Education as a Necessity of Life

In the first section of John Dewey’s chapter on “Education as a Necessity of Life,” he explains that life exists or is “renewed” by the sharing or “transmitting” of experiences – “customs, institutions, beliefs, victories and defeats, recreations and occupations.” “Education, in its broadest sense, is the means of this social continuity of life.” We are born with perhaps only basic instincts but to live fully and to carry on the progress made before us and make more progress in the future, we need to be “educated” by those around us. This education can be very informal – learning from our parents, our peers, our environment, and it can be much more formal in a school – teacher to student – setting. But overall, life can not develop and expand without some type of education or transmission of ideas and experiences.

In the second section of his chapter, Dewey discusses the role of communication in education. “All communication [transmission of life] is educative. To be a recipient of communication is to have an enlarged and changed experience.” As a human being, and as an English educator specially, I could not agree more with this statement. When we communicate with each other, we are sharing our life and experiences, and we are educating each other. Some people may be resistant to learning from these communications and experiences, but they are educational opportunities none the less. Communication is the key to developing as an individual, as a relationship, as a family, as a workplace, and as a society. For these reasons, I believe communication skills are imperative to teach in formal school settings. How interesting that communication is the tool for education but people must be educated in how to communicate effectively!

In the third section of his chapter, Dewey explains the differences between informal education and formal education in society. He argues that as long as people are truly living and not merely existing, they can’t help but “learn” informally from their surroundings – people and environment. However, “without…formal education, it is not possible to transmit all the resources and achievements of a complex society.” Formal education is imperative to fully teach all that life has to offer and to learn to specialize in certain areas of knowledge. Yet, as a society we need to be careful not to ignore the role of informal learning even when we are teaching the specifics of biochemistry or sentence syntax. Both formal and informal education need to be in balance throughout life.