Book: School and Society

Overview
"School and Society" (1899) collects lectures and essays that map out a vision of education rooted in experience, community, and democratic life. John Dewey rejects passive, rote instruction and argues for schools that mirror the social and practical activities of everyday life. Education becomes a process of living, not a preparation for future living.
The text draws on experiments at progressive schools and on Dewey's philosophical commitment to pragmatism. Practical classroom examples and reflections on industrial and agricultural work illustrate how learning emerges from purposeful activity and how schools can be restructured to cultivate inquiry, cooperation, and civic responsibility.

Core Principles
Learning by doing is the guiding maxim: intelligence develops through active engagement with real problems rather than memorization of abstract facts. Experience must be continuous and connected; each educational activity should build on prior experiences and lead to new ones, forming an organized, growing life of the child. Knowledge therefore remains inseparable from the situations that give it meaning.
Education is fundamentally social. Dewey emphasizes the communal character of thought and the role of schools in preparing children for participatory citizenship. Democratic ideals shape curricular aims: children should learn to negotiate, collaborate, and deliberate within a community of learners, so that schools function as miniature democracies and laboratories of social life.

Curriculum and Classroom Methods
Curriculum should reflect children's interests and the needs of their communities rather than a rigid sequence of abstract subjects. Dewey champions projects and problem-centered activities that integrate observation, experimentation, and purposeful production. Manual training, nature study, and constructive play serve as vehicles for scientific inquiry and for developing practical intelligence.
Subjects are reorganized around real problems and occupations so that mathematics, language, and the arts arise organically from concrete tasks. The classroom becomes a workshop and laboratory where pupils formulate hypotheses, test ideas, and revise understanding through collaborative work. Assessment shifts from mere recitation to evaluation of growth in skill, judgment, and ability to apply knowledge.

Teacher and Community Roles
The teacher's role changes from authoritarian dispenser of facts to skilled leader of experiences, guiding inquiry while respecting the learner's initiative. Effective teaching involves designing situations that provoke intelligent action and reflection, diagnosing needs, and fostering habits of critical thinking and cooperation. Authority rests on competence and moral example rather than on coercion.
Schools must be woven into the social fabric of neighborhoods and occupations. Dewey argues for partnerships between schools and local life, industries, farms, families, so that education addresses actual social needs and draws strength from community resources. When schools become social centers, they expand children's horizons and prepare them for constructive civic participation.

Impact and Legacy
"School and Society" catalyzed the progressive education movement, inspiring laboratory schools, project-based learning, and curricular reforms attentive to child development and democracy. Its influence extended into teacher training, progressive pedagogy, and debates about vocational education and schooling's social function. Many later educational innovations trace their lineage to Dewey's insistence on experience, inquiry, and community.
Debates persist about balancing progressive aims with academic rigor and about implementing Dewey's ideals in large, diverse systems. Nevertheless, the core insistence that education should be lived, social, and purposeful continues to inform contemporary discussions about student-centered learning, civic education, and the role of schools in a democratic society.