John Dewey’s Experience and Education is a succinct summation of his philosophy of education, which was drawn out previously in Democracy and Education and lived out in his Chicago Laboratory Schools experiment. It encapsulates the application of pragmatism to education, for the principles laid out are those Dewey had already empirically found to “work” (Spring 2001). Experience and Education also serves as a primer on part of the “culture wars” of Dewey’s own time. In this capacity, it is a thought-provoking introduction to pedagogical praxis, since the basic issues of education have changed little since Dewey’s time.

The aforementioned “culture wars” form the contextual starting point of the book, as Dewey begins by contrasting the dominant opposing educational viewpoints of his day, which he labels “traditional” and “progressive.” Traditional education, in a phrase, is top-down. Teachers create a highly structured environment and pass on accepted wisdom and rote information to docile and obedient students. Progressive education, on the other hand, is bottom-up. Students largely control their own learning process, as teachers merely facilitate their discovery and growth in a changing world. Whereas traditionalists emphasize (if not worship) the past, progressives focus solely on the present. Tradition means discipline, drill, and control; progressivism means individuality, creativity and freedom.

Dewey does not place himself within either camp. Although he soundly rejects traditional formalism, he also recognizes the limitations and practical difficulties of extreme progressivism. Since progressivism is largely a reaction to traditional philosophy and not a positive construction, it rejects aspects of traditional education--discipline, structure, external authority--that are not inherently wrong, but rather misapplied or misconstrued. In other words, it does not possess its own coherent philosophy, and therefore produces only chaos.

Dewey’s next task, therefore, is to outline the basis of a proper philosophy of experience, in order to blend the spirit of progressivism with the best parts of traditionalism. The two essential components are what he terms “continuity” and “interaction.” The principle of continuity is self-explanatory: experience is based on events following after one another and building upon each other. Continuity is a neutral term; simply because events concatenate does not mean that the events have produced “growth.” Furthermore, growth in one area may inhibit growth in general, as Dewey’s example of the practiced burglar concretely demonstrates (p. 36). The second principle, interaction, means that experiences are not formed in a vacuum or merely inside a person’s head, but involve both social and physical environments. Continuity and interaction, therefore, are intertwining concepts that “provide the measure of the educative significance and value of an experience” (p. 45).

Dewey does not stop with the abstract, though. Moving from theory to praxis, he sets about explaining how to properly integrate discipline, authority, and structure into a system of experience-based education. The keys to Dewey’s system are careful observation and planning. The teacher

Perhaps the only possible criticism of Dewey’s work (other than relatively minor instances of cultural elitism--see p. 39) is that it elucidates a philosophy that is difficult to implement. In contrast, traditional and progressive forms of education are easy to employ, simply because they require so little intelligent thought on the part of the instructor (although for entirely different reasons--the first because everything is set in stone, the second because nothing is). Dewey’s empirical method requires constant self-criticism and planning, as well as the ability to balance history and progress, order and spontaneity, and authority and freedom. It requires an instructor to balance the needs of the student and the demands of the institution without sacrificing freedom. Although certainly not impossible--the experiences of the Central Park East Secondary School in Democratic Schools (Apple and Beane, eds.) a telling example--the difficulty of Dewey’s philosophy may have been the cause of its oversimplification and watering-down by subsequent educators to “learning by doing” (Spring 2001).

Experience and Education is a direct challenge to the educational status quo. The most remarkable aspect of the book is its contemporary relevance--for although it is over a half-century removed from the present, its description of the state of education still rings true. Today’s teacher must neither accept the drudging formalism of traditional, behaviorist practices, nor fall for the “what’s new is true” trends of the educational faddists. In a system geared toward traditionalism, it may be difficult; but after all, who ever said teaching would be easy?
 
 

Apple, Michael and James Beane, eds. (1995). Democratic Schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Dewey, John (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books.

Spring, Joel (2001). The American School. Boston: McGraw Hill.