John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been significant in education and social reform. He was one of the most well-known American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century.
He was born on October 20, 1859, in Burlington, Vermont, United States. John graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont in 1879. He began teaching philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan after he received a doctorate in philosophy. There, his interest changed from philosophy to psychology.
In 1904, John left for Columbia University, where he spent most of his career and wrote his most famous work, Experience, and Nature (1925). All his writings from then included articles like politics, aesthetics, and religion. His philosophy's common theme was his own belief that a democratic society of informed was the best means of promoting human interests.
He was a co-founder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism. He was an innovator in functional psychology and also an innovative theorist of democracy. He was a leader of the liberal movement in education in the United States. He is one of the fathers of functional psychology. His paper "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology", which was published in 1896, is regarded as the first major work in the functionalist school. A survey Review of General Psychology ranked him as the 93rd most recognized psychologist of the 2oth century.
To develop his philosophical system, he first needed to expose the flaws in the existing system. He believed that the distinguishing feature of western philosophy is his assumption and the source of whatever reality the world of experience may control. Thus, the Western tradition made a progressive contrast between reality on the one hand and the variations of the worldly human experience on the other.
John died of pneumonia on June 1, 1952, at his home in New York City after years of ill health and was cremated the next day. His theories and all his publications were well known and are still inspiring to millions. His death was truly a loss to this world.
Following are some of the famous John Dewey Quotes on Education and Democracy.
Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.
Imagination is the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. It is the power of forming a mental image of something that is not present in the sense or something that cannot be perceived in reality.
John says that every great invention in science arises from new valor of imagination. It means that every new finding in science occurs due to the imagination power of certain minds. Only when people dare to think, new developments take place in the field of science.
When we start to ponder out of our own comfort zones, ideas start to pour out. And out of those ideas, if we dare to work only then, some new inventions occur. So, have the courage to imagine things and make them a reality.
Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.
Failure is when a goal or a mission is not accomplished. Failure may hurt you, but it surely is an important part of life. It teaches you one of the greatest lessons that even success could not teach you.
This quote says that failure is useful and informative. It is an opportunity where you learn about the strengths as well as the areas of improvement. When you reframe it as an essential part of learning, failure can be considered as a teacher.
The person who thinks when a failure occurs in his life does learn from his failure rather than his success. Failures play a major part in making you understand the importance of success. Only when you learn from your failures, you do understand what success means to you.
Therefore, start learning from your failures as it will help you grow as a person.
A problem well put is half solved.
Problem is a matter or a situation that is regarded as harmful and needs to be dealt with and something that you need to overcome. It is a situation or sometimes a person that is difficult. It is the difficulty that arises in our life and something you need to solve independently.
John says that half of the problem is solved when a problem is put well. He says that when you understand what the issue is, it can be easily solved. He says that you should first try to know what it is when you face difficulties in your life. And then when you put it effectively, it is half done.
So, when you face any issues in your life, try to put them in a way that it can be easily done.
Some more John Dewey Quotes...
We only think when we are confronted with problems.
Problem is generally something that comes to our life at unexpected moments. It is what teaches us life is about. The only thing we need to learn is how to deal with all these problems.
Confronting means allowing people to say what they feel or even their thought process. Also, it is quite important to confront people as you learn what the other person is thinking about. You learn about the opinion of other people. Here, we need to understand that problems do confront us and that too at our worst moments.
This quote is quite the reality that we need to understand. It says that we human beings often procrastinate things until it becomes an issue. We keep on avoiding issues until the problem challenges you.
Therefore, start confronting the problems before it starts to confront you.
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
The goal is something that you are trying to do or achieve. Setting a goal is what gives you a vision in your life. It is what gives you motivation in your life.
John says that when you achieve your goal, you reach the starting point of another. It means that when you attain a goal, you start thinking of something else as we human beings are people who always want to accomplish something or the other.
He says that the journey of achieving a goal takes us to a whole new level. Then the need to achieve something other arises in you. And that is how reaching one goal makes a beginning of the other.
Continue reading some of the best John Dewey Quotes....
To me, faith means not worrying.
Faith is to be assured of the things that you hope for. When you have faith in something or someone, you start to trust or believe in it strongly. It is like a belief but without proof.
John says that for him, faith means to not get stressed about the thing you believe in. If you have even hoped that something you believe in will surely happen, do not worry. When you believe in something, you should have an amount of trust.
So, when you have that trust, you should not fret over things. Therefore, when you start believing in something, forget all your worries and enjoy your life.
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
Education is the process of receiving or giving knowledge at a school, university, or maybe at home. It means inculcating moral values, positive thinking, values, and many other things which are taught to students at school for the betterment of society.
John says that education is not something that prepares us for life. It indeed shows you the way to lead your life. But it doesn't prepare you for the journey called life. It is not preparation but life itself.
When you learn something, you start to understand things. You apply it in your daily life and try to understand how it works. Slowly you learn the value of education when you start to earn on your own. Therefore, education slowly turns into your life itself.
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.
You are someone who keeps on changing as a person. Self is the word that is termed for you as the person. It is something that is formed by continuous process and hard work.
John says that the term "self" is not tailor-made. It is something which is in constant development. When you learn something new or when your age increases, there will be certain changes inside you.
He says that we as a person develop through the set of choices we make in our life. The options which we chose are what make our life different. Choices are what determines the life we are going to lead in the future.
Continue reading some of the best John Dewey Quotes...
To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.
Happiness is something that we achieve when we do something that we love to do. Generally, the feeling that comes to you when you know is good, and you cannot help, but smile. It is a feeling of positivity and pleasure.
John says that the solution to our happiness is to find out what we really can do in our life. It means to find out what we can achieve in our life. When we understand what we can really do, we need a step towards it. And when an opportunity occurs to do something, take it as a chance to do it.
And when you do what you can really do in your life, you feel a sense of joy coming to you. And that wave of joy is what you can really call happiness.
There's all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something.
This quote is a simple one and the one which people often confuse with each other. The difference between the two terms is almost the same, yet there is a thin line between them.
Having something to say means to have an opinion about something or to express what you feel about something. Having to say something means having the right or power to say something. Both the terms mean the same thing, and yet you can see the difference between them both.
When you have something to say, you can just express your opinions, and there is no need that someone will even listen to you. But when you have to say something, you have a kind of authority where people will have to listen to you and at times obey.
Therefore, understand the difference between both and learn to behave appropriately.
Some more John Dewey Quotes....
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning.
Attitude is the way of feeling towards a person, thing, or a particular situation.
It is a way of thinking or a feeling about something in particular. It is something that helps to determine a person's behavior.
John says that the major thing that you need to understand in your life is attitude. It is something that can be formed whenever you want to. It is generally the need of learning new things. When you learn a thing, you start to understand, and then you slowly inculcate it in your life.
When you inculcate the values, you start to change as a person. You learn to change and grow as a person. Therefore, attitude is a thing that can make or break a person as a whole.
Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.
Communication means receiving and imparting knowledge or information through speaking, writing, by any other medium. The transferring of information can be from one place, person, or group.
In this quote, communication is compared with an affair. An affair is nothing but a relationship between two people, one or both of whom are committed to another person. So, the quote says that communication is like a relationship formed with people you speak to. It is the affair where you enjoy the amount of information shared between you and the other person.
So, this affair is the most wonderful. As in this, you need not care or understand what the person feels. You simply need to take the knowledge or information the person gives and also share with them something that you know. And, this is how communication becomes one of the most beautiful affairs of all.
The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.
The urge is simply the desire to do something. It means to encourage someone very strongly. It is the need to want a thing in your life.
This quote says that every human has some or other need in their life. The biggest wish that a human has in his life is to be important for someone in their life. As when you become important to a person, you become the reason they have a smile on your face.
When you become important to a person, their mind is almost preoccupied with your thoughts. All your actions start to affect them. Then they become possessive and protective about you. And that feeling of being important to someone is exciting and quite a journey which you need to experience at least once in your life.
The two limits of every unit of thinking are a perplexed, troubled, or confused situation at the beginning, and a cleared up, unified, resolved situation at the close.
When you start to do something in your life, you often feel confused and nervous. A feeling of failure starts to develop in you even before you try.
Thinking is a process that often leads to a conclusion when you start to think on the right path. There are always certain limits to our thinking. When you begin doing a thing, you often feel confused, troubled, or puzzled at first.
When you are almost on the path of finishing the task, you start to feel that it was easy and quite simple. When you actually complete doing things, the situation starts to clear up, becomes simple and resolved.
Therefore, do not worry even if it becomes tough initially as it will automatically become effortless.
Never let fear define who you are, and never let where you came from determine where you are going.
Fear is the unpleasant emotion that is generally caused by pain, danger, or harm. It is a feeling of being afraid of something or someone in particular. When a person has fear, it means that a person is scared or afraid of something.
This quote explains that fear is not something that should affect you as a person. Yes, fear is good at times as it does motivate you to do better. But everything goes wrong when fear lets you define yourself as a person.
It should not pressurize or restrict the creativity which lies in you. It should not affect you as a person. The path where you came from or the road you are about to take should not be because of fear.
Remember that you will always be afraid of things, so do whatever you want to.
Each individual that comes into the world is a new beginning; the universe itself is, as it were, taking a fresh start in him and trying to do something, even if on a small scale, that it has never done before.
When a new life is born into this world, everything will be a new experience for the baby. The universe will take a new course with the baby. It will be a new start for life as well.
John says that when an individual comes into the world, it is a new start for the individual. The world itself also starts a new beginning along with the individual. It seems that the world too, takes a fresh start in him. It tries to do something different, even if it small.
The change brought by the universe starts on a small scale, and it does things that it has never tried before. It feels like the universe is also learning new things in the form of the newborn individual.
We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.
An experience is an event or something which has already occurred which leaves an impression on others. It can also be termed as a thing that creates an impression on someone.
This quote explains to us what can be actually be obtained from an experience of a person. We generally do not learn anything from experience. As even if we are experienced, we tend to make some mistakes in doing the same thing.
We learn from our experience only when we start to consider where we went wrong. When we truly understand the things that need to be improved from our experience, only experience truly matters.
So, only when you start reflecting on your experiences, you grow as a person.
If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow.
A student is a person who is studying at a school, university, or another place where they get to learn something—someone who is studying to enter a particular profession.
John says that if we teach students what we taught yesterday, it will be quite unfair to them. Each day is a new beginning, and a teacher needs to teach something new every time. If the same thing is taught to the student of today, we actually cheat them as they miss an opportunity to learn something new.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to teach new things each time he starts to teach. So, start instructing and learning new things as both make you a better person.
Art is the most effective mode of communication that exists.
Art is the expression of our own creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, writing, music, or anything which involves our own individuality.
Communication is something where any type of information or knowledge is shared over any medium. This quote explains to us that art is one of the most effective ways of communication that exists. It is the easiest and the one that creates more impact on the audience that perceives art.
There are situations in your life when people do not understand what you are trying to say. So, in these situations, you design a way to help people understand what you wanted to. And that is something you create out of your own imagination - which is called art.
Like the soil, mind is fertilized while it lies fallow until a new burst of bloom ensues.
This quote of John is quite a poetic one and one which has a lot of poetic comparisons in it. It is one of the most beautiful and the simplest one of all the quotes mentioned above.
In this quote, our mind is compared to the soil that is fertilized to ensure the proper growth of crops. A human mind enables them to be aware of the experiences they go through, which helps us feel and think about the things happening all around the world.
Like the soil, our mind, too, needs a fertilizer where there is empty land. Our mind is like a bare land, and there we need to put certain fertilizers that ensure that a new burst of bloom occurs.
It means that our mind is like soil, and we too, need thoughts that will help us to think of new methods and ways to grow further.
So, always do glow and bloom like a flower.
The journey called life is never-ending. There's always going to be problems, improvements, growth, and many other changes. You just need to take it all in and do what's right. So continue to grow as a person and try to live in the moment.
