John Dewey - Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education

1. Renewal of Life by Transmission.

The most notabledistinction between living and inanimate things is that theformer maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struckresists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blowstruck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it isshattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt toreact in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow,much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to itsown continued action. While the living thing may easily becrushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn theenergies which act upon it into means of its own furtherexistence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split intosmaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but losesits identity as a living thing.

As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energiesin its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and thematerial of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that itturns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it isgrowing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment toaccount is more than compensated for by the return it gets: itgrows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may besaid that a living being is one that subjugates and controls forits own continued activity the energies that would otherwise useit up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon theenvironment.

In all the higher forms this process cannot be kept upindefinitely. After a while they succumb; they die. Thecreature is not equal to the task of indefinite self-renewal.But continuity of the life process is not dependent upon theprolongation of the existence of any one individual.Reproduction of other forms of life goes on in continuoussequence. And though, as the geological record shows, not merelyindividuals but also species die out, the life process continuesin increasingly complex forms. As some species die out, formsbetter adapted to utilize the obstacles against which theystruggled in vain come into being. Continuity of life meanscontinual readaptation of the environment to the needs of livingorganisms.

We have been speaking of life in its lowest terms as aphysical thing. But we use the word "Life" to denote the wholerange of experience, individual and racial. When we see a bookcalled the Life of Lincoln we do not expect to find within itscovers a treatise on physiology. We look for an account ofsocial antecedents; a description of early surroundings, of theconditions and occupation of the family; of the chief episodes inthe development of character; of signal struggles andachievements; of the individual's hopes, tastes, joys andsufferings. In precisely similar fashion we speak of the life ofa savage tribe, of the Athenian people, of the American nation."Life" covers customs, institutions, beliefs, victories anddefeats, recreations and occupations.

We employ the word "experience" in the same pregnant sense. Andto it, as well as to life in the bare physiological sense, theprinciple of continuity through renewal applies. With therenewal of physical existence goes, in the case of human beings,the recreation of beliefs, ideals, hopes, happiness, misery, andpractices. The continuity of any experience, through renewing ofthe social group, is a literal fact. Education, in its broadestsense, is the means of this social continuity of life. Every oneof the constituent elements of a social group, in a modern cityas in a savage tribe, is born immature, helpless, withoutlanguage, beliefs, ideas, or social standards. Each individual,each unit who is the carrier of the life-experience of his group,in time passes away. Yet the life of the group goes on.

The primary ineluctable facts of the birth and death of each oneof the constituent members in a social group determine thenecessity of education. On one hand, there is the contrastbetween the immaturity of the new-born members of the group its future sole representatives and the maturity of the adultmembers who possess the knowledge and customs of the group. Onthe other hand, there is the necessity that these immaturemembers be not merely physically preserved in adequate numbers,but that they be initiated into the interests, purposes,information, skill, and practices of the mature members:otherwise the group will cease its characteristic life. Even ina savage tribe, the achievements of adults are far beyond whatthe immature members would be capable of if left to themselves.With the growth of civilization, the gap between the originalcapacities of the immature and the standards and customs of theelders increases. Mere physical growing up, mere mastery of thebare necessities of subsistence will not suffice to reproduce thelife of the group. Deliberate effort and the taking ofthoughtful pains are required. Beings who are born not onlyunaware of, but quite indifferent to, the aims and habits of thesocial group have to be rendered cognizant of them and activelyinterested. Education, and education alone, spans the gap.

Society exists through a process of transmission quite as much asbiological life. This transmission occurs by means ofcommunication of habits of doing, thinking, and feeling from theolder to the younger. Without this communication of ideals,hopes, expectations, standards, opinions, from those members ofsociety who are passing out of the group life to those who arecoming into it, social life could not survive. If the memberswho compose a society lived on continuously, they might educatethe new-born members, but it would be a task directed by personalinterest rather than social need. Now it is a work ofnecessity.

If a plague carried off the members of a society all at once, itis obvious that the group would be permanently done for. Yet thedeath of each of its constituent members is as certain as if anepidemic took them all at once. But the graded difference inage, the fact that some are born as some die, makes possiblethrough transmission of ideas and practices the constantreweaving of the social fabric. Yet this renewal is notautomatic. Unless pains are taken to see that genuine andthorough transmission takes place, the most civilized group willrelapse into barbarism and then into savagery. In fact, thehuman young are so immature that if they were left to themselveswithout the guidance and succor of others, they could not acquirethe rudimentary abilities necessary for physical existence. Theyoung of human beings compare so poorly in original efficiencywith the young of many of the lower animals, that even the powersneeded for physical sustentation have to be acquired undertuition. How much more, then, is this the case with respect toall the technological, artistic, scientific, and moralachievements of humanity!