Experience and Education

Dewey reiterates the idea of experiential continuity, that each experience shapes perception of future experiences. Educators must discriminate between educationally useful and harmful experiences.

Progressive education fits our democratic ideals, learned from sources such as the media, politicians, and laws. People elsewhere come to different conclusions, including preference for fascism. Habits form these principles. The basic characteristic of habits is that every experience modifies how learners think, and this affects how they interpret future experiences.

Not naming the source, Dewey punctuates his point by quoting the 1833 poem “Ulysses” by Alfred Tennyson:

…all experience is an arch wherethro’

Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades

Forever and forever when I move (35).

Every experience affects how learners encounter later experiences. When a child learns to walk and talk, these abilities change how the child interacts with the world. Experiences can inhibit development, as in when an overindulged child seeks only what is pleasurable and is unable to confront obstacles.

Dewey highlights interaction between internal and objective or external factors in every situation. Ignoring internal attributes of pupils, traditional schools have an easier job organizing education.