EXPERIMENTING WITH EDUCATION - DEWEY,JOHN AND YOUNG,ELLA,FLAGG AT THEUNIVERSITY-OF-CHICAGO

Although John Dewey is often described as a ''child-centered'' philoso pher, a careful reading of his writings indicates that he did not beli eve children could learn well without teachers to help link their prio r experience to the experience available in school. The crucial role D ewey assigned teachers has not been fully recognized because Dewey sai d relatively little about teachers in his major educational writings, including Democracy and Education (1916). During his Chicago years, wh ile working closely with teacher advocate Ella Flagg Young, Dewey wrot e incisively about teachers and the political constraints that limited their effectiveness. However, after leaving Chicago, this was not a f ocal point of his major educational works. The significance of this ov ersight is explored in this article, especially in relation to Dewey a nd Young's brief but close and important collaboration.