John Dewey on Democracy

Paper Summary:

John Dewey, one of the most important philosophers of the 19th century, presented many ideas about the idea of democracy in the educational system. This paper shows that John Dewey believed that without a well-educated citizenry, democracy, the way democracy should be, in any case, would come to a screeching halt. It explains his belief that the populace, uneducated and uninformed, could not possibly make good choices for themselves, could not elect intellectually capable leaders, because they themselves were not intellectually capable. The free flow of ideas that is the lifeblood of a well-informed populace and a healthy democracy would end because of a poorly educated populace. The paper also shows the influence of Dewey's theories on later thinkers.

From the Paper:

"For Dewey, there are two polarities in the field of education. On one hand, there is traditional education. On the other hand, there is progressive education. Traditional education implied a relatively structured, disciplined, ordered, didactic education. Progressives, like Dewey, favored a relatively unstructured, free, student directed education. Dewey's main criticism of traditional education was that it was not holistic enough in its understanding of children and students. He also took traditional education to task for having a curriculum focused on content that is meant to be good for individuals in the future as opposed to paying attention to what the student and society needs in the present."

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