QuoteProject
From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. That is the isolation of the school — its isolation from life.
John Dewey
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Dewey highlights the disconnect between schooling and real-life experiences, emphasizing the need for integration.

John Dewey argues that schools often fail to connect the knowledge and experiences students gain outside of school with what they learn within its walls. This results in a separation where students struggle to apply the lessons from school in their everyday lives, leading to an ineffective education system that does not prepare them for real-world challenges.

Themes

EducationExperienceLearningReal-LifeSchoolApplication

In practice

Example use cases

During a parent-teacher conference, a teacher might use this quote to discuss educational reforms.

More from John Dewey

Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way, the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer-in of the true Kingdom of God.
John DeweyRead
Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.
John DeweyRead
It science involves an intelligent and persistent endeavor to revise current beliefs so as to weed out what is erroneous, to add to their accuracy, and, above all, to give them such shape that the dependencies of the various facts upon one another may be as obvious as possible.
John DeweyRead
For in spite of itself any movement that thinks and acts in terms of an ‘ism becomes so involved in reaction against other ‘isms that it is unwittingly controlled by them. For it then forms its principles by reaction against them instead of by a comprehensive, constructive survey of actual needs, problems, and possibilities.
John DeweyRead
Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier.
John DeweyRead
The reactionaries are in possession of force, in not only the army and police, but in the press and the schools
John DeweyRead

Similar quotes

They will not stop me, I will get my education, if it is in home, school or any place
Malala YousafzaiRead
Many think of memory as rote learning, a linear stuffing of the brain with facts, where understanding is irrelevant. When you teach it properly, with imagination and association, understanding becomes a part of it.
Tony BuzanRead
From that moment on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again.
Betty SmithRead
Tuesday—we had school for the first time. Madame O’Malley had a moment of silence at the beginning of French class, a class that was always punctuated with long moments of silence, and then asked us how we were feeling. “Awful,” a girl said. “En français,” Madame O’Malley replied. “En français.
John GreenRead
The number one problem in today's generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy.
Alan GreenspanRead
The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done-men who are creative, inventive, and discovers. The second goal of education is to form minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered.
Jean PiagetRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.