A John Dewey source page

Originally published as:

John Dewey. The School and Society: being three lectures by John Dewey supplemented by a statement of the University Elementary School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (1907)

Editors' notes

This HTML version of School and Society is based on a combination of the the 1907 reprint and the 1915 revised edition. In the second, Dewey dropped the fourth chapter from the original version and added five additional essays that had been published elsewhere. As a result this combined edition has two Chapter 4s.

The School and Society may be Dewey's most popular (and most translated) publication. It describes the rationale behind the University Elementary School that made his pedagogic approach famous. Originally published in 1900, we present the 1907 edition for two reasons. First the only copy of the 1900 edition that we have been able to locate was too fragile for photocopying or scanning. Second, the later printings of the book acknowledge the role played by George and Helen Mead in preparing the text.

The School and Society is similar to Mead's Mind Self and Society. The text is based on stenographic notes of lectures, prepared for publication by colleagues, in the absence of the author. Mead was very involved in the school program, enrolling his son Henry as a student, and serving as president of the Parents' Association.

Dewey's approach to education is the basis of Mead's later work on educational reform, particularly as that work relates to vocational education and approaches to curriculum development in general.

For the sake of ease of access, each lecture is accessed separately from the Table of Contents. This document preserves only the Prefactory notes and other unnumbered pages in the document. Unfortunately, the copies of the pencil drawing referred to in the table of contents and described in Lecture 2, were too poorly preserved to reproduce. We are working at finding better copies for inclusion here.

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The School and Society
Table of Contents and Notes

The School and Society: being three lectures by John Dewey supplemented by a statement of the University Elementary School.

Table of Contents | Next

To
Mrs. Emmons Blaine
to whose interest in educational
reform
the appearance of this book
is due.

The School and Social Process (1907)

The School and the Life of the Child (1907)

Waste in Education (1907)

Three Years of the University Elementary School (1907)

The Psychology of Elementary Education (1915)

Froebel's Educational Principles (1915)

The Psychology of Occupations (1915)

The Development of Attention (1915)

The Aim of History in Elementary Education (1915)

Drawing of a cave and trees
Drawing of a forest
Drawing of hands spinning
Drawing of a girl spinning

Publishers Note

The three lectures presented in the following pages were delivered before an audience of parents and others interested in the University Elementary School, in the month of April of the year 1899. Mr. Dewey revised them in part from a stenographic report, and unimportant changes and the slight adaptations necessary for the press have been made in his absence. The lectures retain therefore the unstudied character as well as the power of the spoken word. As they imply more or less familiarity with the work of the Elementary, Mr. Dewey's supplementary statement of this has been added.

Author's Note

A second edition affords a grateful opportunity for recalling that this little book is a sign of the coöperating thoughts and sympathies of many persons. Its indebtedness to Mrs. Emmons Blaine is partly indicated in the dedication. From my friends, Mr. and Mrs. George Herbert Mead, came that interest, unflagging attention to detail, and artistic taste which, in my absence, remade colloquial remarks until they were fit to print, and then saw the results through the press with the present attractive results -- a mode of authorship made easy, which I recommend to others fortunate enough to possess such friends.

It would be an extended paragraph which should list all the friends whose timely and persisting generosity has made possible the school which inspired and defined the ideas of these pages. These friends, I am sure, would be the first to recognize the peculiar appropriateness of especial mention of the names Mrs. Charles R. Crane and Mrs. William R. Linn.

And the school itself in its educational work is a joint undertaking. Many have engaged in shaping it. The clear and experienced intelligence of my wife is wrought everywhere into its

texture. The wisdom, tact and devotion of its instructors have brought about a transformation of its original amorphous plans into articulate form and substance with life and movement of their own. Whatever the issue of the ideas presented in this book, the satisfaction coming from the coöperation of the diverse thoughts and deeds of many persons in undertaking to enlarge the life of the child will abide.

Author's Note to Second Edition

The present edition includes slight verbal revision of the three lectures constituting the first portion of the book. The latter portion is included for the first time, containing material borrowed, with some changes, from the author's contributions to the Elementary School Record, long out of print.

The writer may perhaps be permitted a word to express his satisfaction that the educational point of view presented in this book is not so novel as it was fifteen years ago; and his desire to believe that the educational experiment of which the book is an outgrowth has not been without influence in the change.

J.D.

New York City
July, 1915

Notes

No notes

The original published version of this document is in the public domain. The Mead Project exercises no copyrights over the original text.

This page and related Mead Project pages constitute the personal web-site of Dr. Lloyd Gordon Ward (retired), who is responsible for its content. Although the Mead Project continues to be presented through the generosity of Brock University, the contents of this page do not reflect the opinion of Brock University. Brock University is not responsible for its content.

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