The following are my initial thoughts on John Dewey' s My Pedagogic Creed

Dewey conceives of being educated—I say “being educated” because I think he would embrace the ambiguity of the phrase as both process and the product—as participating in one's community, having a sense of social responsibility. This sense of social responsibility is not so much “knowing of” as “knowing how.” Dewey writes, “I believe that the only way to make the child conscious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those fundamental types of activity which makes civilization what it is.” In other words, doing is the key. His belief that “...all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race,” suggests not just sharing ideas and ideals in a passive, contemplative sense, but as action. We should understand this participation as the compunction to contribute to the commonweal, rather than merely going along for the ride, hoping on board the the social “bus” to get to a place of personal enrichment. Indeed, the educated—again process and product—conceives, “of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs.”

If a sense of belonging, of connectedness to community is the first step in education, and a concern for the community's welfare is the second, the third, as I read Dewey, is an awareness of how one fits in. This awareness of how comes from being able to make distinctions. Dewey speaks of the, “gradual differentiation out of the primitive unconscious unity of social life.” The process of moving past this “unconscious unity” involves making distinctions. The most important of these distinctions involve developing a sense of one's place in society.

...all questions of the grading of the child and his promotion should be determined by reference to the same standard. Examinations are of use only so far as they test the child's fitness for social life and reveal the place in which he can be of most service and where he can receive the most help.

Thus assessment should primarily be about measuring how far and how well this awareness has progressed in each individual.

I think this notion is at odds with the values that most of us in education today professes to one degree or another. We are all about letting the child find herself, not preempting self-discovery, as if this were the purpose of education. Dewey wanted advancement in school to be tied to knowing oneself not for the idle purpose of self-discovery, but rather to make sure that self-knowledge would not proceed independently of a concern for “the welfare of the group.” Implicit in any real, meaningful commitment to the welfare of the group is the willingness give up one's personal gain if it conflicts with the group's betterment.

Our “civilization,” as I read Dewey, is not just what we profess and value as words and beliefs, but what we do, what kind of work we choose to perform, our individual vocations that collectively make our communities function and thrive.

John Dewey, J. (1897), My pedagogic creed. School Journal, 54 (January), 77-80.