Experience and Education

“At present, the opposition, so far as practical affairs of the school are concerned, tends to take the form of contrast between traditional and progressive education.”

Dewey repeatedly warns readers not to think in terms of absolute binaries. However, he uses the contrast between traditional and progressive education as a rhetorical strategy throughout the book, associating traditional with old practices and progressive with new practices.

“Theirs is to do—and learn, as it was the part of the six hundred to do and die.” 

Playing with Alfred Tennyson’s 1854 poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Dewey intentionally misquotes the poet for humorous effect. This creative distortion of a famous poem compares students in traditional schools to soldiers in the Crimean War, emphasizing their lack of agency in their educational fates.

“I assume amid all uncertainties there is one permanent frame of reference: namely, the organic connection between education and personal experience; or, that the new philosophy of education is committed to some kind of empirical and experimental philosophy.” 

Dewey clearly states his core value in education in this sentence, the importance of personal experience. In Dewey’s day, the experimental method was radically changing the physical and social sciences, and Dewey saw his approach as based on empiricism rather than orthodoxy.

“The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative.” 

Dewey sharpens his definition of education by experience in this line, arguing that certain experiences have more educational value than others. This reflects a theme throughout the book about the role of educators, who should not merely provide students with experiences but must ensure these experiences foster growth in positive directions.

“Any experience is mis-educative that has the effect of arresting or distorting the growth of further experience.” 

Dewey explicitly states that certain kinds of experiences harm student development. He goes on to say that experiences encountered in traditional school settings may be harmful, in that they leave students bored, cynical, or less open to learning from future experiences.

“[E]very experience lives on in further experiences.” 

This is an articulation of the principle of continuity of experience, which Dewey considers essential to his educational philosophy. Past, present, and future experiences exist in a nested relationship with one another, as one experience prepares an individual to perceive another experience in particular ways.

“Just because traditional education was a matter of routine in which the plans and programs were handed down from the past, it does not follow that progressive education is a matter of planless improvisation.”

One of Dewey’s greatest concerns for progressive education is that teachers may think it requires less work than traditional education. On the contrary, it requires far more planning and consideration of individual student growth trajectories.

“The traditional school could get along without any consistently developed philosophy of education.”

Dewey repeats this point throughout the book. Because they justify its practices by references to heritage or orthodoxy, traditional educators do not have the same burden to carefully consider their methods as progressive educators.

“[T]he philosophy in question is, to paraphrase Lincoln, one of education of, by, and for experience.” 

As he did earlier with the poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Dewey intentionally changes the lines of Lincoln’s well-known “Gettysburg Address.” Dewey was a strong advocate for democracy and held Lincoln in high esteem. Using Lincoln’s lines to articulate his educational philosophy is an homage to an American and a personal hero.

“[T]he principle of continuity of experience means that every experience both takes up something from those that have gone before it and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after.”

Dewey defines continuity of experience in this line. A core principle of his educational theory, continuity of experience means that as a learner has new experiences, these encounters change how the individual will perceive future experiences. Dewey punctuates this point with reference to a line from Tennyson’s 1833 poem “Ulysses” that vividly portrays what he means by the principle.

“Every experience is a moving force. Its value can be judged only on the ground of what it moves towards and into.”

In this expansion of his idea of continuity of experience, Dewey emphasizes that one experience influences how an individual encounters future experiences, and so past, present, and future experiences are all connected. Whereas traditional educators only had to focus on past and present student experiences, progressive educators have the added burden of also needing to consider future student experiences in planning lessons.

“[I]t is [the educator’s] business to be on the alert to see what attitudes and habitual tendencies are being created.”

Dewey argues that education is not just about the subject matter taught to students. It also involves what he calls collateral learning, the quality of attitudes students develop from experiences. Traditional educators have only to focus on subject matter, but progressive educators must also consider attitudes toward and approaches to new experiences.

“The word ‘interaction,’ which has just been used, expresses the second chief principle for interpreting an experience in its educational function and force. It assigns equal rights to both factors in experience—objective and internal conditions.”

Dewey makes the distinction between what he calls internal or individual mental factors and objective or external factors in educational experiences. In his philosophy of education, internal and objective factors are equally important to consider, whereas traditional education ignores students’ internal experiences.

“Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of forming enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned.”

This is a clear definition of what Dewey means by collateral learning, the lessons beyond subject matter that students learn from school experiences. The educator must cultivate collateral learning that fosters rather than inhibits positive student growth.

“The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.”

Traditional educational practices ignore student attitudes and focus only on subject expertise. Dewey argues that these attitudes are important to monitor and cultivate. Here, he states that educators should help students develop mindsets that promote active learning.

“[T]he rules are part of the game. They are not outside of it. No rules, no game; different rules, then a different game.”

Through the game analogy, Dewey demonstrates that social control does not need to be control from outside or above. Rules can come from collective agreement, not just from outside imposition.

“[T]he primary source of social control resides in the very nature of the work done as a social enterprise in which all individuals have an opportunity to contribute and to which all feel a responsibility.”

This argument for control from within the group expresses Dewey’s belief that teachers and students should all work collectively. This is in contrast with traditional schools, which place the teacher above and outside the student group.

“Enforced quiet and acquiescence prevent pupils from disclosing their real natures.”

One of the book’s recurring themes is that traditional educators do not need to get to know their students as individuals, while progressive educators must understand the personalities and learning trajectories of each student. Dewey argues this is not possible if students cannot express themselves, because then teachers cannot get to know them very well.

“The ideal aim of education is creation of power of self-control.” 

Dewey considers the inability to control impulses to be as damaging to personal freedom as external oppression. The path to true freedom, in his estimation, is to develop self-control and therefore be able to pursue one’s own clearly defined purposes.

“[T]here is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”

Students in traditional schools, following orders imposed from above, could merely follow educational dictates from adults. Dewey argues that progressive schools need to organize lessons with the active cooperation of students.

“Traditional education tended to ignore the importance of personal impulse and desire as moving springs.”

Traditional education, focused on external order, ignore student mental processes. In contrast, progressive schools can consider what students want to learn, adding intrinsic motivation to education. However, Dewey warns that it is not enough for educators to merely indulge student wishes; they must consider them carefully to shape lessons that promote ongoing intellectual growth.

“A single course of studies for all progressive schools is out of the question; it would mean abandoning the fundamental principle of connection with life-experiences.”

Dewey recognizes that a primary weakness of progressive education is that it has not yet developed adequate subject matter curriculum. However, he rejects the idea of standardized curriculum for progressive schools because approaches to learning must relate to specific student experiences, interests, and aptitudes.

“When education is based on theory and practice upon experience, it goes without saying that the organized subject-matter of the adult and the specialist cannot provide the starting point. Nevertheless, it provides the goal toward which education should continuously move.”

Unlike traditional education, focused on past and present experiences, progressive education must also consider future educational experiences. In developing lessons, Dewey argues, it is useful to think about the skills and knowledge of adult subject experts and work backward to determine lessons, modulating learning experiences to the ages and aptitudes of individual students so they can eventually develop into experts.