Summary: Chapter Seven deals with the importance of considering education in the context of current society and our ideals for society in the future "Any education given by a group tends to socialize tis members, but the quality and value of the socialization depends upon the habits and aims of the group." Dewey then goes on to discuss three important philosophies of education through Plato, Rousseau and the individualistic views of the 18th century, and National/Social views as in Germany. He then goes on to relate these ideas, with their advantages and disadvantages to education in the context of a democratic society.
How do you think education (and it's aims) are effected by our current democratic society? Particularly, where do you see national/political or social aims mixed into our current public school system in the US?
Dewey suggested that a fault of Plato's philosophy is that he didn't recognize the "indefinite plurality of activities which may characterize an individual and a social group and consequently limited his view to a limited number of classes of capacities and of social arrangements." Do you think we have avoided this problem in our "democratic society" and if not, why not and how can we change or should we change this in the future? What parts of society do we want to influence education the most (i.e separation of class, interests of specific groups, etc.)
How can we take steps to insure Dewey's (and Plato's) ideal of having a society which is "stably organized when each individual is doing that for which he has aptitude by nature in such a way as to be useful to others? Can we even determine what aptitudes someone has "by nature", and if so how?
Hope this helps with giving you all more things to think about before class...
Lisa