Quote

We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment. Whether we permit chance environments to do the work, or whether we design environments for the purpose makes a great difference.

John Dewey

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John Dewey
Age: 92 †
Born: 1859
Born: October 20
Died: 1952
Died: June 1
Aesthetician
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Professor
Psychologist
Sociologist
Teacher
Trade Unionist
Burlington
Vermont
Dewey
Never
Chance
Environments
Purpose
Permit
Whether
Educate
Means
Directly
Makes
Difference
Mean
Design
Great
Environment
Work
Differences
Indirectly

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Knowledge is no longer an immobile solid it has been liquefied. it is actively moving in all the currents of society itself
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Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites.
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Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.
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What holds for adults holds even more for children, sensitive and conscious of differences. I certainly hope that the Board of Education will think very, very seriously before it introduces this division and antagonism in our public schools.
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While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing.
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Independent self-reliant people would be a counterproductive anachronism in the collective society of the future where people will be defined by their associations.
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There is not, in fact, any such thing as the direct influence of one human being on another apart from use of the physical environment as an intermediary. A smile, a frown, a rebuke, a word of warning or encouragement, all involve some physical change. Otherwise, the attitude of one would not get over to alter the attitude of another.
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If the eye is constantly greeted by harmonious objects, having elegance of form and color, a standard of taste naturally grows up.
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Criticism of the commitment of religion to the supernatural is thus positive in import.
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When things have a meaning for us, we mean (intend, propose) what we do: when they do not, we act blindly, unconsciously, unintelligently.
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How many students ... were rendered callous to ideas, and how many lost the impetus to learn because of the way in which learning was experienced by them?
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Education is life itself.
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The teacher loses the position of external boss or dictator but takes on that of leader of group activities
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To savages it would seem preposterous to seek out a place where nothing but learning was going on in order that one might learn.
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Men have never fully used [their] powers to advance the good in life, because they have waited upon some power external to themselves and to nature to do the work they are responsible for doing.
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The aim of education is growth: the aim of growth is more growth
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Anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy.
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