# III: The Traits of Individual Method explained — Democracy and Education > Chapter companion for Democracy and Education by John Dewey. ## What happens This chapter examines the personal and individual aspects of the method of knowing, emphasizing that effective intellectual engagement with subject matter depends on attitudes such as directness, open-mindedness, single-mindedness, and responsibility. Dewey contrasts spontaneous, wholehearted involvement with self-consciousness and divided attention, arguing that true learning requires unconscious faith in the situation rather than reflexive self-awareness. He warns against rigid methods, external rewards, and coercive discipline, which fragment attention and undermine intellectual integrity. ## Themes in this chapter ### Experience and Learning by Doing Dewey emphasizes that method is personal and rooted in native tendencies, habits, and interests, and that effective learning arises from direct, wholehearted engagement with subject matter rather than from self-consciousness or external pressure. ### Critique of Traditional Curriculum Dewey criticizes rigid, uniform methods and the zeal for correct answers, arguing that such approaches impose intellectual blinders and arrest growth, and that the quality of mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth. ### Education as Life and Growth Dewey links open-mindedness to retention of the childlike attitude and continuous intellectual growth, and warns that closed-mindedness and stubbornness arrest development. ## Key lines > The specific elements of an individual’s method or way of attack upon a problem are found ultimately in his native tendencies and his acquired habits and interests. A person's unique approach to solving problems stems from their inborn inclinations, learned habits, and personal interests. _Dewey grounds method in individual psychology and biography._ > Confidence is not a name for what one thinks or feels about his attitude; it is not reflex. It denotes the straightforwardness with which one goes at what he has to do. True confidence is not self-consciousness about one's own attitude, but rather the unreflective, direct engagement with the task at hand. _Dewey distinguishes genuine confidence from self-consciousness or 'cheek'._ > Open-mindedness means retention of the childlike attitude; closed-mindedness means premature intellectual old age. Being open-minded preserves a youthful, receptive stance toward learning, while closed-mindedness leads to intellectual stagnation. _Dewey equates open-mindedness with ongoing growth._ > Were all instructors to realize that the quality of mental process, not the production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth something hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be worked. If teachers understood that the depth and quality of thinking matter more than getting right answers, teaching would be transformed. _Dewey advocates for process-oriented education over outcome-obsessed instruction._ > A systematized divided attention expressing the duplicity of the state of desire is the result. When a student's conscious effort conflicts with their underlying desires, attention becomes split and insincere. _Dewey describes the psychological cost of forced attention._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/democracy_and_education_se/chapters/iii-the-traits-of-individual-method - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/democracy_and_education_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/democracy_and_education_se/chapters