Exposition And Critique Of Dewey's Democracy And Education

John Dewey (1859-1952) was an outstanding American philosopher, educator and the founder of educational philosophy of pragmatism. Inspired and influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution, Hegelian doctrine and pragmatism, based on the eight-year education experiment in the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, after the thorough understanding of the great changes in American social life in the early 20th century, Dewey criticized the drawbacks of traditional education and became the father of educational philosophy of pragmatism. Nearly all his thoughts of educational philosophy of pragmatism were illustrated in the book Democracy and Education (1916). Those who want to get a thorough understanding of his thoughts should have an earnest study of the book. Up to now, because of various reasons, people haven't gone deep into the soul of it, even some misunderstands exist.Herman Harrell Home (1874-1946) was another American educational philosopher in Dewey's Era, who held the educational philosophy of Christian idealism. In The Democratic Philosophy of Education: Companion to Dewey's Democracy and Education, Home gave a thorough exposition of Dewey's Democracy and Education. Since both Dewey and Home were greatly influenced by the western culture, especially the American culture, with the help of Home's exposition, we can correct some mistakes and make a clearer understanding of Dewey's thoughts.Home admitted that Dewey was the person who brought the greatest changes to the field of education after Plato, but because of the different theory background, he held different point of view from Dewey. In The Democratic Philosophy of Education: Companion to Dewey's Democracy and Education, based on educational philosophy of Christian idealism, he gave a detailed analysis and sharp criticism of Dewey's view. Despite some unreasonable points of view, he had pointed out the limits of Dewey's theory.Dewey's educational theory had a good many modern factors, while Home was the vindicator of traditional education. The controversy between Home and Dewey, as a matter of fact, was the fight between traditional education and modern education. Recently, a similar debate occurred between Wang Cesan and Zhong Qiquan in Chinese educational circle. What can we learn from this argument? Maybe we can find the answer when turning back to Dewey's theory and Home's criticism.