The Education of John Dewey - a biography by Jay Martin Essay

The Education of John Dewey - a biography by Jay Martin - Essay Example John Dewey was considered as one of the most ten important thinkers in the history of the country of America. This was of the many instances of popularity he achieved during his lifetime from his birth in the year 1859 till his death in 1952. The short hand word of Pragmatism identified his line of thinking conventionally. The body of thought as prescribed by the prominent thinker has been identified as one of the distinctive philosophy of the American society that had been ruling the philosophy of the country for the last fifty years. The work he had done for the education system of the society has still been famous and influential in recent period in the eve of the changing world and has been considerably famous for the worldwide system of education. According to him education is the immediate necessity of life. The ascendance of multiculturalism and that of independent thinking of individuals in the American pedagogy of the contemporary period was anticipated in the educational wo rks that had been done by him in his lifetime. In the emerging democracies of the present world The University of Chicago Laboratory School that have been founded by him in the year 1896 has been a model for the schools and also in entire world of schools. John Dewey had well established himself as one of the eminent reformers of the education system of the country.... The movement of progressive education emphasized on attacking the established education system of the country from both inside and outside the establishment. However, according to some critics of the education philosophy of John Dewey, the philosophy had racial assumptions underlying it. The famous child centered education philosophy of John Dewey holds true for the American as well as the European American students but not for the African Americans. Apart from this criticism the educational thoughts propagated by him had been truly helpful for education of every society of the country. There was a need of continuous interaction of the classroom education of an individual along with experience of his real life. There is the need of students in continuously learning the use of the past experience of the individual along with the present one for the attainment of decisions intelligent enough in the future. Education of the individual is defined as the only process in achieving so. Acco rding to John Dewey harmonization of individuals with the people of the society, which is involved in the growth of the mental power of individuals, is the ultimate meaning of education. A democratic society in the country could only be evolved with the achievement of education with respect to the intelligence capacity of each individual of the society along with his or her own uniqueness. Dewey perceived democracy as a ‘â€Å"way of life† founded on a working belief in the possibilities of human nature and in the capacity of humans for â€Å"intelligent judgment and action† (Martin 438). He addressed the League for Industrial Democracy in 1931 and suggested the ban of Japanese commodities unless they receded their forces from the borders