Dewey's Challenge to Teachers

Given the serious social problems confronting Americans and others worldwide, the authors propose that Dewey's 1932 challenge to teachers is worthy of reconsideration by educators at all levels. In times similar to our own, Dewey challenged teachers to cultivate students' capacities to identify their happiness with what they can do to improve the conditions of others. At first glance, his challenge seems utopian. In order to justify their proposal for reconsideration, the authors explicate Dewey's challenge by discussing two aspects of the thinking that lies behind it. These are 1) Dewey's concept of ethical love and his argument that it is a means to social reform and 2) Dewey's concept of happiness and his argument that ethical love is the means to happiness. The authors conclude that in an educational climate focused principally on helping students earn a living, we need to be, like Dewey, equally concerned with helping students have a life worth living.