Democracy and Education · Chapter
Education as Training of Faculties explained
This chapter critiques the theory of formal discipline, which posits that education should directly train innate mental faculties such as perception, memory, and attention through repeated exercise.
What happens
This chapter critiques the theory of formal discipline, which posits that education should directly train innate mental faculties such as perception, memory, and attention through repeated exercise. Dewey argues that such faculties are not pre-existing but develop through engagement with meaningful subject matter in social contexts. He emphasizes that training is specific to the material and activity involved, and that broad, flexible abilities arise from varied, socially connected experiences rather than isolated drills.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
Dewey attacks the formal discipline theory's assumption that isolated exercises in spelling, mathematics, etc., train general mental powers, arguing instead that such narrow drills produce limited, non-transferable skills.
Experience and Learning by Doing
The chapter emphasizes that observation, memory, and judgment are outcomes of active engagement with subject matter, not of exercising pre-existing faculties; learning arises from doing meaningful tasks.
Social Function of Education
Dewey insists that the criterion for selecting subject matter must be social: education should develop abilities that make the individual an effective member of a community, not merely train isolated skills.
Characters to notice
- John Locke
Locke's theory of formal discipline is presented as the classic formulation, describing the mind as having ready powers (attention, observation, retention) that are trained through exercise on externally received sensations.
Key passages
“There is no such thing as an ability to see or hear or remember in general; there is only the ability to see or hear or remember something.”
One cannot train a general power like observation; one can only learn to observe specific things in specific contexts.
Dewey refutes the notion of transferable faculties, asserting that abilities are always tied to particular subject matter.
“The fundamental fallacy of the theory is its dualism; that is to say, its separation of activities and capacities from subject matter.”
The core error of formal discipline is treating mental powers as independent of the content they work on.
Dewey identifies the dualistic separation of mind and material as the root flaw in Locke's theory.
“We want the person to note and recall and judge those things which make him an effective competent member of the group in which he is associated with others.”
Education should aim to develop skills that help a person function well in their community, not just any arbitrary skill.
Dewey emphasizes the social criterion for determining what subject matter is worth learning.