DEWEY AND DEMOCRACY

WORKSHOP

Public Education

November 13, 1996

Neither [the mentally eager pupils] nor the teacher could possibly foretell with any exactness the purposes learning is to accomplish in the future; nor as long as the eagerness continues is it advisable to try to specify particular goods which are to come of it. The proof of a good is found in the fact that the pupil responds; his response is use. His response to the material shows that the subject functions in his life. (242)

Form groups of 6 (or 5; but not 7). Appoint a scribe. The scribe will receive an additional set of instructions and will conduct the second part of the workshop.

1. (15 min.) Discuss briefly your common understanding of the meaning of "democracy." Don't bother looking in a dictionary; just rely on the common knowledge of members of the group.

2. (20 min.) Think back to your reports on good seminar experiences you wrote last time. (Dig them out if you have them with you.) Talk with the other members of the group about those experiences in light of your common understanding of the term "democracy." Are any of the seminar experiences deemed to be good because of some social aspect of the seminar? Do any of your experiences allude to any of the aspects of "democracy" you discussed in step 1?

3. (20 min.) Review Dewey's concept of "democracy." Thoroughly discuss the following quotation:

Hence, once more, the need for a measure for the worth of any given mode of social life.... Now in any social group whatever, even in a gang of thieves, we find some interest held in common, and we find a certain amount of interaction and cooperative intercourse with other groups. From these two traits we derive our standard. How numerous and varied are the interests which are consciously shared? How full and free is the interplay with other forms of association? If we apply these considerations to, say, a criminal band, we find that the ties which consciously hold the members together are few in number, reducible almost to common interest in plunder; and that they are of such a nature as to isolate the group from other groups with respect to give and take of the values of life.... The two elements in our criterion both point to democracy. (83, 86)

And discuss whatever other quotations from the book will help you develop a good appreciation of Dewey's concept of democracy.

BREAK (15 min.)

4. (20 min.) Conduct a brief debate on the following:

RESOLVED: That every Evergreen student should strive to conduct themselves so that seminars are more democratic.

Make sure you consider both the pro- and con- positions.

Now, the scribe will conduct the remainder of the workshop. (60 min.)

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SCRIBE

Dewey and Democracy Workshop

You will be primarily an observer during the first part of the workshop. You should observe the group during its discussion of the questions in steps 1-4 and during the BREAK. (Stay with the group, or the largest subgroup, during the break.)

Your task is to observe the group with an eye toward determining whether the group is more or less democratic. You should take careful notes on specific incidents that reveal the relative "democracy" being manifest by the group. Here are some aspects of group behavior you should observe:

1. Who speaks? Does everyone participate more or less equally? Are there category-based differences in participation; for example, do men speak more than women?

2. Is there a group leader? Does the leader facilitate discussion, or does the leader set the agenda and urge others to contribute?

The following two points ask you to observe the group in light of the "two elements" in Dewey's criterion for assessing democracy. (See step 3 in the workshop.)

3. The first element of the criterion of "democracy" is, "How numerous and varied are the interests which are consciously shared?" Does the group stay "on task" or does the group bring in material from outside the workshop sheet and discuss that as a group? What is the function of the discussion of "outside" material? For example, the "outside" material might serve, immediately or eventually, to illustrate or exemplify a point someone is making; or, "outside" material might serve as a more or less useful distraction (it can serve the purpose of "group building" or it can serve the purpose of "filling time" or "getting away from a boring assignment"). Try just to collect evidence without prejudging the value of, say, staying "on task." A group might be deemed more democratic if it "strays" more or less often, as long as there is evidence that the concerns discussed are "interests which are consciously shared."

4. The second element is, "How full and free is the interplay with other forms of association?" Is there evidence, in the group discussion or during the break, of having contacts with other groups? Does anyone bring up a discussion with his or her research group, or a discussion from his or her seminar, or a conversation with a roommate?

Overall: Your job is to pay attention to the group. How does it function? Is it democratic?

This is the part of the workshop you will conduct.

1. Read the group your assignment (from above).

2. Read the group your notes. Give them a general statement of whether or not you think they functioned in a democratic way. Illustrate your claim with specific examples from your notes.

3. Read the following paragraph out loud. Read it slowly and carefully.

The essentials of method are therefore identical with the essentials of reflection. They are first that that the pupil have a genuine situation of experience-that there be a continuous activity in which he is interested for its own sake; secondly, that a genuine problem develop within this situation as a stimulus to thought; third, that he possess the information and make the observations needed to deal with it; fourth, that suggested solutions occur to him which he shall be responsible for developing in an orderly way; fifth, that he shall have opportunity and occasion to test his ideas by application, to make their meaning clear and to discover for himself their validity. (163)

Read it again.

4. Have members of the group read the attached quotations from Dewey out loud. Pass the paper around the circle. Each person should read one quotation. If any member of the group would like to have the quotation read again, do that.

5. Now, the scribe should read the following from the faculty team:

The assumption of the workshop is that this intervention by the group's scribe has created an "experience" that has captured each person's attention. (This assumption may or may not be true, and you may debate it.) Furthermore, it is likely that this has created a "genuine problem." If your faculty were to guess at the nature of the problem, we might suspect that most students value democracy and, after reflecting on what has gone before in this workshop, most students will have seen that they are, perhaps, a little wanting in some ways on this value.

As a group, discuss this statement.

Other Useful Quotations from Democracy and Education

Only by engaging in a joint activity, where one person's use of material and tools is consciously referred to the use other persons are making of their capacities and appliances, is a social direction of disposition attained. (39)

Going to the root of the matter, the fundamental fallacy of the theory [of education as the training of faculties] is its dualism; that is to say, its separation of activities and capacities from subject matter. There is no such thing as an ability to see or hear or remember in general; there is only the ability to see or hear or remember something. (65)

Whenever an activity is broad in scope (that is, involves the coordinating of a large variety of subactivities), and is constantly and unexpectedly obliged to change direction in its progressive development, general education is bound to result. For this is what "general" means; broad and flexible. (67)

...education is a constant reorganizing or reconstructing of experience. It has all the time an immediate end, and so far as activity is educative, it reaches that end-the direct transformation of the quality of experience.... We thus reach a technical definition of education: It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases the ability to direct the course of subsequent experience. (76)

Hence a democratic society must, in consistency with its ideal, allow for intellectual freedom and the play of diverse gifts and interests in its educational measures. (305)

If attention is centered upon the conditions which have to be met in order to secure a situation favorable to effective thinking, freedom will take care of itself. The individual who has a question which being really a question to him instigates his curiosity, which feeds his eagerness for information that will help him cope with it, and who has at his command the equipment which will permit these interests to take effect, is intellectually free. (304)