The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum

"The School and Society" and "The Child and the Curriculum" succinctly set forth John Dewey's revolutionary philosophy of education as an experimental, child-centered process. For years, educators have turned to this classic volume for insight and practical guidance. Yet Dewey's renown and his enduring readership raise a curious question: why haven't more of this important thinker's ideas been put into practice?Philip W. Jackson addresses this question in a new and substantial introduction in which he looks back on the history of the University of Chicago Lab Schools and discusses their transformation. This centennial edition also restores to the volume a "lost" chapter dropped by Dewey in 1915. In this essay, written three years after the inception of the Lab Schools, Dewey himself critiques the efforts to realize his theories in that institution. This edition brings Dewey's educational theory into sharper focus, framing his two classic works, "The School and Society" and "The Child and the Curriculum," by frank assessments, past and present, of the practical application of those remarkable ideas.