Democracy+and+Education+Chapter+14

Chapter 14 The Nature of Subject Matter

Dewey discusses the nature of subject matter in four contexts; the subject matter of educator and learner, the development of subject matter in the learner, science or rationalized knowledge and subject matter as social. Dewey says that subject matter “consists of the facts observed, recalled, read, and talked about, and the ideas suggested, in course of a development of a situation having a purpose.” He then tries to connect and apply this definition to school subjects such as reading, writing and history.
 * Summary**

According to Dewey it is necessary to instruct the young in order to perpetuate group life. The subject matter learned by this group can’t just exist for its own sake. There must be a connection between subject matter and the social values of the group. The material must be made up of the ingredients of the culture that is to be perpetuated. It is important to keep in mind the difference in subject matter between the teacher and the student. The teacher already knows the things his student is learning thus it is necessary that the teacher have the subject matter at his fingertips and focus his attention on the attitude and response of his pupil. The teacher should focus on the student’s needs and capacities rather than on simply the material itself. Thus mere knowledge is not enough. The teacher must know the subject matter as well as his student.

Knowledge exists in stages according to Dewey. It first exists as //the power to do// and then is deepened through communicated information. Education must recognize this step of active doing to avoid isolation from the needs of the learner and mere memorization and recitation by the learner. Dewey says that we are best acquainted with the things we use most often thus we must have knowledge of things in an intimate and emotional sense. Dewey emphasizes the importance of intercommunication to knowledge because people can learn from the experiences of one another. Dewey notes that from elementary school through college, the educational ideal is to acquire a little bit of knowledge in each area of learning. The acquisition of this knowledge depends up the learners response to what he is communicated.

When Dewey talks about rationalized knowledge he says that experience makes us aware that there is difference between intellectual certainty of subject matter and our certainty. He says that the ideal of scientific organization is that every conception and statement should follow from others and lead to others.

From a social perspective, Dewey believes that it is necessary that education consist of material that has social worth. The curriculum should adapt to the needs of the existing community life and must improve life to ensure that the future will be better than the past. The material learned must be humanized so that it connects to man and the experiences that all humans have in common. For Dewey, the three R’s of education are simply not enough and do not constitute a democratic education.

School Instruction- the precise studies that make up the curriculum, such as reading, writing, mathematics, history, etc. (Pg. 180)
 * Key Terms:**

Possibilities- the chance at which the student has to intellectually grow, not the state at which they are currently at. It is up to the educator to allow for the growth to occur. (pg 182)

Posse- used to describe the student (or students as a whole). The student is a seen as a malleable, and is up to the teacher, as an individual, to teach in correlation to the student’s capacities. (pg 183)

//Popular Terms denoting knowledge (//pg 185) - Attention- caring for a thing, both in the sense of affection and looking out for its welfare. - Thoughtful/considerate- to heed the claims of others - Good sense/judgement- to know the conduct that a situation calls for - Wisdom- the proper direction of life - Knowledge- in education, a store of information aloof from doing

Course Study- information distributed into various branches of study, subdivided into lessons. (pg 187)

Ascertained- with knowledge, things are discovered with certainty through examination. (pg 188)


 * Key Passages**

"The things which are socially most fundamental, that is, which have to do with the experiences in which the widest groups share, are the essentials. The things which represent the needs of specialized groups and technical pursuits are secondary. There is truth in the saying that education must first be human and only after that professional." Dewey is a firm believer in education as essential to a truly democratic society. His belief that all students must get a firm foundation in the "essentials" echoes the desire of the proponents of the "One Best System" to turn a diverse conglomeration of immigrants into homogenized Americans. By emphasizing the "experiences in which the widest groups share," educators would turn out students indoctrinated into their culture as well as knowledge gleaned from books. The fundamental things Dewey emphasizes would improve the common life, while the individual and specialized education needed for a career would come second. "...all the educator can do is modify stimuli so that response will a surely as is possible result in the formation of desirable intellectual and emotional dispostions" (180) "Organized subject matter represents the ripe fruitage of experiences like theirs, experiences involvong the same world, and powers and needs similar t theirs. It does not represent perfection or infallible wisdom" (182) "...the teacher should be occupied not with subject matter in itself but in its interaction with the pupils' present needs and capacities" (183) "To the one who is learned, subject matter is extensive, accurately defined, and logically interrelated. To the one who is learning, it is fluid, partial, and connected through his personal occupations" (184) "Impulses of communication and habits of intercourse have to be adapted to maintaining successful connections with others; a large fund of social knowledge accrues" (186) "But experience makes us aware that there is difference between intellectual certainty of //subject matter// and //our// certainty" (188) "Even in the case of failure, we are inclined to put the blame not on the inadequacy and incorrectness of our data and thoughts, but upon our hard luck and the hostility of circumstance (189) "The ideal of scientific organization, is, therefore, that every conception and statement shall be such kind as to follow from others and to lead to others...This double relation of "leading to and confirming" is what ia meant by the terms logical and rational" (190) "The scheme of a curriculum must take account of the adaptation of studies to the needs of the existing community life; it must select with the intention of improving the life we live in common so that the future shall be better than the past" (191) "Democracy cannot flourish where the chief influences in selecting subject matter of instruction are utilitarian ends narrowly conceived for the masses, and, for the higher education of the few, the traditions of a specialized cultivated class" (192)

How can we connect and apply the four context of nature matter to school subjects such as reading, writing and history? why must there be a connection between subject matter and the social values of the group,? why is it necessary to instruct the young in order to perpetuate group life?
 * Discussion Guiding Questions:**