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JOHN DEWEY AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PEACE EDUCATION IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2017

Charles F. Howlett  and
Audrey Cohan
Charles F. Howlett*
Affiliation:
Molloy College
Audrey Cohan*
Affiliation:
Molloy College
*
email: chowlett@molloy.edu
email: acohan@molloy.edu
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Abstract

As 2016 is the centennial of Dewey's most famous work, Democracy and Education (1916), it is imperative to consider Dewey's role as a public intellectual. In reflection of how he framed his most famous work—as an instrument for helping people think about democratic reform—the authors examined John Dewey's beliefs about the importance of peace as applied to the American view. This essay journals Dewey as an important contributor to the American peace movement in terms of both thought and activity, especially in the post-World War I period. Dewey argued that the responsibility of schools in a democratic society is to teach cooperation and understanding and not simply rely on notions of patriotism and allegiance as often presented in schools. His World War I experience alerted him to the need for transforming schools as seminaries of patriotism into instruments for global understanding. The authors also offered specific examples as to how his instrumentalist philosophy, including his involvement in the Outlawry of War campaign in the 1920s, has been a cornerstone of peace education efforts in the United States over the past one hundred years and what has been their effectiveness.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 456 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2017 

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References

NOTES

1 Dewey, John, Democracy and Education (New York: MacMillan, 1916), 97–98 Google Scholar. See also Cremin, Lawrence, The Transformation of the School: Progressivism in American Education, 1876–1957 (New York: Vintage Books, 1964), 121–25Google Scholar.

2 William, , Frankena, K., Three Historical Philosophies of Education: Aristotle, Kant, Dewey (Chicago: Scott Foresman, 1965), 147 Google Scholar.

3 Frankena, Three Historical Philosophies, 137–38.

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5 Addams, Jane, Newer Ideals of Peace (New York: Macmillan, 1907), 27–28, 60–67, 86, 119, 124, 213Google Scholar.

6 John Dewey to Jane Addams, Jan. 27, 1892, The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871–1952, Vol. 1, electronic edition; Addams, Jane, Democracy and Social Ethics (New York: Macmillan, 1902), 275 Google Scholar. See also Farrell's, John C. Beloved Lady: A History of Jane Addams’ Ideas on Reform and Peace (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967)Google Scholar; and Lasch, Christopher, The New Radicalism in America, 1889–1963: The Intellectual as a Social Type (New York: Vintage Books, 1965), 158ffGoogle Scholar.

7 Dewey, John and Dewey, Evelyn, Schools of Tomorrow (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1915), 218 Google Scholar.

8 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 93–94.

9 Consult Howlett, Charles F. and Harris, Ian, “Fannie Fern Andrews, The American School Peace League, and the First Peace Studies Curriculum” in Howlett & Harris, Books, Not Bombs: Teaching Peace since the Dawn of the Republic (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2010), 63–70 Google ScholarPubMed.

10 Kennedy, David M., Over Here: The First World War and American Society. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; see also Zeiger, Susan, “Teaching Peace: Lessons from a Peace Studies Curriculum of the Progressive Era,” Peace & Change 25 (Jan. 2000): 65 Google Scholar; and Stomfay-Stitz, Aline, Peace Education in America: 1828–1990: Sourcebook for Education and Research (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1993), 38–43, 74–79 Google Scholar.

11 Peterson, H. C. and Fite, Gilbert, Opponents of War, 1917–1918 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1957), 102–12Google Scholar.

12 Peterson & Fite, Opponents of War, 110; Early, Frances H., A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 39–40 Google Scholar; The Trial of Three Suspended Teachers of DeWitt Clinton H.S. (1919), American Civil Liberties Union Papers, Firestone Library, Princeton University; Beale, Howard K., Are American Teachers Free? (Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1936)Google Scholar, passim; John Dewey to Charles A. Beard, Dec. 17, 1917, The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871–1952, Vol. 1, electronic edition.

13 Along with Westbrook's John Dewey and American Democracy, consult Rockefeller, Steven, John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Ryan, Alan, John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995)Google Scholar; and Martin, Jay, The Education of John Dewey (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

14 For a complete discussion of Dewey's role in World War I and Bourne's attack on Dewey's philosophy, consult Howlett, Charles F. & Cohan, Audrey, John Dewey: America's Peace-Minded Educator (Carbondale,: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), 60–65 Google Scholar. See also Cywar, Alan, “John Dewey in World War I: Patriotism and International Progressivism,” American Quarterly 21 (June 1969): 578–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clayton, Bruce, Forgotten Prophet: The Life of Randolph Bourne (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984)Google Scholar; and Nichols, Christopher McKnight, “Rethinking Randolph Bourne's Trans-National America: How World War I Created an Isolationist Pluralism,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 8 (Apr. 2009): 217–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Noted earlier, when the eminent historian Charles Beard resigned from his position at Columbia over the loyalty issue in 1917, Dewey confided to him “that nothing could be much more harmful to the real war cause in this country than giving the impression that the disloyalty issue was being used as a cloak for private and personal persecution.” He was horrified, he added, when he found out that “[o]ne of the teachers in the schools who is of old American stock and who is actively in favor of our war policy told me that when he gave out a patriotic theme to his English class one of his boys smiled sympathetically at him, and said, ‘You aren't going to lose your job, are you.’” See John Dewey to Charles A. Beard, Dec.17, 1917, The Correspondence of John Dewey, 1871–1952, Vol. 1, electronic edition.

16 Clopton, Robert W. and Ou, Tsuin-Chen, eds., John Dewey: Lectures in China, 1919–1920 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1973), 210–13Google Scholar.

17 Dewey, John, “The Schools as a Means of Developing a Social Consciousness and Social Ideals in Children,” Journal of Social Forces 1 (1923): 513–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Howlett, Charles F., The American Peace and Justice Movement from the Early Twentieth Century to the Present (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2016), 69–105 Google Scholar.

19 Young, Nigel, “Concepts of Peace: From 1913 to the Present,” Ethics and International Affairs 27:2 (2013): 160 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Dewey's thoughts on this subject were clearly expressed in an introduction he wrote for a new edition of Jane Addams's 1922 work, Peace and Bread in Time of War. Dewey's introduction was published in 1945. See Dewey, John, “Democratic versus Coercive International Organization: The Realism of Jane Addams” in introduction to Jane Addams, Peace and Bread in Time of War (New York: King's Crown Press, Rev. ed., 1945), xvii–xviii Google Scholar.

21 Howlett & Cohan, John Dewey, 125–65. See also Ferrell, Robert H., Peace in Their Time: The Origins of the Kellogg-Briand Pact (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1953)Google Scholar; and Stoner, John E., S. O. Levinson and the Pact of Paris (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943)Google Scholar.

22 Charles DeBenedetti, “American Internationalism in the 1920s: Shotwell and the Outlawrists” (PhD diss., University of Illinois, 1968), 41.

23 Dewey, John, Outlawry of War: What it Is and Is Not (Chicago: American Committee for the Outlawry of War, 1923), 9, 16Google Scholar.

24 Curti, Merle, “John Dewey and Nationalism,” Orbis 10 (Winter 1967): 1117 Google Scholar.

25 Ratner, Joseph, ed., Characters and Events (Vol. 2). (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1929), 704–6Google Scholar.

26 Cochran, Molly, “Pragmatism and International Relations: A Story of Closure and Opening,” European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy 4 (2012): 138–58Google Scholar. Accessed Jan. 23, 2014. Inx.journalofpragmatism.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/ … /8-cochran.pdf.

27 Although the onset of the Great Depression failed to raise enough funds for the implementation of a peace university to be located in Westchester County, New York, it is important to note that Dewey was one of the primary supporters of this proposal. The proposed plan included: “A six years’ course is contemplated, covering substantially a senior high school, the usual four years of college, and graduate work”; to admit 200 students each successive year, once under way, thus reaching a full enrollment of 1200; selection would be “on the basis of 80 from the United States, one from each state and territory of the Union, and the balance at large, and 120 from the other Nations of the world”; curriculum's objective was “the unifying aim of promoting international understanding, and the negative condition of being free from all deliberate indoctrination of special views and belief.” Consult John Dewey, “Address,” Feb. 12, 1930, Pamphlet (New York: Abraham Lincoln Foundation, 1930). The program was broadcast over Station WOR in New York City. The event was also reported in the New York Times (Feb. 13, 1930): “Lincoln University Selects Trustees,” 17.

28 A recent definition of peace education represents the five principles Dewey first proposed between the world wars: “Peace education is a field of theory and practice of education related to the idea of promoting knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills conducive to peace and non-violence, and to an active commitment to the building of a co-operative and caring democratic society. It is targeted towards the empowerment of an individual and the promotion of social well-being … the promotion of social justice, equality, civil responsibility … and the accepting of a dynamic global perspective. … See Wintersteiner, Werner, “Education” in Young, Nigel, ed., The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace (Vol. 2). (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 39–42 Google Scholar.

29 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 4–5.

30 Aline Stomfay-Stitz, “A History of Peace Education in the United States,” Encyclopedia of Peace Education (2008), http:www.tc.edu/center/epe, 1.

31 Stomfay-Stitz, “A History of Peace Education,” 3; Howlett & Harris, Books, Not Bombs, 25; Wien, Barbara, ed., Peace and World Order Studies: A Curriculum Guide (New York: World Policy Institute, 4th ed., 1984)Google Scholar.

32 For a complete overview consult Howlett & Harris's chapter, “Diffuse Peace Education in a Nuclear World” in Books, Not Bombs, 191–222; see also Stomfay-Stitz, Peace Education in America, chs. 6 through 9.

33 On this score regarding Dewey's influence today, see the following: Page, James, Peace Education: Exploring Ethical and Philosophical Foundations (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008), 43–44, 78Google Scholar; Harris, Ian and Morrison, Mary Lee, Peace Education (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2nd ed., 2003), 85–86, 102, 141, 210, 218Google Scholar; and Snauwaert, Dale T., “Democracy, Public Reason and Peace Education.” Global Campaign for Peace Education Newsletter 88 (Nov. 2011), para. 11Google Scholar. http://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/democracy-public-reason-and-peace-education/; Accessed March 20, 2013; and “The Importance of Philosophy for Education in a Democratic Society,” In Factis Pax 6 (2012): 77 Google Scholar.

34 John & Evelyn Dewey, Schools of Tomorrow, 177.

35 Semel, Susan F. and Sadovnik, Alan R., “The Contemporary Small-School Movement: Lessons from the History of Progressive Education,” Teachers College Record 110:9 (2008): 1717–1744 Google Scholar. Accessed May 19, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org. ID Number 15166.

36 Stomfay-Stitz, “A History of Peace Education,” 6.

37 Chikwe, Moses, “Civic Education and Global Citizenship: A Deweyan Perspective,” In Factis Pax 6:1 (2012): 13 Google Scholar; see also Dewey, John, The Pubic and Its Problems (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1927)Google Scholar in terms of building the “Great Community,” 143–84.

38 Chikwe, “Civic Education and Global Citizenship,” 17.

39 Dewey, Democracy and Education, 98.

40 Leahey, Christopher, Whitewashing War: Historical Myth, Corporate Textbooks, and Possibilities for Democratic Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 2010), 12–13 Google Scholar.

41 Harris and Morrison, Peace Education, 218–19.

42 For a legal analysis regarding this issue, consult van Gell, Tyell, The Courts and American Law (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987), esp. 210–13Google Scholar. For recent historical analyses, consult Westheimer, Joel, The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (New York: Teachers College Press, 2007)Google Scholar; and Howlett, Charles F., “The Courts and Peace Activism: Selected Legal Cases Related to Matters of Conscience and Civil Liberties,” Peace & Change 38 (Jan. 2013): 6–32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Another famous pragmatist attacked the problem of war somewhat differently. William James of Harvard targeted the accepted notion of warfare as a manly virtue. This philosopher felt that the admiration surrounding the physical nature of the martial spirit could be put to better use by having young men work in coal mines, factories, forest conservation, and building skyscrapers. Conscript the youthful population to be part of an army enlisted against nature in order to counter the “old morals of military honor” and discipline. Whether this could have been implemented or even prove effective in combating war and militarism is anyone's guess. Nonetheless, consult his famous essay “The Moral Equivalent of War” in Arthur, & Weinberg, Lila, eds., Instead of Violence (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), 300–04Google Scholar.

44 White, Morton, Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1947), 244 Google Scholar. See also Diggins, John Patrick, The Promise of Pragmatism: Modernism and the Crisis of Knowledge and Authority (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994)Google Scholar, passim.

45 According to Merle Curti, “Although not a pacifist, Dewey has disapproved of chauvinistic patriotism in current instruction in civics. His advanced views on international questions, including his pioneer work for the outlawry of war, led him in 1923 to favor a school program designed to promote international friendship. … [B]ut Dewey hardly went much farther than [Horace] Mann and [Theodore] Parker in suggesting effective means for realizing the ideal of international peace through the schools.” Curti, The Social Ideas of American Educators (Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams 7 Co., 1959), 527 Google Scholar; Harris & Morrison, Peace Education, 191.

46 Reardon, Betty, Comprehensive Peace Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1988), x, 12, 48Google Scholar.

47 Prutzman, Priscilla and Cochran, Kathleen, The Friendly Classroom for a Small Planet (Nyack, NY: FOR Press, Rev. ed., 2008)Google Scholar, passim.

48 Dewey, The Public and Its Problems, 146.

49 Curti, Merle, The Roots of American Loyalty (New York: Atheneum, 1946), 218 Google Scholar.

50 In his article appearing in the Journal of Social Forces from which the quoted words in this paragraph appear and are cited previously, he also provided one additional caveat readers can appreciate. “Our instruction in history and geography and our social studies in general,” he commiserated, “should be intellectually more honest, they should bring students into gradual contact with the actual realities of contemporary life and not leave them to make acquaintance with these things in … a surprised way. … We need the schools to bring about recognition of the problems which are common problems, things which the American people have got to work out together in a spirit of unity and cooperation if they are ever to be worked out at all” (p. 516). One of society's most common problems is that of finding a permanent way to end war forever.