Conclusion: History education, nexus

Abstract

“The true starting point of history,” Dewey argued in the midst of the First World War, “is always some present situation with its problems.” John Dewey, as he was wont to do, draws our attention to two positions on a spectrum of possibility—history as a means and as an end—demonstrating that neither is sufficient: “We may reject knowledge of the past as the end of education and thereby only emphasize its importance as a means.” The space in between is defined in context, according to need. Dewey reveals either/or thinking, or the construction of dichotomies, as problematic. Dewey asked: “How shall the young become acquainted with the past in such a way that the acquaintance is a potent agent in appreciation of a living present?”