The School & Society: Being Three Lectures

2010 Reprint of 1900 Edition. The School and Society may be Deweys most popular publication. It describes the rationale behind the University Elementary School that made his pedagogic approach famous. The School and Society is similar to Meads Mind Self and Society. The text is based on stenographic notes of lectures prepared for publication by colleagues in the absence of the author. Deweys approach to education is the basis of Meads later work on educational reform particularly as that work relates to vocational education and approaches to curriculum development in general. Although Dewey is known best for his publications concerning education he also wrote about many other topics including experience nature art logic inquiry democracy and ethics. In his advocacy of democracy Dewey considered two fundamental elements-schools and civil society-as being major topics needing attention and reconstruction to encourage experimental intelligence and plurality. Dewey asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained not just by extending voting rights but also by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion accomplished by effective communication among citizens experts and politicians with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt.