Teachers, Leaders, and Schools: Essays by John Dewey

The Teacher and the Public (1935)

The Teacher and the Public (1935) WHO IS A WORKER? Are teachers workers? Do workers have common ties to unite them? Should these ties be expressed in action? These are some of the questions I want to discuss with you for a few moments this evening. Who is a worker? I answer this question by saying that all who engage in productive activity are workers. It is customary to speak of a certain class of criminals as “second-story workers.” The appellation is obviously humorous, and so it is when we speak of one person “working” another to get something out of him. Not every form of activity, even if it brings in some return to the person engaged in it, is work. It is work only when it is productive of things that are of value to others, and of value not simply in a particular case but when that kind of activity, is generally of service. Those who live upon the work of others without rendering a return are parasites of one kind or another. The man who lives upon interest, dividends or rent is, so far as that includes what he does, a parasite. There is something intellectually and morally, as well as economically, topsy-turvy when honor, esteem and admiration go to a section of society because its members are relieved from the necessity of work. To believe otherwise is to believe that those who subtract from the real wealth of society instead of adding to it are the highest type. Everybody assents to this statement in theory, but in fact the attention given in this country to the rich just because they are rich, proves that we do not live up to our theoretical belief. Are teachers workers? The basis for answering this question has been given. Are they engaged in productive activity? Are only those persons who turn out material products producers? Physicians who maintain the health of the community are certainly producers of a fundamental social good. The business of the teacher is to produce a First published in Vital Speeches of the Day 1 (28 January 1935): 278–79, from a speech broadcast 16 January 1935 over radio station WEVD, New York City, as part of the NBC University of the Air series. 241 242 The Democratic Society higher standard of intelligence in the community, and the object of the public school system is to make as large as possible the number of those who possess this intelligence. Skill, ability to act wisely and effectively in a great variety of occupations and situations, is a sign and a criterion of the degree of civilization that a society has reached. It is the business of teachers to help in producing the many kinds of skill needed in contemporary life. If teachers are up to their work, they also aid in production of character, and I hope I do not need to say anything about the social value of character. Are teachers producers, workers? If intelligence, skill and character are social goods, the question answers itself. What is really important is to see how the production of material things depends finally upon production of intellectual and moral goods. I do not mean that material production depends upon these things in quantity alone, though that is true. The quality of material production depends also upon moral and intellectual production. What is equally true and finally even more important is that the distribution and consumption of material goods depends also upon the intellectual and moral level that prevails. I do not need to remind you that we have in this country all the means necessary for production of material goods in sufficient quantity, and also, in spite of the low grade often produced because of desire for profit, that we have all the resources, natural and technical, for production of sufficient quantities of good quality. Nevertheless, we all know without my telling you that millions have no work, no security and no opportunity either to produce or to enjoy what is produced. Ultimately, the state of affairs goes back to lack of sufficient production of intelligence, skill and character. Why do I say these things which are, or should be, commonplace? I say them because of their bearing on the third question I raised. Do teachers as workers, as producers of one special kind of goods, have close and necessary ties with other workers, and if they do, how shall these ties be made effective in...