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'''John Dewey''' (1859-1952) was a major American philosopher and a leading [[liberal]] commentator on public affairs. A student of [[Charles Peirce]] he was a leading exponent of [[pragmatism]] and [[instrumentalism]]. Dewey was especially influential as the philosopher of "progressive education." He sought the reconstruction of society through education in which children discovered knowledge for themselves rather than repeat rote learning .
'''John Dewey''' (1859-1952) was a major American philosopher and a leading [[liberal]] commentator on public affairs. A student of [[Charles Peirce]] he was a leading exponent of [[pragmatism]] and [[instrumentalism]]. Dewey was especially influential as the philosopher of "progressive education." He sought the reconstruction of society through education in which children discovered knowledge for themselves rather than repeat rote learning .
==Progressive Education==
Progressive education maintains that children should be the center of the educational universe, that children can be active learners who learn best by experience rather than by memorization, that a nurturing environment is essential to the educational process, and that women are ideally suited as teachers. By 1900 the reduction in average family size, new gender roles in middle-class families, and the softening of religious orthodoxy were the social context of Progressive education that led to a new appreciation of childhood. The writings of European educators [[Johann Pestalozzi]] and [[Friedrich Froebel]] drew readers who had bad experiences with traditional schools that valued discipline and memorization at the expense of individuality. Educational practitioners who claimed to follow the views of Pestalozzi and Froebel added their own variations and disagreed among themselves. Nevertheless, Dewey and the advocates of the new education shared and accomplished a new way of thinking about the child, the curriculum, and the purposes of schools.<ref> William J. Reese, "The Origins of Progressive Education," ''History of Education Quarterly'' 2001 41(1): 1-24. 0018-2680; Diane Ravitch, ''Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms'' (2000). </ref>
===Favors local control of schools===
Invited in 1924 by the new republican government in Turkey to draw up a report on the country's educational system, Dewey warned about the dangers of centralization and the removal of local control. The Turkish "Law of Unification of Instruction", however, precluded the implementation of his recommendations, mandating instead the use of education to enforce the ideology of the new state and creating a Ministry of Education which was a centralized bureaucracy rather than merely an intellectual guide in the way that Dewey envisaged.<ref> Selahattin Turan, "John Dewey's Report of 1924 and His Recommendations on the Turkish Educational System Revisited," ''History Of Education'' 2000 29(6): 543-555. </ref>
==Impact on China ==
Just before the [[May Fourth movement]] of 1919, Dewey was invited to China by members of China's new intellectual circles. In the following two years, Dewey toured and lectured in many cities in China and systematically propagated pragmatism. Pragmatism caught on wildly, prevailing throughout intellectual and educational circles. At the same time, because his theories fitted in with the needs of the May Fourth movement's ideological emancipation and China's economic development and educational reform, Dewey became the focus of the media and a favorite foreign thinker and educator in intellectual circles in China. Many scholars absorbed pragmatism's positivist spirit and developed Chinese modern positivist philosophy and historical studies. In the meantime, Dewey's educational theory also became the soul of the new educational system of China through its influence on the key links in the reforms and on the standards and curricula of the new educational system.
==Evaluating Soviet Communism==
Dewey chaired the 1937 “trial” of [[Leon Trotsky]], held in Mexico City. The trial absolved Trotsky of attempting to assassinate [[Joseph Stalin]] and incite war against the Soviet Union. Overall, the hearings constituted a decisive moment in American liberalism, which had previously been uncritical in its praise of Soviet Communism. By the time of the trial. Dewey and many American liberals began to examine the Russian Revolution more closely and became convinced of its corruption.<ref> Jay Martin, "John Dewey and the Trial of Leon Trotsky," ''Partisan Review'' 2001 68(4): 519-535. 0031-2525 </ref>
==Dewey and religion==
==Dewey and religion==