Chapter 1: Education as necessity of life

According to Dewey, all animals educate their young for renewal. In a sense, the purpose of education for humans too, is the continuity and renewal of human society. However, much of the time, we get stuck in the little everyday things and see education much more narrowly than that. We want our students to get jobs, or to be able to do trigonometry, or classify animals by phylum. However, education transmits essential energy to society to keep it alive. This is the energy that sustains society and keeps it moving forward. We must remember this and carefully define what it is to move forward when we educate our children.
Education as a tool to keep society alive: When we educate, we pass our values to our young. But Dewey also talks about “continuity through renewal”; the “recreation of beliefs, ideals, hopes, ... and practices” (pg 6). This links to debates about whether we teach kids about the status quo (for example, you must study hard so you can have a comfortable life) or to challenge the status quo (example: why is it that people working certain essential jobs are not paid well?)
Differences in formal education and the lived experience: Dewey talks about “the danger of creating an undesirable split between the experience gained in more direct associations and what is taught in schools”. In Nepal, one striking example that comes to mind is caste; in textbooks, we read that a discriminatory caste system was practiced in Nepal for many years, and is now outlawed. These are both factually true statements. But in the experiences of many children, caste is still alive. There is still discrimination. Upper caste individuals still benefit from their identity as upper-caste people.