How Did John Dewey Impact On Education

“Arriving at one goal, is the starting point to another”(JD). John Dewey was perhaps the most significant educational reformer, whose legacy has lasted for centuries and will for many more. He was a family man, teacher, scholar, and public a public figure who left a huge impression on multiple generations (Hildebrand). He was an essential muckraker, who helped bring to light, the societal injustices during the twentieth century. John Dewey should be especially known for his educational reform, social reform, concern for public problems, and his philosophical ideas and methods.
John Dewey left a notable impact on the education system, which is still seen today. His belief that education must engage with experience has remained to be an important …show more content…
One aspect that this theory consisted of is practical starting point. In it Dewey said, “Why should it be assumed that there is a single overarching principle of morality or a dualism between subject and object in perception? There should be a bottom-up approach to find actual experience instead of accepting assumptions” (Hildebrand). Dewey also urged that other philosophers should avoid detrimental schemes and assumptions and rather looks for experience in the lives of themselves and others (Hildebrand). He suggested that it is in experience that people find answers and logic for upcoming affairs (Hildebrand). The other aspect of this theory was melioristic motive. In this Dewey shows that “philosophical questions about knowledge and truth can never be completely walled off from efforts to create and preserve value” (Hildebrand). Meliorism is the belief that life is not good or bad, but can only be improved through human interference with processes that would otherwise be natural. Philosophy is only in existence to make life better for everyone (Hildebrand). If philosophy is more than just rational amusement, it has to employ with the everyday problems of men (Hildebrand). Dewey tried to make the theory of knowledge transparent and made it show that “the world is not passively perceived and thereby known; active manipulation of the environment is involved integrally in the …show more content…
Social dimension was also related to his theory both in processes and consequences (Field). The theory of knowledge cannot be fully understood without looking at how it ties in with social aims and standards (Field). Dewey rejected the idea of society being composed of multiple simple elements, known as the Hobbesian social contract theory. He claimed in Experience and Nature that a person is a social presence from the start to the finish and that can only be comprehended within social institutions. Moral and social problems are exercised with the direction of force to the success of socially defined points that are beneficial of a “satisfying life for individuals within the social context” (Field). Dewey was very ambiguous on the meaning of what counts for a satisfying life because of his belief that life is not good or bad, but openly ready for changes to be made (Field). In his book Ethics, he writes about these points, as being a series of significance in things that endorse themselves in simple reflection. In some of his other works, such as Art as Experience and also Human Nature and Conduct, he writes about the settlement of problematic situations along with the resolution of bad customs, the absolution from dullness so that people can benefit from pleasure, and an increase in a person's gratefulness for the world and the culture in which surrounds it. He