Democracy and Education - Chapter One - Education as a Necessity of Life

Oct 19, 2026

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Democracy and Education by John Dewey presents education as an essential mechanism for sustaining life through renewal and continuity. Chapter One develops the idea that living beings transform surrounding energies for self-preservation, then extends the principle to human experience and social groups. Because each generation is born immature and adults pass away, education becomes necessary to transmit language, beliefs, practices, and skills so society can continue and adapt over time.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages175

Reading Time4 h 30 min

AccessFree to download

Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life

Renewal of life by transmission

Life as a self-renewing process through action on the environment

Continuity of life through reproduction and readaptation

Life and experience as the full range of human social history

Education as the means of social continuity

Democracy and Education by John Dewey Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life 2 Chapter Two: Education as a Social Function 7 Chapter Three: Education as Direction 13 Chapter Four: Education as Growth 21 Chapter Five: Preparation, Unfolding, and Formal Discipline 27 Chapter Six: Education as Conservative and Progressive 35 Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception in Education 41 Chapter Eight: Aims in Education 50 Chapter Nine: Natural Development and Social Efficiency as Aims 56 Chapter Ten: Interest and Discipline 63 Chapter Eleven: Experience and Thinking 70 Chapter Twelve: Thinking in Education 76 Chapter Thirteen: The Nature of Method 82 Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of Subject Matter 90 Chapter Fifteen: Play and Work in the Curriculum 97 Chapter Sixteen: The Significance of Geography and History 103 Chapter Seventeen: Science in the Course of Study 109 Chapter Eighteen: Educational Values 115 Chapter Nineteen: Labor and Leisure 124 Chapter Twenty: Intellectual and Practical Studies 130 Chapter Twenty-one: Physical and Social Studies: Naturalism and Humanism 137 Chapter Twenty-two: The Individual and the World 144 Chapter Twenty-Three: Vocational Aspects of Education 151 Chapter Twenty-four: Philosophy of Education 158 Chapter Twenty-five: Theories of Knowledge 163 Chapter Twenty-six: Theories of Morals 169 Originally Published in 1916 © 2008 Student Handouts, Inc. Toledo, Ohio, U. S.A. John Dewey-Democracy and Education 2 Chapter One: Education as a Necessity of Life 1. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses themis to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment. In all the higher forms this process cannot be kept up indefinitely. After a while they succumb; they die. The creature is not equal to the task of indefinite self-renewal. But continuity of the life process is not dependent upon the prolongation of the existence of any one individual. Reproduction of other forms of life goes on in continuous sequence. And though, as the geological record shows, not merely individuals but also species die out, the life process continues in increasingly complex forms. As some species die out, forms better adapted to utilize the obstacles against which they struggled in vain come into being. Continuity of life means continual readaptation of the environment to the needs of living organisms. We have been speaking of life in its lowest terms–as a physical thing. But we use the word "Life" to denote the whole range of experience, individual and racial. When we see a book called the Life of Lincoln we do not exp

FAQs

What does Dewey mean by the distinction between living and inanimate things?

Living things maintain themselves through renewal by turning surrounding energies into means of continued existence, rather than simply resisting and being shattered like inanimate matter.

How does Dewey connect physical renewal to human experience?

He extends continuity through renewal from bodily life to the whole range of experience, including beliefs, ideals, hopes, and social practices that are recreated as humans live in communities over time.

Why is education necessary according to Chapter One?

Because new members of a social group are born immature while adults hold the group’s knowledge and customs, education initiates the young into the group’s interests, purposes, skills, and practices so society can continue.

Oct 19, 2026

Upload by Elsa