[ti:John Dewey, 1859-1952: Educator and 'America's Philosopher'] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA [00:01.77]Special English [00:02.96]Education Report. [00:04.93]We have a question [00:06.13]from China. [00:07.53]Feng Tianqiang says [00:09.68]"I want to know something [00:11.40]about John Dewey." [00:13.40]John Dewey was [00:15.11]an influential thinker [00:16.70]and educator. [00:18.80]The New York Times [00:19.89]once called him [00:21.55]"America's philosopher." [00:23.79]Larry Hickman is [00:25.99]director of the Center [00:27.46]for Dewey Studies [00:28.91]at Southern Illinois [00:31.96]University, Carbondale. [00:34.25]He was not surprised that [00:35.74]the question came from China. [00:38.50]"I just returned from [00:39.96]two weeks of meetings [00:41.46]in Beijing in December. [00:43.55]And among the conversations [00:45.99]I had with my Chinese colleagues [00:48.13]was the very close relationship [00:51.07]between Dewey's ideas [00:52.73]and those of Confucius. [00:54.32]I also worked with [00:55.81]a group of lay Buddhists [00:58.60]who like Dewey's work very much [01:00.44]because it is very comfortable [01:02.68]with some of the ideas [01:04.22]of Mahayana Buddhism." [01:06.32]Dewey described his ideas [01:08.24]in books including [01:10.03]"Democracy and Education," [01:12.19]"The School and Society" [01:14.67]and "How We Think." [01:17.51]"Dewey was perhaps [01:18.56]the best known philosopher, [01:19.95]educator and public intellectual [01:22.60]of the twentieth century. [01:24.04]He was active in many fields, [01:26.11]including education, philosophy, [01:28.48]psychology and also humanistic [01:31.54]and humanitarian affairs. [01:33.10]He was an important influence [01:35.34]in the founding of the [01:36.63]American Association of University [01:38.23]Professors and the American [01:39.93]Civil Liberties Union." [01:41.33]He was also influential [01:43.17]in the founding of the [01:44.76]National Association [01:46.02]for the Advancement [01:47.63]of Colored People, [01:49.35]though he himself was white. [01:51.69]John Dewey was born [01:53.93]in Burlington, Vermont, [01:55.94]in eighteen fifty-nine. [01:57.70]He was influenced [01:59.59]by the scientific work [02:01.55]of Charles Darwin. [02:03.40]He was also influenced [02:05.54]by the work done with [02:07.43]immigrant English learners [02:09.38]in Chicago by Jane Addams. [02:12.46]She was a social worker [02:14.57]and the first American woman [02:17.10]to win the Nobel Peace Prize. [02:19.82]And Dewey was influenced [02:22.41]by observing his own children. [02:25.10]At the University of Chicago, [02:28.29]he founded the Laboratory School. [02:31.12]Chemistry courses have labs. [02:34.71]Why not a place [02:36.25]to experiment with education? [02:38.50]But Dewey would likely [02:40.95]have disagreed with many [02:42.86]current practices [02:44.36]in American education, [02:46.13]like the wide use [02:48.02]of standardized testing. [02:50.07]"He thought that testing [02:51.41]had its place, [02:52.78]but that testing should be [02:54.78]more like medical tests. [02:56.34]That is, they should be testing [02:58.65]for individual needs, [03:00.66]interests, abilities, [03:02.29]and not to compare [03:03.85]one student to another. [03:05.29]As Dewey put it, [03:06.81]the relation of the abilities [03:08.62]of one student to another [03:10.21]is none of the teacher's business." [03:11.95]John Dewey died [03:13.49]in nineteen fifty-two. [03:14.88]But Dewey scholar [03:16.74]Larry Hickman says [03:18.27]his ideas are still [03:20.18]being taught in education schools. [03:23.22]In fact, last year [03:25.43]was his one hundred [03:27.12]fiftieth birthday, [03:28.77]Celebrations took place [03:31.24]not only in the United States, [03:33.69]but also at two universities [03:36.43]in Beijing and in Croatia, [03:39.61]Italy and Poland. [03:41.45]And that's the VOA [03:44.10]Special English [03:45.24]Education Report, [03:46.94]written by Nancy Steinbach. [03:48.98]For a link to more on John Dewey, [03:52.56]go to 51voa.com. [03:56.44]I'm Steve Ember.