 The 20th century had brought with it many astounding innovations and social revolutions. Among these was the rise of democracy as the premier form of government throughout the world. With this now being the case, it was becoming very clear that if the democratic political system was to survive, education must descend from its ivory tower and touch the mind of the common man. Happy to lead the charge was John Dewey. Born on October 20th, 1859, Dewey showed considerable merit from an early age. So much so that by 15 he had already begun his college education at the University of Vermont. This would prove to be but only the beginning of what would be a magnificent career spanning some 70 years. He wrote extensively from start to finish and by the time of his death, in 1952, he had finished and published over 1,000 works. But of as many subjects, education is what has primarily carried his name into the contemporary world of academia. Around the time of his graduation from Johns Hopkins where he received a doctorate in philosophy, there was an age old battle being fought on American soil. This was no war of arms, but one of values. The participants included educational romantics, which Dewey referred to as the new, and educational traditionalist who he called the old. The eternal battle between new and old, chaos and control, rages on. From the new or romantic side of the aisle, we have an educational ideal which places importance on who the child is in respect to their individual disposition, claiming that only this is required as their educational starting point. In contrast, the old or traditional way of educating took each child as an empty receptacle ready to be filled with information deemed appropriate by their educator, this regardless of disposition. It was Dewey's hope that his system could put this endless debate to rest and give to America an educational system amenable with the democratic political system which had held and championed. Throughout his life he dedicated many hours writing articles, essays and books, all in the service of creating the ideal philosophy of education. The most important of these works, Democracy and Education, came to us in 1916. It should be noted that of the two aforementioned systems, Dewey leaned more toward the old traditional ways if only because of their emphasis on discipline and memorization. This is not to say that he was not, in some degree, in agreement with the romantics. The child's natural disposition, he believed, should be the starting point of education. But it cannot be the only starting point. What he thought to be of equal importance, and something we must also take into account, is who the child is, where they are from, what their cultural background is, and what their community places value upon. All of these factors must be integrated into our system. If not, we risk alienating a child simply because what we are teaching them is not in accordance with their developing needs. And if we are not successful in creating an environment which reproduces the child's individual social circumstances, then interest, as well as success in education, is likely to dramatically decrease. With this in mind it should go without saying that a national standardization will not do. The vast differences between individual children will inevitably prevent its success. It should not be the mindset that each child should strive to attend a prestigious university of which only a select few will actually attain. The aim is to educate with the primary objective being the preparation of each child to function, as highly as is possible, in the democratic society which they will soon inherit. When executed correctly, we gain the greatest likelihood of developing them to their full potential in giving to each student the ability to make use of their individual capacities. The question of education, said Dewey, is the question of taking hold of children's activities, of giving them direction. We are not only preparing the child to pass from adolescence to adulthood, but preparing him or her for a continuous growth of the mind and a continuous illumination of life. In order that we as a society should achieve this we must make significant changes to those who educate our children. They must, in addition to knowing their specific subject, also be trained to identify and separate differing cultural systems. This of course would be rather difficult on our educators and would require generous investment, as well as the restraint to withhold personal prejudices so as to avoid any indoctrination to that educators or to that institution's ideology. Each must be given those lessons which addressed problems pertaining to their actual life or what was most likely to be the life which they would grow into. This desire to connect education with society as a whole is rooted in his fervent wish for a thriving democracy. It was his thought that whether a democracy succeeds or whether it fails depends primarily on the education which it provides to its citizens. This in Dewey's mind is because what a democracy requires most of all is the ability of its people to work through problems and to develop creative solutions which allow for productive communication and coexistence between differing opinions. Without the lessons which were to develop these characteristics it would be difficult for a child to develop the skills and habits necessary to thrive and contribute fully to a democratic society. Democracy, he said, is the faith that the process of experience is more important than any special result attained so that the special results achieved are of ultimate value only as they are used to enrich and order the ongoing process. Since the process of experience is capable of being educative, faith in democracy is all one with faith and experience and education. It is clear from the texts that Dewey understood the faults of democracy but he also understood the dangers of such systems as aristocracy and monarchy. If we could only see philosophy as the general theory of education then perhaps we could bring it back from the dark corners of epistemology to something which would aid us in solving the ills which affect our everyday lives. The task of future philosophy, he said, is to clarify men's ideas as to the social and moral strife of their own day. If you enjoyed the video or found it to be helpful be sure to like and subscribe, there will be more to come. And as always, thank you for talking philosophy with me, until next time.