value through direct engagement, e.g., letting a student discover that success in an interest depends on using number.
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
Dewey criticizes the curriculum for being loaded with inherited traditional matter and adult values, calling for constant inspection and revision.
Key passages
“To value means primarily to prize, to esteem; but secondarily it means to apprise, to estimate.”
Valuing has two meanings: cherishing something for its own sake and judging its worth in comparison to other things.
Dewey introduces the dual nature of value as both intrinsic appreciation and instrumental evaluation.
“Since education is not a means to living, but is identical with the operation of living a life which is fruitful and inherently significant, the only ultimate value which can be set up is just the process of living itself.”
Education is not a tool for life; it is life itself, and the only final value is the ongoing process of living meaningfully.
This encapsulates Dewey's view that education and life are inseparable, with no external end beyond living well.
“The way to enable a student to apprehend the instrumental value of arithmetic is not to lecture him upon the benefit it will be to him in some remote and uncertain future, but to let him discover that success in something he is interested in doing depends upon ability to use number.”
Students learn the practical value of a subject by using it to achieve something they care about, not by hearing about future benefits.
Dewey advocates for learning through direct experience and immediate relevance.