Democracy and Education (1966 [1916])

John Dewey

Communication, society and consensus

p. 4-5
Society [...] may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in communication. There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication. Men live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common. What they have in common in order to form a community or society are aims, beliefs, aspirations, knowledge--a common understanding. [...] The communication which insures participation in a common understanding is one which secures similar emotional and intellectual dispositions--like ways of responding to expectations and requirements.

Consensus demands communication.

The enculturation hypothesis

p. 13-14
[When the immature human being becomes] a copartner, ..., in engaging in the conjoint activity, he has the same interest in its accomplishment which others have. He shares their ideas and emotions... In the cases when he really shares or participates in the common activity..., his original impulse is modified. He not merely acts in a way agreeing with the actions of others, but, in so acting, the same ideas and emotions are aroused in him that animate the others.

the foundation of culture and personality theorizing in anthropology: a direct prefiguration of what Ruth Benedict would be known as having said, three decades later, in Patterns of Culture

A tribe, let us say, is warlike. The successes for which it strives, the achievements upon which it sets store, are connected with fighting and victory. The presence of this medium incites bellicose exhibitions in a boy, first in games, then in fact when he is strong enough. As he fights he wins approval and advancement; as he refrains, he is disliked, ridiculed, shut out from favorable recognition. It is not surprising that his original belligerent tendencies and emotions are strengthened at the expense of others, and that his ideas turn to things connected with war. Only in this way can he become fully a recognized member of his group. Thus his mental habitudes are gradually assimilated to those of his group. (p. 37)

The need for a value basis of planned cultural hegemony

p. 99
Since education is a social process, and there are many kinds of societies, a criterion for educational criticism and construction implies a particular social ideal. The two points selected by which to measure the worth of a form of social life are the extent in which the interests of a group are shared by all its members, and the fullness and freedom with which it interacts with other groups. An undesirable society, in other words, is one which internally and externally sets us barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience. A society which makes provision for participation in its good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible forms of associated life is in so far democratic. Such a society must have a type of education which gives individuals a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind which secure social changes without introducing disorder. (p. 99)

On culture

p. 121-3
Culture means at least something cultivated, something ripened; it is opposed to the raw and the crude. When the "natural" is identified with this rawness, culture is opposed to what is called natural development. Culture is also something personal; it is cultivation with respect to appreciation of ides and art and broad human interests.
(p. 121) The idea of perfecting and "inner" personality is a sure sign of social divisions. What is called inner is imply that which does not connect with others--which is not capable of free and full communication.

which this is couched as a criticism of feudalism (and elitism), this is also the foundation of the community mindedness that transforms into conformism, it is the basis of the Donahue ideology--see Carbaugh (1989)

p. 123: Social efficiency as an educational purpose should mean cultivation of power to join freely and fully in shared and common activities. This is impossible without culture, while it brings a reward in culture, because one cannot share in intercourse with others without learning--without getting a broader point of view and perceiving things of which one would otherwise be ignorant. And there is perhaps no better definition of culture than that it is the capacity for constantly expanding the range and accuracy of one's perception of meanings.

Last revision: January 25, 1999