Education as Growth

"The inclination to learn from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the process of living is the finest product of schooling" (p. 56).

Trillium, as seen during ED 5010, May 2009.

“This cumulative movement of action toward a later result is what is meant by growth” (p. 46).

“Now when we say that immaturity means the possibility of growth, we are not referring to absence of powers which may exist at a later time; we express a force positively present -- the ability to develop” (p. 46).

“The futility of the assumption [that growth has an end in mind] is seen in the fact that every adult resents the imputation of having no further possibilities of growth; and so far as he finds that they are closed to him mourns the fact as evidence of loss, instead of falling back on the achieved as adequate manifestation of power” (p. 47).

“Taken absolutely, instead of comparatively, immaturity designates a positive force or ability, -- the power to grow” (p. 47).

I like the analogy between education and growth, and the notion that the role of the educator is to see that the environment provides the conditions for growth.  Of course the current educational climate demands that growth be efficient, and in quantifiable increments, in particular directions; not so much as an end in itself whose priority is to ensure the possibility of future growth.


“If it were said that children are themselves marvelously endowed with power to enlist the cooperative attention of others, this would be thought to be a backhanded way of saying that others are marvelously attentive to the needs of children. But observation shows that children are gifted with an equipment of the first order for social intercourse. Few grown-up persons retain all of the flexible and sensitive ability of children to vibrate sympathetically with the attitudes and doings of those about them” (p. 48).

“From a social standpoint, dependence denotes a power rather than a weakness; it involves interdependence… It [independence] often makes an individual so insensitive in his relations to others as to develop an illusion of being really able to stand and act alone -- an unnamed form of insanity which is responsible for a large part of the remediable suffering of the world” (p.49).

Again, Dewey ties education and growth to the social landscape. 


“As a result, the chick is limited by the relative perfection of its original endowment. The infant has the advantage of the multitude of instinctive tentative reactions and of the experiences that accompany them, even though he is at a temporary disadvantage because they cross one another.  In learning an action, instead of having it given ready-made, one of necessity learns to vary its factors, to make varied combinations of them, according to change of circumstances. A possibility of continuing progress is opened up by the fact that in learning one act, methods are developed good for use in other situations. Still more important is the fact that the human being acquires a habit of learning. He learns to learn” (p.50) (emphasis mine).

“Increasing complexity of social life requires a longer period of infancy in which to acquire the needed powers; this prolongation of dependence means prolongation of plasticity, or power of acquiring variable and novel modes of control. Hence it provides a further push to social progress” (p. 50).

Because of the social environment human beings live in, we have been able to allow learning to be primarily concerned with ore learning.  Or, because human beings are born in such an immature manner, and we gradually connect multiple actions with multiple responses, we are able to almost continuously fine tune nuanced actions.  Through trial and error, we create miniature experiments with the world and select the best result.  Either way, the complex actions of human beings take time to learn, and it is precisely this process which allows us to continue learning.


“A habit means an ability to use natural conditions as means to ends” (p. 51).

“…we get used to things by first using them” (p. 52).

“Habituation is thus our adjustment to an environment which at the time we are not concerned with modifying, and which supplies a leverage to our active habits” (p. 52).

“A habit also marks an intellectual disposition. Where there is a habit, there is acquaintance with the materials and equipment to which action is applied. There is a definite way of understanding the situations in which the habit operates. Modes of thought, of observation and reflection, enter as forms of skill and of desire into the habits that make a man an engineer, an architect, a physician, or a merchant” (p. 53).

“Routine habits, and habits that possess us instead of our possessing them, are habits which put an end to plasticity. They mark the close of power to vary” (p. 54).

At some point growth stops, and what we have is less than conscious, but direct action on the environment for a response.  A habit seems to be something like a mechanical motion of the body, although we have habits of mind as well. 


“When it is said that education is development, everything depends upon how development is conceived. Our net conclusion is that life is development, and that developing, growing, is life. Translated into its educational equivalents, that means (i ) that the educational process has no end beyond itself; it is its own end; and that (ii) the educational process is one of continual reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming” (p. 54).

“Normal child and normal adult alike, in other words, are engaged in growing… With respect to the development of powers devoted to coping with specific scientific and economic problems we may say the child should be growing in manhood. With respect to sympathetic curiosity, unbiased responsiveness, and openness of mind, we may say that the adult should be growing in childlikeness” (p.55).

The second part of the above citation reminds me of Thoreau "I have always regretted that I am not as wise as the day I was born."  It certainly would be wise to be curious, and unbiased.  Perhaps in this way we as teachers can continuously strive to learn from our students.


“Three ideas which have been criticized, namely, the merely privative nature of immaturity, static adjustment to a fixed environment, and rigidity of habit, are all connected with a false idea of growth or development, -- that it is a movement toward a fixed goal. Growth is regarded as having an end, instead of being an end” (p. 55).

“Since conformity is the aim, what is distinctively individual in a young person is brushed aside, or regarded as a source of mischief or anarchy. Conformity is made equivalent to uniformity. Consequently, there are induced lack of interest in the novel, aversion to progress, and dread of the uncertain and the unknown” (pp. 55-56).

“Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth, there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more education. It is a commonplace to say that education should not cease when one leaves school. The point of this commonplace is that the purpose of school education is to insure the continuance of education by organizing the powers that insure growth. The inclination to learn from life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all will learn in the process of living is the finest product of schooling” (p. 56).

“What impulses are moving toward, not what they have been, is the important thing for parent and teacher” (p. 57).