Democracy and Education · Chapter
VI: Education as Conservative and Progressive explained
This chapter contrasts education as formation from without, as exemplified by Herbart's theory, with the ideal of education as continuous reconstruction of experience.
What happens
This chapter contrasts education as formation from without, as exemplified by Herbart's theory, with the ideal of education as continuous reconstruction of experience. It argues that genuine education is a constant reorganizing of experience that adds meaning and increases ability to direct subsequent experience, distinguishing educative activity from routine or capricious action. The chapter also emphasizes that in progressive societies, education should shape the young to improve future society rather than merely reproduce current habits.
Themes in this chapter
Experience and Learning by Doing
The chapter defines education as the reconstruction of experience through active engagement, using the example of a child learning from touching a flame to illustrate how meaning and control are gained through doing.
Critique of Traditional Curriculum
The chapter criticizes Herbartian theory and the emphasis on cultural products isolated from present experience, arguing that such material becomes a rival environment rather than a resource for meaningful action.
Education as Life and Growth
The chapter presents education as a continuous process of growth, where every stage of experience has its own value and contributes to the enrichment of meaning, rather than being mere preparation for a remote future.
Characters to notice
- Herbart
Herbart is presented as the historical representative of the theory that education is formation from without, denying innate faculties and emphasizing the role of subject matter in forming the mind through presentations.
Key passages
“It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.”
Education is the ongoing process of reshaping experience to deepen its significance and enhance our capacity to guide future actions.
This is the chapter's technical definition of education, emphasizing both meaning and control.
“The essential contrast of the idea of education as continuous reconstruction with the other one-sided conceptions ... is that it identifies the end (the result) and the process.”
Unlike other theories that separate goals from methods, the view of education as continuous reconstruction sees the process and its outcome as inseparable.
This highlights the key distinction between Dewey's progressive view and traditional educational theories.
“In progressive communities ... they endeavor to shape the experiences of the young so that instead of reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an improvement on their own.”
Progressive societies use education not to replicate existing customs but to cultivate improved habits in the young, thereby advancing society itself.
This underscores the social and forward-looking function of education in a progressive context.