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[Illustration: A test with books open. (Fairhope, Alabama.)
_Frontispiece_.]




    SCHOOLS OF
    TO-MORROW

    BY
    JOHN DEWEY
    AND
    EVELYN DEWEY

    [Illustration]

    NEW YORK
    E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
    681 FIFTH AVENUE




    COPYRIGHT, 1915

    BY

    E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

    _First Printing, May, 1915._
    _Second Printing, August, 1915._
    _Third Printing, March, 1916._
    _Fourth Printing, March, 1916._
    _Fifth Printing, July, 1916._
    _Sixth Printing, July, 1916._
    _Seventh Printing, Jan’y, 1917._
    _Eighth Printing, Jan’y, 1917._
    _Ninth Printing, April, 1919._

    The Knickerbocker Press, New York




PREFACE


There has been no attempt in this book to develop a complete theory
of education nor yet review any “systems” or discuss the views of
prominent educators. This is not a text book of education, nor yet an
exposition of a new method of school teaching, aimed to show the weary
teacher or the discontented parent how education should be carried on.
We have tried to show what actually happens when schools start out to
put into practice, each in its own way, some of the theories that have
been pointed to as the soundest and best ever since Plato, to be then
laid politely away as precious portions of our “intellectual heritage.”
Certain views are well known to every teacher who has studied
pedagogy, and portions of them form an accepted part of every theory
of education. Yet when they are applied in a classroom the public in
general and other teachers in particular cry out against that classroom
as a place of fads and caprices; a place lacking in any far reaching
aim or guiding principle. We have hoped to suggest to the reader the
practical meaning of some of the more widely recognized and accepted
views of educational reformers by showing what happens when a teacher
applies these views.

The schools we have used for purposes of illustration are all of them
directed by sincere teachers trying earnestly to give their children
the best they have by working out concretely what they consider
the fundamental principles of education. More and more schools are
growing up all over the country that are trying to work out definite
educational ideas. It is the function of this book to point out how the
applications arise from their theories and the direction that education
in this country seems to be taking at the present time. We hope that
through the description of classroom work we may help to make some
theories living realities to the reader. On the other hand, we have
dwelt on theoretical aspects in order to point out some of the needs of
modern education and the way in which they are being met.

The schools that are used for illustration were chosen more or less
at random; because we already knew of them or because they were
conveniently located. They do not begin to represent all that is
being done to-day to vitalize the school life of children. Schools
with like traits may be found in every part of the country. Space
has forced us to omit a very important movement--the reorganization
of the rural school and the utilization of agriculture in education.
But this movement shows the tendencies that mark the schools we have
described; tendencies towards greater freedom and an identification of
the child’s school life with his environment and outlook; and, even
more important, the recognition of the rôle education must play in a
democracy. These tendencies seem truly symptoms of the times, and with
a single exception proved to be the most marked characteristics of all
the schools visited.

Without the very material help and interest of the teachers and
principals of the schools visited this book would not have been
possible. We thank them most sincerely for the unfailing courtesy they
have shown in placing their time and the material of their classrooms
at our disposal. Our thanks are especially due to Mrs. Johnson of
Fairhope and to Miss Georgia Alexander of Indianapolis for information
and suggestions. The visiting of the schools with one exception was
done by Miss Dewey, who is also responsible for the descriptive
chapters of the book.

    J.D.




CONTENTS


    CHAPTER                                                  PAGE

       I EDUCATION AS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT                       1

      II AN EXPERIMENT IN EDUCATION AS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT     17

     III FOUR FACTORS IN NATURAL GROWTH                        41

      IV THE REORGANIZATION OF THE CURRICULUM                  60

       V PLAY                                                 103

      VI FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUALITY                            132

     VII THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOL TO THE COMMUNITY          164

    VIII THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL SETTLEMENT                    205

      IX INDUSTRY AND EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT                229

       X EDUCATION THROUGH INDUSTRY                           251