I believe that the community's duty to education is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law and punishment, by social agitation and discussion, society can regulate and form itself in a more or less haphazard and chance way. But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move.
John DeweyA democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.
John DeweyThere can be no doubt ... of our dependence upon forces beyond our control. Primitive man was so impotent in the face of these forces that g , especially in an unfavorable natural environment, fear became a dominant attitude, and, as the old saying goes, fear created gods.
John DeweyThe development occurs through reciprocal give-and-take, the teacher taking but not being afraid also to give.
John DeweyThe school must be "a genuine form of active community life, instead of a place set apart in which to learn lessons".
John DeweyThat the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry.
John Dewey