Aims in Education

“An aim implies an orderly and ordered activity, one in which the order consists in the progressive completing of a process… an aim means foresight in advance of the end or possible termination” (p. 108).

Arthur Kehas climbing in Rumney, NH.

I think if everyone involved in education thought critically about what they do and what Dewey writes in this chapter, that might be enough.  If then we consider the education environment as social/emotional we've got quite a lot to work with.

“For it assumed that the aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education -- or that the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth” (p. 107).

“In our search for aims in education, we are not concerned, therefore, with finding an end outside of the educative process to which education is subordinate... We are rather concerned with the contrast which exists when aims belong within the process in which they operate and when they are set up from without” (p. 107).

I think we'd be hard pressed to find an educational environment, especially in public schools, which does not involve a contrast in intrinsic aims of students and aims imposed from outside. 


“Since aims relate always to results, the first thing to look to when it is a question of aims, is whether the work assigned possesses intrinsic continuity” (p. 108).

“To talk about an educational aim when approximately each act of a pupil is dictated by the teacher, when the only order in the sequence of his acts is that which comes from the assignment of lessons and the giving of directions by another, is to talk nonsense” (p. 108).


“An aim implies an orderly and ordered activity, one in which the order consists in the progressive completing of a process… an aim means foresight in advance of the end or possible termination” (p. 108).

I think, as both Dewey and Greene suggest and we've discussed, the citation above is most evident in education in the arts.  But still that depends on how they are taught and what the aims of teaching the arts are.  Certianly preparing for a concert could also be a sequence of following directions.  The arts are not necessarily THE answer, but they have the potential to be AN answer.

“Hence it is nonsense to talk about the aim of education -- or any other undertaking -- where conditions do not permit of foresight of results, and do not stimulate a person to look ahead to see what the outcome of a given activity is to be” (p. 109).

“The foresight functions in three ways. In the first place, it involves careful observation of the given conditions to see what are the means available for reaching the end, and to discover the hindrances in the way. In the second place, it suggests the proper order or sequence in the use of means… In the third place, it makes choice of alternatives possible” (p. 109).

“In turn, the more numerous the recognized possibilities of the situation, or alternatives of action, the more meaning does the chosen activity possess, and the more flexibly controllable is it” (p. 109).

This makes me think of Dewey's notion of the "denotative method."  As we've shared Thoreau is a prime example of at least the first step Dewey mentiones, careful observation. 


“To do these things means to have a mind -- for mind is precisely intentional purposeful activity controlled by perception of facts and their relationships to one another” (p. 110).

“Consciousness… is a name for the purposeful quality of an activity, for the fact that it is directed by an aim” (p. 110)
Mind and consciousness, perhaps two important general aims in education?

The Criteria of Good Aims:

“( 1) The aim set up must be an outgrowth of existing conditions. It must be based upon a consideration of what is already going on; upon the resources and difficulties of the situation” (p. 111).

“An aim must, then, be flexible; it must be capable of alteration to meet circumstances” (p. 111).

“The aim, in short, is experimental, and hence constantly growing as it is tested in action” (p. 112).

“(3) The aim must always represent a freeing of activities” (p. 112).

The above criteria do not make me feel optimistic  about the current state of puplic education.


“Every divorce of end from means diminishes by that much the significance of the activity and tends to reduce it to a drudgery from which one would escape if he could” (p. 113).

In the first grade hallway last week was found written in pencil "I hat schoole."


“Aims mean acceptance of responsibility for the observations, anticipations, and arrangements required in carrying on a function -- whether farming or educating” (p. 114).

“And it is well to remind ourselves that education as such has no aims. Only persons, parents, and teachers, etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education” (p. 114).

I think Dewey's use of the word "responsibility" is interesting.  This reminds me a bit of Greene's use of the word "moral."  Once we are awake to the conditions, how we act in light of intelligence becomes a moral act, we then carry the responsibility for the outcome.  Again I like Dewey's direct analogy to horticulture.


Educational Aims:
“(1) An educational aim must be founded upon the intrinsic activities and needs (including original instincts and acquired habits) of the given individual to be educated” (p. 114).

“(2) An aim must be capable of translation into a method of cooperating with the activities of those undergoing instruction. It must suggest the kind of environment needed to liberate and to organize their capacities” (p. 115).

“(3) Educators have to be on their guard against ends that are alleged to be general and ultimate” (p. 116).

“That education is literally and all the time its own reward means that no alleged study or discipline is educative unless it is worth while in its own immediate having. A truly general aim broadens the outlook; it stimulates one to take more consequences (connections) into account. This means a wider and more flexible observation of means” (p. 116).

“What a plurality of hypotheses does for the scientific investigator, a plurality of stated aims may do for the instructor” (p. 117).