John Dewey: Philosophy and Learning

By the turn of the century, John Dewey's experiment in schooling had captured the attention of teachers at every level of the teaching technique. Its radically new teaching practices represented a turning point, not only for formal schooling but also for larger views of childhood learning. Dewey came to the University of Chicago at the urging of James Hayden Tufts, a colleague at the University of Michigan who joined the Chicago faculty in 1892. Appointed to head the Department of Philosophy, Dewey's experimentalism blended well with the views of George Herbert Mead & Tufts. In addition to fulfilling his departmental obligations & administering the School of Schooling, Dewey published several books & articles on schooling & philosophy. The School & Society (1899) became a classic among progressive educators.

Trained as a philosopher at Johns Hopkins, Dewey was intrigued by the relationship between the individual & society. Firmly committed to a democratic outlook, they thought about the school a laboratory to check his notion that schooling could integrate learning with experience. The University Simple School or Laboratory School established by Dewey grew quickly. Parents were attracted by a curriculum that emphasized the kid in lieu of the subject material, where the learning system was at least as important as what was learned, & where curiosity was encouraged.

Dewey's success could not overcome his disagreements with administrators & other educators. His relationship with William Rainey Harper deteriorated as Harper's designs to consolidate the Simple School with Colonel Francis Parker's Chicago Institute under the control of the University infringed on Dewey's freedom of action. Dewey assumed that they would be given control of the curriculum & the merged school administration, leaving the funding issues in the hands of the University. This was clearly not Harper's view, & when controversy arose over the appointment of Alice Dewey as principal of the University Simple School, John & Alice Dewey resigned & left for Columbia University.

Dewey's interest in schooling shifted after leaving Chicago & they never again organized a school. For the next half century they concentrated on philosophical issues, publishing extensively & with great influence on political, aesthetic, ethical, & epistemological questions. They clung to his liberal humanism, eloquently defending democratic ideals in the coursework of periods when world & national events appeared to undermine the basis for his beliefs.