Quotation
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“Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”
John Dewey · Pragmatism · Modern · 1897
What does it mean?
Education, Dewey says in the creed, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. The child is not in a waiting room. A rival reading hears 'whatever the child feels like', the caricature he spent years rejecting. Growth, in his account, has direction. Another rival, more stern, says preparation is exactly what a school owes the future, and that calling the present 'life itself' lowers the standard. He thinks a process that is pure postponement has already failed, including when the test scores look like seriousness.
Did John Dewey really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Dewey's English. The creed says: 'I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.' The shorter proverb 'education is not preparation for life; education is life itself' is a later smoothing of this sentence.
Where it comes from
My Pedagogic Creed, article 2
Approximate date: 1897.
How to use it
A teacher in a Hackney primary asks what is being lived in the lesson, not only what is being stored for a test in July. Pure postponement fails his test. So does a room with no direction. The creed is not a licence to skip the skill because the children are 'experiencing'.
A mindset reading
Standards are not dropped. He argues for habits and for a community in which the habits are intelligent. 'Living' is a demand on the quality of the present activity, not a mood.
Understand the philosophy
My Pedagogic Creed is the short statement. Democracy and Education, in 1916, is the full philosophy: inquiry, habits, and a democratic community as the environment in which education is living rather than a queue.
- knowledge
- change
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
Education, Dewey says in the creed, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living. The child is not in a waiting room. A rival reading hears 'whatever the child feels like', the caricature he spent years rejecting. Growth, in his account, has direction. Another rival, more stern, says preparation is exactly what a school owes the future, and that calling the present 'life itself' lowers the standard. He thinks a process that is pure postponement has already failed, including when the test scores look like seriousness.
Did John Dewey really say this?
Well attested. Dewey's English. The creed says: 'I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.' The shorter proverb 'education is not preparation for life; education is life itself' is a later smoothing of this sentence.
Which work is it in?
My Pedagogic Creed, article 2 Approximate date: 1897.