Experience and Education

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was a famous poet in Victorian England. Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, Tennyson began writing poetry at an early age. In 1827, he published his first book of poetry, Poems by Two Brothers. The same year, he entered Cambridge University and befriended other young poets. In 1830, he published noteworthy poems based on a trip to France and Spain, including “The Eagle” and “The Lotos-Eaters.” In 1832, he published a book of poetry called Poems. He rewrote and added to the poetry in that book to produce a two-volume version with the same title in 1842. This new volume included the 1833 poem “Ulysses,” which Dewey quotes in Experience and Education.

The epic poem “In Memoriam,” published in 1850, made Tennyson one of the most famous poets in England. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) named Tennyson poet laureate, successor to William Wordsworth (1770-1850). In 1854, Tennyson published “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” about the Crimean War. Dewey paraphrases this poem in Experience and Education.

By the time he died in 1892, Tennyson ranked among the foremost poets in the world. Readers, especially teachers, knew Tennyson’s poems. Dewey’s use of Tennyson’s poetry both appreciates the depth of its insights into human psychology, as shown in the lines taken from “Ulysses,” and pokes fun at students in traditional schools, comparing them to soldiers in the Crimean War by paraphrasing “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Born in a log cabin in Kentucky and self-taught, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) moved to Illinois with his family in 1830. After serving in the Black Hawk War in 1832, Lincoln became a successful lawyer and politician in Illinois. He was the 16th president of the United States from 1861-1865, during the US Civil War. His Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 helped end slavery in the United States. John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) assassinated Lincoln, and the American public has considered Lincoln a martyr for American democracy for generations. Lincoln is one of the most famous people in United States history, widely regarded as a national hero.

Deeply committed to democratic principles himself, Dewey held Lincoln in great esteem. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” is one among the best-known speeches in political history. Taught in American classrooms since 1863, students and teachers in Dewey’s day would have been familiar with its content. Dewey paraphrases its final line. Instead of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as Lincoln put it, Dewey calls for a philosophy of “education of, by, and for experience” (29). This is at once humorous and quite solemn. The final line in Lincoln’s speech rousingly states the core belief of American democracy, and Dewey’s rephrasing centers experience at the core of his educational philosophy.

Ptolemy (circa 100-170) was an Egyptian mathematician and astronomer. In Almagest, written around 150, he laid out his belief that it was possible to mathematically explain the movements of heavenly bodies. In his view, Earth was a stationary object around which other celestial bodies moved, each at a fixed and calculable rate. The idea of Earth as the center of the universe, called geocentric cosmology, endured until the late medieval period. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) eventually proved that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

Dewey mentions Ptolemy to describe how a complicated but inherited belief can be easier to hold than a simpler, newer one. He uses the analogy to explain how it may be easier to run schools according to a traditional philosophy of education even though progressive education based on student experience is inherently simpler.

Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) proposed that planets move around the sun. Copernicus studied at the University of Cracow, the University of Bologna, and the University of Padua, reading the traditional texts on astronomy grounded in Ptolemy’s complicated geocentric theory of the universe. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, advancing his heliocentric theory, came out just after he died of a prolonged illness. The Catholic Church initially considered the notion of the sun as the center of the known universe heretical, but Copernicus’s ideas laid the basis for modern astronomy.

Dewey invokes Copernicus in describing how a simple approach may be harder if it is unorthodox. Ptolemy’s more complicated geocentric model of the universe reigned until Copernicus’s simpler ideas became dominant in the centuries after his death. Dewey argues the progressive approach to education is by its nature simpler, but it is harder to implement because the more complicated traditional approach is the orthodox way of organizing schools.

Plato (circa 427-347 BCE) was one of the most influential philosophers in world history. A citizen of Athens during the classical Greek period, Plato studied under Socrates (circa 469-399 BCE) and taught Aristotle (384-322 BCE). Around 380 BCE, Plato founded the Academy, an early form of university. Plato developed the Socratic dialogue genre of philosophical address, moral and philosophical parables featuring Socrates as protagonist. These furthered the Socratic method of inquiry, a form of analysis involving cooperative argumentation among teachers and students.

Dewey refers to Plato when discussing the issue of freedom, noting that Plato considered a slave a person serving someone else’s purposes. Dewey calls people who never learn self-control slaves to their own impulses. By connecting this thought to Plato, Dewey gives the claim a heightened sense of moral authority, as Plato was one of the foremost moral philosophers.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was one of the most influential philosophers in history. Living in Athens in the classical Greek period, Aristotle was the student of Plato (circa 427-327 BCE) and heir to the philosophical tradition of Socrates (circa 469-399 BCE). A prolific writer, Aristotle developed enduring theories in various philosophical areas, including logic, metaphysics, and empirical science. Aristotle inspired later thinkers in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Dewey mentions Aristotle in a specific context. He asserts that certain people, fearing educational theory will be subject to fashions and trends, argue for basing education on what Aristotle called “first principles,” or logically irreducible concepts.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was an important philosopher in late medieval Europe. Born in Roccasecca, Italy, he began studying at the monastery of Montecassino at age five. He studied at the University of Naples, then became a Dominican monk, continuing to study at Paris and Cologne. Thomas Aquinas was one of the first medieval European scholars to study the works of Aristotle, merging insights from Greek philosophy with Catholic theology. Religious authorities initially considered his works heretical, but Thomas Aquinas soon became widely read throughout Europe, helping to spark the intellectual movement known as the Renaissance. The Catholic Church canonized Thomas Aquinas in 1323.

Dewey mentions Thomas Aquinas in the same passage as Aristotle, invoking the concept of first principles that Thomas Aquinas borrowed from the Greek thinker. Dewey says that certain people call for education to return to foundational and irreducible logic so it does not drift with changing trends, but Dewey argues instead for the scientific method.