1859-1952
Philosopher, Educator

Background.

John Dewey was an American philosopher, educator, and psychologist whose widely hailed work provided the basis for much of the teaching practice in the United States in the early twentieth century. He had been a prominent national figure since receiving his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1884, and his growing reputation was marked by his election as president of the American Psychological Association in 1899 and president of the American Philosophical Association in 1905. His distinctive educational philosophy began to take shape in 1896 when he founded an experimental school at the new University of Chicago. This laboratory school, officially called the University Elementary School, blended and utilized many of the new trends in educational thought and practice at the elementary-school level; it especially encouraged constant experiment and inquiry as the principal learning methods for its children. Dewey consciously intended this Chicago school to...