|
The John Dewey Society for
the Study of Education and Culture |
||||||||||
|
Commission on Social Issues |
|
|
"I
believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress
and reform. All reforms which rest simply upon the law, or the threatening
of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements,
are transitory and futile.... But through education society can formulate
its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus
shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which
it wishes to move.... Education thus conceived marks the most perfect
and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience."
--John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, 1897 |
The John Dewey Society Or, How the Dewey Society is Unlike the Sierra Club and the ACLU Every attentive citizen is familiar with large public interest membership organizations like the Sierra Club and the American Civil Liberties Union. They deluge us with their membership campaigns and their pleas for money. They provide members with informative communications about their activities, which the rest of us can also read about in the daily newspapers. I wager that many members of the Dewey Society are members of one or more of such organizations. The members of the Dewey Society, however, have an entirely different role than members of these other organizations. Members of the Sierra Club or the ACLU are attentive to issues of environmental protection or civil liberties. They appreciate the scientific, scholarly, and public service works of these organizations, They identity with their missions, and are pleased to support them with their dues, their time, and other contributions. Some few may communicate their ideas with the organizations. They authorize the organizational leaders to speak for them in public and policy-making arenas. Members of the Dewey Society are likewise attentive to issues of education and culture. They identify with the Dewey Society mission, appreciate the Society’s contributions to scholarship, and are pleased to support the society with their dues. And that is where the similarity ends. The members do not authorize the organizational leaders to speak for them in public or policy making arenas, because in most cases they would prefer a spirited dialogue about what positions or policies are best, and they want to take direct part in that dialogue. As educators and academic professionals they are equipped and positioned to speak for themselves. They offer thoughtful contributions of their own to the scholarly journals we support, Educational Theory and Education and Culture, and to our newsletter, Insights. The mission of the Dewey Society, however, cannot adequately be fulfilled by such internal contributions alone, or by similar scholarly contributions. The communications are too self-enclosed. To further the work of the society the members must shoulder the work of communicating with, and engaging, various publics and policy-makers, and bringing them into a dialogue grounded in the core liberal-progressive values that motivated Dewey and that continue to inspire us. Ideally, that process should in turn give rise to better informed and more thoughtful communications by members of those publics and policy-making bodies, in newspapers and journals of opinion and their own newsletters, and in legislatures and executive agencies. The end-in-view is to articulate liberal-progressive public voices and policy ideas to compete with the status quo and conservative alternatives now dominating the media and the organs of government. Recently the board of directors of the John Dewey Society created a Commission on Social Issues. The Commission is now exploring ways to encourage and assist John Dewey Society members in contributing to this effort. We ask you to share your thoughts with us about this project, and to let us know of your willingness to join with us in breathing the Dewey spirit into the larger public and policy-making arena. Please take a moment to think about how you can contribute to this effort, and please let me know (by e-mail) that you are willing to participate. Leonard J. Waks, Chair Commission for Social Issues John Dewey Society |
| johndeweysociety.org | Built by cac. |