How We Think
Public-domain ebook
How We Think
by John Dewey
Language: en5,563 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Philosophy & Ethics·Teaching & Education
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #37423.
About this book
John Dewey’s How We Think is a systematic treatise on educational psychology that opens with a candid appraisal of early‑twentieth‑century schooling. He laments the “multiplication of studies” and the burden on teachers who must address pupils individually, then proposes a unifying principle: the cultivation of a scientific attitude of mind. Dewey argues that the natural curiosity and experimental impulse of childhood are already close to scientific thinking, and he sets out to show how recognizing this kinship can improve individual happiness and reduce social waste. The book’s structure follows this argument, moving from a definition of thought through logical analysis to concrete methods for training the mind, all grounded in his experience at Chicago’s Laboratory School and his collaborations with educators such as Ella Flagg Young.
The prose is characteristically pragmatic and conversational, reflecting Dewey’s early‑1900s academic voice. He blends philosophical exposition with practical classroom concerns, using clear examples and occasional asides to illustrate distinctions among idle, imaginative, and reflective thought. Readers who enjoy thoughtful, historically situated explorations of how learning can be shaped by inquiry, particularly teachers, education scholars, and anyone interested in the roots of progressive pedagogy, will find Dewey’s methodical yet accessible style engaging.
Who appears in How We Think
- John DeweyMiddle‑aged man with round spectacles, graying beard, dark suit, academic demeanor
- Ella Flagg YoungProfessional woman, hair in a neat bun, glasses, high‑collar dress, confident expression
The opening · free to read
Our schools are troubled with a multiplication of studies, each in turn having its own multiplication of materials and principles. Our teachers find their tasks made heavier in that they have come to deal with pupils individually and not merely in mass. Unless these steps in advance are to end in distraction, some clew of unity, some principle that makes for simplification, must be found. This book represents the conviction that the needed steadying and centralizing factor is found in adopting as the end of endeavor that attitude of mind, that habit of thought, which we call scientific. This scientific attitude of mind might, conceivably, be quite irrelevant to teaching children and youth. But this book also represents the conviction that such is not the case; that the native and unspoiled attitude of childhood, marked by ardent curiosity, fertile imagination, and love of experimental inquiry, is near, very near, to the attitude of the scientific mind. If these pages assist any to appreciate this kinship and to consider seriously how its recognition in educational practice would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste, the book will amply have served its purpose.
It is hardly necessary to enumerate the authors to whom I am indebted. My fundamental indebtedness is to my wife, by whom the ideas of this book were inspired, and through whose work in connection with the Laboratory School, existing in Chicago between 1896 and 1903, the ideas attained such concreteness as comes from embodiment and testing in practice. It is a pleasure, also, to acknowledge indebtedness to the intelligence and sympathy of those who coöperated as teachers and supervisors in the conduct of that school, and especially to Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, then a colleague in the University, and now Superintendent of the Schools of Chicago.
NEW YORK CITY, December, 1909.
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