Dewey explains nature in many different ways in his article. Dewey states,” The aim of natural development says to parents and teachers: Make health an aim; normal development cannot be had without regard to the vigor of the body–an obvious enough fact and yet one whose due recognition in practice would almost automatically revolutionize many of our educational practices.” (Dewey, 1916). Dewey studied how the nature or aim to nature, relied on students learning from the organs and learning how things worked prior to the educational standard. Nature is all about the students and how they learn by using the things around them. This article made me think of preschoolers and how young students learn through communication, demonstration, and language. Student shave to first see, hear, and know how things work before they can stretch their thinking, or learn more deeply about an item, subject, or concept.
Social Efficiency as Aim
Dewey clarifies his definition of social efficiency, “It must be borne in mind that ultimately social efficiency means neither more nor less than capacity to share in a give and take of experience. It covers all that makes one’s own experience more worth while to others, and all that enables one to participate more richly in the worthwhile experiences of others” (Dewey, 1916). Students use this aim to get the best out of their educational career. Students need to make sure they’re making well informed decisions in order for them to get the best experience out of their educational career. This aim will help students and teachers get the most out of their day. They know going into each and everyday that they need to make decisions so each party gets the most out of their day. In Social efficiency, a person is working for another person to get the best out of an experience which tells why students and teachers work together so they they all get the most out of each day.
Culture as an Aim
Dewey summarizes culture as,” And there is perhaps no better definition of culture than that it is the capacity for constantly expanding the range and accuracy of one’s perception of meanings” (Dewey,1916). This means that someone’s culture can be ranged from their family, gender, socio-economic group, race, etc. Sometimes, a person’s culture is changing due to the people they hang around with, and grow as their culture. During the interaction with the culture, people look at things different. For example, a student who lives at home with the perception school is not important, may come to school and realize it is through participating in their school culture. The student realizes that each culture thinks differently, but seeing more than one perception, may help this student learn and grow to be the best possible person.
Embracing This as a Philosophy
Dewey brings up valid arguments in his aims. When Dewey spoke on Nature as a Standard, I felt as if this brought a lot from the student’s homelife into play in their school life. It showed the impact of being healthy and being a team with the parent’s support can really make a difference. Nature plays a major role in the student in general. Social Efficiency and Culture both work together to make the student learn from their nature, and progress it into something deeper. If we embrace this philosophy, I could see some great things happen, However, I see some struggles as well. For example, not all students come from the best family situations which would start the student off with poor nature, and can lead into the students into a worse off culture and social efficiency.
