Dewey: Chapter II Education is the function of society.

I. Nature and significance of the environment

As we said above, a * * * isomorphism or social group maintains itself through constant self-renewal, which depends on the education and growth of immature members of the group. Through various unintentional and planned systems, society transforms ignorant and seemingly heterogeneous people into sound guardians of their own resources and ideals. Therefore, education is a process of nurturing, nurturing and nurturing. All these words mean that education means paying attention to the conditions for growth. We also use words such as nurturing, training and education to indicate different educational levels. Etymologically, the word education happens to be a process of guidance or upbringing. When we think about the results of the process, we say that education is an activity of shaping, forming and shaping-that is, shaping into a standard model of social activities. In this chapter, we will study the general characteristics of the methods used by social groups to train immature members into their own social models.

Since what is required is to transform the quality of experience and make it have all kinds of interests, purposes and concepts popular in social groups, then the problem is obviously not a simple material problem. Matter can be moved and transported in space. Faith and ambition can't be taken out and inserted materially. So how do they communicate? As we all know, they cannot be directly transmitted or instilled. We must always find ways to make young people absorb the views of the elderly, and the elderly make young people share their interests.

Generally speaking, the answer to the question is: it depends on the role of the environment, causing some reactions. The required beliefs cannot be forced; The attitude you need can't be posted. But the specific living conditions of an individual lead him to see and feel one thing, not another; It guides him to make a certain plan in order to act successfully with others; It strengthens some beliefs and weakens others as a condition to win others' approval. Therefore, living conditions gradually produce a certain behavior system and a certain tendency to act on him. The words "environment" and "living conditions" refer not only to the things around the individual, but also to the special continuity of the things around and the trend of the individual's own activities. Of course, inanimate objects are related to the things around them; However, unless a metaphor is used, the surrounding situation does not constitute the environment. Because inorganic matter doesn't care about the forces that affect it. On the other hand, some things are far away from a creature, especially human beings, in space and time, and can even form his environment more realistically than some things that are close to him. A person's activities vary from thing to thing, and these things are his real environment. Therefore, the activities of an astronomer vary with the stars he stares at or calculates. In his surroundings, his telescope is the closest to him. As a cultural relic worker, his environment includes not only the ancient dynasties in which he cared about human life, but also the relics and inscriptions he used to establish contact with that era.

In short, the environment includes all kinds of conditions that promote or hinder, stimulate or inhibit the unique activities of living things. Water is the environment for fish, because water is necessary for fish's activities and life. The Arctic is an important part of an Arctic explorer's environment, whether he arrives at the Arctic or not, because the Arctic explains his activities and makes them have their own characteristics. It is precisely because life means not only a negative existence (if there is such a thing), but a way of action, so the environment or living conditions enter this activity and become the conditions that support or frustrate.

Second, the social environment

When a person's activities are linked with those of others, he has a social environment. What he does and what he can do depends on the expectations, demands, approval and condemnation of others. A person who associates with others can't complete his own activities without considering others' activities. Because these activities are indispensable conditions for realizing his various trends. When he is active, he causes other people's activities; When others are active, it also causes his activities. We might as well imagine a businessman doing business and buying and selling himself. His activities can be explained by his isolated actions. In addition, a manufacturer makes plans alone in his accounting office, and his activities are as truly guided by society as when he buys raw materials or sells finished products. The thoughts and feelings related to the common actions of others, as well as the most obvious concerted or hostile actions, are also social behaviors.

In particular, we should point out how the social environment cultivates immature members. It is not difficult to understand how the social environment shapes their external behavior habits. Even dogs and horses change their actions when they come into contact with people. They form different habits because people care about what they do. Humans control animals by controlling natural stimuli that affect them. In other words, by creating an environment. Food, chews, horses, noise and vehicles are all methods used to guide the natural or instinctive reactions of horses. Through stable operation, it causes some action and forms a habit, which acts in the same way as the original stimulus. If you put a mouse in a maze and let it turn several times in a certain order to get food, its activities will change gradually until it is used to taking this road instead of the other one when it is hungry.

People's actions also change in this way. Burned children are afraid of fire. If parents arrange some conditions so that children will be burned every time they touch toys, they will learn to avoid toys automatically, just like not touching fire. However, what we just discussed is the so-called training that is different from education and teaching. What we consider is the change of external action, not the change of psychological and emotional tendency of behavior. However, this difference is not obvious. As you can imagine, the child may eventually have a strong dislike not only for a specific toy, but also for a certain toy he imagined. This antipathy still exists even after he forgets the initial burn, and he will even invent some reasons to explain his seemingly unreasonable antipathy in the future. In some cases, we can change the external behavior habits by changing the stimulation of environmental influence on action, and we can also change the psychological tendency related to action. But this doesn't always happen. A person is trained to avoid threatening blows, and he will automatically avoid them without corresponding thoughts or feelings. Therefore, we must find some differences between training and education.

There is a fact that can explain this difference. Horses don't really participate in the social function of their behavior. Some people use horses to do useful things and give them some benefits, such as getting food. However, this horse may not have any new interests. It is still interested in food, but not in service. It is not a partner in action. If it becomes a partner, it will be as interested in the success of the activity as others when engaging in the same activity, so as to share their thoughts and feelings.

Many times, there are too many cases, and the activities of immature people are only used to acquire useful habits. He is trained like an animal, not educated like a man. His instinct is still attached to their initial pain or happiness. But in fact, to be happy or avoid the pain of failure, he must act in a way that others agree with. In other cases, he really shared or participated in the same activities. In this case, his original impulse was changed. He not only acted by agreeing with others' actions, but also aroused the same thoughts and feelings that inspired others in his actions. For example, there is a militant tribe whose success and achievements are related to fighting and victory. The appearance of this environment has caused the child's bellicose performance, first in the game, and then in his strong enough practice. When he fought, he won praise and promotion; When he is not fighting, he is not loved, laughed at or praised. As expected, his original aggressive trends and feelings were strengthened at the expense of other trends and feelings, and his thoughts turned to things related to war. Only in this way can he become a fully recognized member of the group, so his psychological habits gradually assimilate into the psychological habits of the group.

If we sum up the principles contained in this example, we will see that the social environment neither directly instills certain wishes and concepts into people, nor just develops certain pure muscle action habits, such as "instinctively" blinking or avoiding blows. The first step is to create an environment to stimulate some tangible actions. Let an individual become a participant or partner in a common activity, and let him feel that the success of the activity is his success, and the failure of the activity is his failure. This is the last step. Once he is dominated by the emotional attitude of the group, he will be alert to the special purpose of the group and the methods used to succeed. In other words, his beliefs and concepts will adopt similar beliefs and concepts of others in the group. He will also get the same wealth of knowledge, because this knowledge is an integral part of the occupation he is used to.

The importance of language in acquiring knowledge is undoubtedly the main reason why people generally believe that knowledge can be directly transmitted from one person to another. It seems that to pass an idea to another person's head, all we have to do is pass the sound to his ear. Therefore, imparting knowledge becomes similar to the process of pure physics. However, if we analyze language learning, we will find that it conforms to the principles just put forward. It can be admitted without hesitation that a child obtains the concept of a hat by using it like others, putting it on his head, giving it to others, and putting it on others when going out. However, some people may ask how the principle of this * * * activity is applied to the concept of obtaining Greek helmets through words or reading, and it is not directly applied. What are the activities of learning and discovering American history from books?

Since language is often the main tool for learning many things, let's take a look at how language works. Babies, of course, start with meaningless simple sounds, noises and tones, that is, they don't express themselves. Sound is just a stimulus that causes a direct response. Some sounds are soothing, others make people jump, and so on. The pronunciation of the hat, if not associated with the actions that many people participate in, will be as meaningless as unclear snoring. When a mother takes her baby out, she will put something on her baby's head and say "hat" at the same time. For children, being taken out of the door becomes an interest; Not only do mothers and children go out together, but both of them are related to going out; They like going out together. By combining other factors in the activity, the voice of "hat" will soon gain the same meaning to children and mothers; The voice "hat" became a symbol of the activities he participated in. The fact that language is composed of sounds that can understand each other is enough to explain the meaning dependence of language and the connection between language and experience.

In short, the sound "hat" and the thing "hat" get its meaning in the same way. The sound of a hat and this thing of a hat have the same meaning to children and adults, because both of them are used in the experience of * * *. The fact that the pronunciation of the words hat and hat was first used in joint activities as a means to establish positive contact between children and adults can ensure the same usage. Two people have similar ideas or meanings, because they are engaged in an activity as partners, and what each person does depends on what the other person does and affects what he does. For example, there are two barbarians hunting together. One signal means "go right" to the person who sends the signal, but it means "go left" to the person who hears the signal. Obviously, they can't hunt successfully together. Mutual understanding means that things, including sound, have the same value to people who do the same job.

After sound gains meaning by connecting with other things used in joint work, it can be connected with other similar sounds to develop new meaning, just as the contents they represent are combined. So children learn this word, such as the Greek helmet, which was originally used in an action with the same interest and purpose to gain meaning (or be understood). Now, by encouraging listening or reading aloud to rehearse the imaginary use of this helmet, they evoke new meanings. At present, people who understand the meaning of "Greek helmet" become the companions of those who use it psychologically. It is not easy for him to grasp the full meaning of these words by imagining that he is engaged in similar activities. Most people may stop at "helmet", which means a strange hat once worn by Greeks. Therefore, our conclusion is that the use of language to convey and acquire ideas is the expansion and purification of the principle that things gain meaning by using them in the same experience or common action; It has never violated this principle. When words do not obviously or imaginatively become factors of the same situation, they take effect just like pure physical stimulation, and have no meaningful or rational value. They make activities follow the routine, but they are not accompanied by conscious purpose or significance. Therefore, for example, the plus sign may be a stimulus to action. However, unless the person who does this action understands the significance of what he is doing, his activities are like robots.

Third, the educational nature of the social environment.

As a result of our discussion above, social environment can shape the intelligence and emotional tendency of individual behavior through various activities of individuals. These activities can arouse and strengthen some impulses, and have certain goals and bear certain consequences. A child who grows up in a musician's family is bound to inspire any ability in music, which is relatively more dynamic than other impulses that may be awakened in another environment. There is no hope unless children are interested in music and have certain attainments; He can't enjoy the life of his group. It is inevitable to participate in the lives of those who have personal relationships; For them, the social environment exerts the influence of education and shaping unconsciously and aimlessly.

In a savage and uncivilized society, this kind of direct participation (that is, what we call indirect or accidental education) has almost become the only influence to educate young people so that they can acquire the customs and beliefs of the group. Even in the current society, even for the young people who insist on school education most, this kind of direct participation provides them with basic education. According to the interests and occupations of the group, some things become objects of high respect, while others become objects of disgust. Combination will not produce the impulse of love and disgust, but provide them with the object of attachment. The way a group or a class does things often determines what should be paid attention to, thus stipulating the direction and scope of observation and memory. Anything strange or foreign (that is, something other than group activities) is usually not allowed by morality and is often suspected intellectually. For example, it seems incredible to us that what we know very well was not known in the past. We tend to attribute this situation to the stupidity of our ancestors and the assumption that we have superior natural wisdom. However, this happens because their lifestyle does not attract their attention to these facts, but they are paying attention to other things. Just as the senses need to stimulate them with what they can feel, our observation, memory and imagination are not self-initiated, but are initiated by the requirements put forward by the current social occupation. The main structure of our tendency is formed by these influences, which has nothing to do with school education. The most that conscious and thoughtful teaching can do is to release all kinds of abilities formed in this way, let them make full use of them, provide something for young people and make their activities more meaningful.

Although this "unconscious influence of the environment" is elusive and ubiquitous, affecting every fiber of personality and psychology, it may be valuable to point out several aspects of its most significant influence. First, language habits. The basic speech patterns and a large number of vocabulary formed in daily life communication are not used as prescribed teaching means, but as a social need. It is said that babies learn their mother tongue. Although the language habits formed in this way may be corrected or even replaced by conscious teaching, when they are excited, the language pattern of conscious learning often disappears and their real mother tongue is restored. Second, instruments. The power of example is greater than motto. We often say that a good appearance is the result of a good education, or the result of a good education; Education is developed through habitual behaviors that stimulate habits, not through imparting knowledge. Although conscious correction and teaching continue to play a role, the surrounding atmosphere and spirit are the main forces that ultimately form the instrument. Appearance is only a secondary morality. In terms of subject morality, conscious teaching can only be effective if it conforms to the general standards of words and deeds of people who constitute children's social environment. Third, aesthetic feeling and appreciation. If the eyes often come into contact with things with beautiful and harmonious forms, aesthetic standards will naturally develop. Vulgar, disorderly and over-decorated environment will destroy aesthetic feeling.

Just as a poor and barren environment will starve to death the desire for beauty. Under such unfavorable conditions, conscious teaching only conveys some second-hand old sayings about beauty that others have said. The beauty gained from legends will never be spontaneous, nor will it have a deep-rooted influence on people, but it is only used to remind people what others think. The deeper value judgment standard is composed of the situation that a person is used to participating in, and cannot be regarded as the fourth point, because it is the integration of the above points. We use conscious estimation to distinguish what is valuable and what is not, but we seldom know to what extent this conscious estimation is influenced by standards that we are not aware of at all. But we can generally say that what we take for granted without studying or thinking is what determines our conscious thoughts and conclusions. These thoughtless habits are formed in the giving and receiving relationship with others in our daily communication.

Fourth, the school is a special environment.

The importance of the above discussion about whether people like the ongoing education process lies in making us notice that the only way for adults to consciously control the education of immature people is to control their environment. They act in this environment, so they think and feel in this environment. We never educate directly, but indirectly through the environment. There is a big difference between allowing an occasional environment to do this work and designing an environment for educational purposes. Any environment, unless it has been carefully adjusted according to its educational effect, is an accidental environment in terms of its educational influence. The difference between a wise family and an unwise family lies mainly in whether the prevailing habits of life and communication in the family are chosen according to their thoughts on developing relations with their children, or at least with this ideological color. But, of course, schools are always aware of the typical environment formed according to the intellectual and moral tendencies that affect their members.

Generally speaking, when the social tradition is very complicated and a considerable part of social experience is recorded in words and transmitted through written symbols, the school of thought comes into being. Written symbols are even more artificial or traditional than oral symbols; They can't be learned just by associating with others. In addition, written forms often choose and record things that have nothing to do with daily life. The achievements accumulated by each generation are stored in it, although some of them are temporarily useless. Therefore, once a society relies on its own territory and things other than its direct descendants to a considerable extent, it must rely on fixed school institutions to ensure the proper transmission of all its resources. Give an obvious example: the life of the ancient Greeks and Romans deeply influenced our lives, but the way they influenced us did not appear on the surface of our daily experience. Similarly, those people who still exist but are far away from us in space, such as the British, Germans and Italians, are directly related to our social affairs. However, if there is no clear explanation and attention, it is impossible to understand the essence of mutual influence. By the same token, we can't explain to young people the role of distant natural forces and invisible organizations in our activities by daily joint life. Therefore, a special social communication mode has been established, that is, the school will handle this matter.

Compared with the combination of daily life, this combination has three special functions worthy of attention. First, a complex civilization is too complex to be fully absorbed. It must be divided into many parts and absorbed step by step. At present, there are a lot of relationships in our social life, which are intertwined with each other. Even the most advantageous children can't share many of the most important parts quickly. Because children are not involved in these relationships, their meanings are not understood by children, so they will not become part of their psychological tendency. See the trees but not the forest. People should pay attention to the hustle and bustle of commerce, politics, art, science and religion. The result was a mess and I was at a loss. The main responsibility of the social institutions we call schools is to provide a simplified environment. Choose a variety of basic ones that can respond to the characteristics of teenagers. Then establish an orderly and gradual order, and learn more complex factors by means of the factors learned first.

Second, the duty of the school environment is to try to eliminate the ugly phenomenon in the existing environment, so as not to affect children's psychological habits. Schools should establish a clean activity environment. The purpose of choice is not only to simplify the environment, but also to remove bad things. Every society is burdened with some unimportant things, old wastes and really evil things, which hinder progress. Schools have the responsibility to exclude these bad things from the environment, so as to try their best to resist their influence in the usual social environment. Schools choose the best things for their own use and strive to enhance their strength. With the society becoming more and more enlightened, schools realize that their responsibility is not to inherit and preserve all the achievements of society, but only to inherit and preserve the parts that contribute to a better society in the future. Schools are the main institutions in society to achieve this goal.

Third, the responsibility of the school environment lies in balancing various components in the social environment, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to avoid the restrictions of their social groups and establish dynamic links with the wider environment. The class names "society" and "isomorphism" may be misleading, because we often think that there is a single thing that matches these nouns. In fact, modern society is loosely linked by many societies. For example, each family and its close friends form a society; A group of game partners in the country or on the street are a * * * identical body; Every business group and every club is the same entity. In addition to these closely related groups, countries like ours have various races, different religious groups and different economic regions. In modern cities, although nominally a political unity, there may be more * * * identities, more different customs, traditions, ambitions and different government or management models than in the past.

Every such group has the power to form a positive tendency of group members. A faction, a club, a gang, an abettor's theft group and a prisoner in a prison all provide an educational environment for those who join their group or engage in activities, just like a church, a trade union, a business gang or a political party. Every one is a joint or * * * lifestyle, just like a family, a town and a country. There are also many homophones whose members have little or no direct connection, such as artists' associations, scholars' associations and members of professional academic groups scattered around the world. Because the purpose is the same, we can directly change the activities of each member by understanding the activities of other members.

In the past, the diversity of groups was generally related to geography. There are many societies, but each society is similar within its own territory. However, with the development of commerce, transportation, transportation and immigration, countries like the United States are made up of groups with various traditional habits. It is this situation that perhaps more than any other reason, an educational institution is needed to provide a similar and balanced environment for teenagers. Only in this way can we resist the centrifugal force produced by the combination of different groups in the same political unit. Teenagers of different races, religions and customs are mixed in a school, creating a new and broader environment for everyone. * * * The same textbooks make everyone accustomed to a unified point of view and see a broader prospect than any isolated group member. The assimilation ability of American public schools is a strong evidence of the efficacy of harmony and balance.

Schools also have a function. Everyone's social environment is different, everyone's tendency is influenced by different forces, and schools play a coordinating role. For example, there is a norm at home; Another standard for crossing the street; In the workshop or shop, the third standard is dominant; In church, the fourth rule is the most important. When a person moves from one environment to another, it is bound to be influenced by various opposite pulling forces, resulting in a danger, which makes a person have different judgment standards and emotional standards on different occasions. This danger has brought stability and integration to the school.

abstract

The development of teenagers' attitudes and tendencies in the continuous and progressive social life cannot occur through the direct transmission of beliefs, emotions and knowledge, but through the intermediary of the environment. Environment includes all conditions related to the special activities of organisms. The social environment is composed of all the activities of all the partners that any social member combines with him in the process of activities. To what extent individuals participate in certain activities, the social environment has many real educational effects. Because individuals participate in joint activities, they take the purpose of incentive activities as their own purpose; Be familiar with the methods and materials of this activity, acquire the necessary skills and soak up the emotional spirit of the activity.

When teenagers gradually participate in the activities of various groups to which they belong, their tendencies are unconsciously cultivated by deeper and closer education. However, with the increasing complexity of society, it is necessary to provide a special social environment and pay special attention to cultivating the ability of minors. This special social environment has three important functions; One is to simplify and sort out many factors of the trend to be developed; The second is to purify the existing social habits and conceptualize them; The third is to create a broader and more balanced environment so that young people are not restricted by the original environment.