It may be said that an education which does not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter with it.
John DeweyThe acquisition however perfectly of skills is not an end in itself. They are things to be put to use as a contribution to a common and shared life.
John DeweyThe devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.
John DeweyIf a person cannot foresee the consequences of his act, and is not capable of understanding what he is told about its outcome by those with more experience, it is impossible for him to guide his act intelligently. In such a state, every act is alike to him.
John DeweyI believe that the teacher's place and work in the school is to be interpreted from this same basis. The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences.
John Dewey