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Rediscovering
John Dewey
How His Psychology
Transforms Our Education
Rex Li
Rediscovering John Dewey
Rex Li
Rediscovering John
Dewey
How His Psychology Transforms Our Education
Rex Li
G.T. College
Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore
189721, Singapore
To my colleagues
at
Dewey Center, Fudan University, Shanghai
and
G.T. College, Hong Kong
Preface
vii
viii PREFACE
he says and what he means. Readers will then be able to examine the
implications of his ideas in the new millennium and global culture.
Rex Li
G.T. College
Hong Kong
References
Boisvert, R. D. (1998). John Dewey: Rethinking Our Time. New York: State
University of New York Press.
Dewey, J. (1882–1953). The Collected Works of John Dewey. The Early Works,
Volume 1–5; The Middle Works, Volume 1–15; The Later Works, Volume 1–17.
Illinois: Southern University Press.
Fairfield, P. (2009). Education After Dewey. London: Continuum.
Fesmire, S. (2015). Dewey. London: Routledge.
Shook, J. R., & Kurtz, P. (Eds.). (2011). Dewey’s Enduring Impact: Essays on
America’s Philosopher. New York: Prometheus Books.
Tan, S. H., & Whalen-Bridge, J. (2008). Democracy as Culture: Deweyan Prag-
matism in a Globalizing World. New York: State University of New York
Press.
Tanner, L. N. (1997). Dewey’s Laboratory School: Lessons for Today. New York:
Teachers College Press.
Tiles, J. E. (1988). Dewey. New York: Routledge.
Contents
Part II Psychology
xi
xii CONTENTS
References 383
Index 401
List of Figures
xiii
List of Tables
xv
PART I
Early Years
CHAPTER 1
Father
John Dewey’s father, Archibald Sprague (1811–1891), was a farmer in
Vermont who moved from the countryside to Burlington and started
a grocery business there. At the time when John Dewey was born,
Burlington was transforming from a village of a few thousand people into
a small town of 14,000. The second largest lumber depot of the country
and a fishing port, it was growing into the commercial and cultural center
of the State of Vermont. The people there, Vermonters, mostly early New
Englanders or the old Americans, possessed attributes of a regional char-
acter: industrious, shrewd, self-reliant, thrifty, without pretense or show,
independent in their thinking, puritanical in their conduct, and deeply
pious (Dykhuizen 1973: 1).
Though Archibald received little education and stammered in speech,
he read Shakespeare and Milton, and enjoyed the play of words,
such as the following advertisements he composed; “Hams and cigars,
smoked and unsmoked”; cigars as “A good excuse for a bad habit”
(Dewey 1939: 5). His pioneering business motto was telling: “Satisfac-
tion (guaranteed or goods) returned” (Martin 2002: 17). A pragmatic
and successful businessman who ran the only licensed medical liquor store
in town, he later became a director of the American Telephone Company
for Northern New England. However, his generosity warranted his care
for others more than his own finances. As Deweyan scholars would appre-
ciate, Archibald’s contrast of opposites and pragmatic paradox (licensed
liquor in temperance) is not uncommon in John Dewey’s writings.
Mother
In 1855, Archibald Dewey, already aged 44 and well established in busi-
ness, married Lucina Rich, aged only 24, who came from a middle-class
family in Vermont. Lucina’s family was part of the social and intel-
lectual elites living in Burlington. Her grandfather, Charles Rich, was
a congressman in Washington; her father, Davis Rich, was a legislator
with the Vermont General Assembly. With the University of Vermont
1 BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE YEARS 5
founded in 1791 in Burlington, this small town attracted the rich and
the educated. The ethos of the Burlington “cultivated society” were:
social equality, intelligence, virtue, minimal snobbishness and some good
manners (Dykhuizen 1973: 3).
Lucina was a pious Christian, who stressed religious morality through
personal introspection and social improvement. She was against all
frivolity and “vices”—drinking, playing pool, gambling, playing cards or
dancing (Martin 2002: 21). She taught Sunday school and was deeply
involved in the Church’s mission work and for helping the poor and
the unfortunate. Her life goal was to “make Burlington a temperate and
moral city, a safe, clean place for young men, a city of virtuous and happy
home.”1 As we shall see, Lucina’ evangelical pietism had lasting impact
on her children.
1 Based on her obituary in the Adams Mission Monthly. Quoted from Martin (2002: 22).
2 The tragic accident was that the little boy fell in a pail of hot water. When treated with
sweet oil and cotton, it accidentally caught fire, causing death of the child and injuries of
the rescuers. See Martin (2002: 5–6).
6 R. LI
and his elder brother Davis became bookworms; they were interested in
reading almost everything except their school books! (Dewey 1939: 9).
CHILDHOOD
Replacement Child
That John Dewey was treated as a replacement child was revealed in many
occasions. While he was the third child in the family, he went to the same
school and in the same grade with the second child, Davis, who was a year
older. Thus John was to speed up and accelerate academically. The two
brothers were close to each other throughout their lives, and John even
advised on Davis’ further studies plan after his college education. When
the younger brother, Charles Miner, had difficulty in schoolwork, he
communicated with John, who always gave encouragement and support.
Lucina had an intimate and intense relationship with John than the
other two children, as evidenced in her frequent lengthy correspondences
with John when he was away from home. John was treated as the replaced
eldest child: when his father became old and ill, he came to live with
John in Ann Arbor before his death in 1891. So did his mother (Martin
2002: 62 and 120). It looks like John Dewey shouldered the family
responsibility of the replaced eldest child.
in the world” (MW1:7), and they enjoyed the creative, productive, inde-
pendent life of farming. Not surprisingly, these became the ultimate ideal
Deweyan life: creative, productive and independent.
Archibald was quite modest and pragmatic: he wished one of the
boys to become a mechanic, but Lucina, whose brother graduated from
college, insisted her sons be the first in the Dewey’s family to go to
college. Dewey’s own interpretation of the poor state of his elementary
education might have affected his theory of education. In Jane Dewey’s
words,
The realization that the most important parts of his own education until
he entered college were obtained outside the school-room played a large
role in his educational work, in which such importance is attached, both
in theory and in practice, to occupational activities as the most effective
approaches to genuine learning and to personal intellectual discipline. His
comments on the stupidity of the ordinary school recitation are undoubt-
edly due in no small measure to the memory of the occasional pleasant class
hours spent with the teachers who wandered a little from the prescribed
curriculum. (Dewey 1939: 9)
Parent–Child Relationship
On the surface, it appears that Dewey’s father was a busy breadwinner,
leaving the child’s education entirely to his wife. The father was distant
and detached while the mother was close and attached. Lucia, then, must
have had more influence on Dewey than Archibald. However, Dewey in
his later life insisted to his second wife, Roberta, that “his father was a
greater influence than his mother.3 ” How are we going to reconcile this?
There is no doubt that John was very close to his mother, who exerted
great influence on him. On the other hand, he longed for the affection
from his father, who, for one reason or another, kept John at a distance.4
It may be related to the tragic accident of the family’s first child that
Archibald found it hard to face. In fact the Deweys moved to a new house
after the tragic accident before John was born. There must be some sense
of guilt (tried to save the baby but the cotton caught fire) unspoken about
3 It was reported Roberta told philosopher George Axtelle about this. See Martin
(2002: 19).
4 This has been confirmed from the correspondences between Dewey and his father.
8 R. LI
the incident. How did the sense of guilt of either or both parents affect
the parent–child relationship we do not know, but it was clear that the
mother was intense and the father looked detached. However, Dewey had
had pleasant memories of his father: “His bringing back to Burlington
sore lotus pods and we used to rattle the seeds in them” (Dykhuizen
1973: 6). The parent–child relationship was reconstructed by Dewey’s
biographer a century later:
……the influence of his mother was very strong, so strong that he had
to learn how to resist it. Although he was influenced by his mother, he
yearned to be affected by his father. He was loved intensely by his mother,
but he hungered for his father’s affections. His father’s attempt to influence
him was as minimal as his mother’s wish to influence him was great. But
while he resisted hers, he would absorb any influence he could get from
his father. Because he remembered what he wished for…… choosing to
identify with his distant father left him, space to become himself. (Martin
2002: 19)
Adolescent Crisis
Dewey’s Christian Faith
Dewey’s parents had different temperaments. The father (Archibald) was
tolerant, easy-going, brash, action-oriented and pragmatic; he took Chris-
tian faith as a Sunday affair; his church going showed little spirit or
drive, but as a successful businessman, he helped his church balance its
budget (Martin 2002: 20). The mother (Lucina) was thoughtful but
strict, intense with missionary zeal; she took charge of the children
and insisted equipping the boys with moral purpose and the pursuit of
responsibility. She was a devoted “partialist” of the First Congregational
Church of Burlington; since the partialist belief was that only part of the
people, not everyone, could be saved, she was deeply concerned about
the souls of her loved ones. Personal piety, moral commitment and social
services were constant themes in the Dewey household. Christianity was
daily life: Sunday for congregational school, Monday for prayer meetings,
and then constant prayers and introspection. “Are you right with Jesus,
John?” were frequent questions Lucina asked that made John feel uneasy
(Fesmire 2015: 12).
At age 11, John was to admit to the communion. Lucina wrote the
declaration and John read,
1 BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE YEARS 9
I think I love Christ and want to obey Him. I have thought for some
time I should like to unite with the church. Now, I want to more, for it
seems one way to confess Him, and I should like to remember Him at the
Communion. (Dykhuizen 1973: 6 and 329)
Religious Crisis
Dewey summarized the character of his religious training: “I was brought
up in a conventionally evangelical atmosphere of the more ‘liberal’ sort”
(Martin 2002: 25). Evangelicalism is noted with the following character-
istics: conversionism, biblicism, crucicentrism and activism (Bebbington
2012). The evangelical doctrine stresses the more liberal interpretation
of the bible as God’s revelation of humanity and believes in salvation by
faith in Jesus Christ’s atonement. Conversion is a “born again” experi-
ence of personal revelation and introspection while active sharing of the
bible and social action is common. It is understandable that young John
pushed himself so much in religious introspection and personal revelation
that led to an adolescent crisis. In his late twenties, Dewey wrote with
resentment, in The Place of Religious Emotion:
Yao-Masewe in Mtua.
Elefantenherde nach Zeichnung von Barnabas, einem gebildeten Muera in Lindi
(s. S. 448).
Elftes Kapitel.
Weitere Ergebnisse.
Chingulungulu, Ende August 1906.