DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION by John Dewey Transcriber's Note: I have tried to make this the most accurate text possible but I am sure that there are still mistakes. Please feel free to email me any errors or mistakes that you find. Citing the Chapter and paragraph. Haradda@aol.com and davidr@inconnect.com are my email addresses for now. David Reed I would like to dedicate this etext to my mother who was a elementary school teacher for more years than I can remember. Thanks. Contents: Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life Chapter Two: Education as a Social Function Chapter Three: Education as Direction Chapter Four: Education as Growth Chapter Five: Preparation, Unfolding, and Formal Discipline Chapter Six: Education as Conservative and Progressive Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception in Education Chapter Eight: Aims in Education Chapter Nine: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims Chapter Ten: Interest and Discipline Chapter Eleven: Experience and Thinking Chapter Twelve: Thinking in Education Chapter Thirteen: The Nature of Method Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of Subject Matter Chapter Fifteen: Play and Work in the Curriculum Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History Chapter Seventeen: Science in the Course of Study Chapter Eighteen: Educational Values Chapter Nineteen: Labor and Leisure Chapter Twenty: Intellectual and Practical Studies Chapter Twenty-one: Physical and Social Studies: Naturalism and Humanism Chapter Twenty-two: The Individual and the World Chapter Twenty-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education Chapter Twenty-four: Philosophy of Education Chapter Twenty-five: Theories of Knowledge Chapter Twenty-six: Theories of Morals Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life 1. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing.