Moral Principles in Education . John Dewey

Abstract

It is one of the complaints of the schoolmaster that the public does not defer to his professional opinion ascompletely as it does to that of practitioners in other professions. At first sight it might seem as though thisindicated a defect either in the public or in the profession; and yet a wider view of the situation wouldsuggest that such a conclusion is not a necessary one. The relations of education to the public are differentfrom those of any other professional work. Education is a public business with us, in a sense that theprotection and restoration of personal health or legal rights are not. To an extent characteristic of no other- 2 -Moral Principles in Education, by John Dewey.institution, save that of the state itself, the school has power to modify the social order. And under ourpolitical system, it is the right of each individual to have a voice in the making of social policies as, indeed,he has a vote in the determination of political affairs. If this be true, education is primarily a publicbusiness, and only secondarily a specialized vocation. The layman, then, will always have his right to someutterance on the operation of the public schools.