Thinking for Themselves This Is

Not News
Youd think that conservative opponents of John
Dewey would have their hands full dealing with
what the man wrote over the course of his lifetime.
But that hasnt stopped some bizarre misquotes
from working their way into the conversation. A
few weeks ago my Technorati watchlist pulled up
a blog that contained the following statement,
alleged to be by Dewey:
You cant make Socialists out of individualists.
Children who know how to think for themselves
spoil the harmony of the collective society which is
coming, where everyone is interdependent.
Now, this sounds so completely unlike anything
Ive ever read Dewey say that I wondered where
the quote came from. My curiosity was further
encouraged when I did a web search and found
the quote on hundreds of web pages none of
which could cite a particular text, lecture, or
occasion on which Dewey said this. The closest I
could find to an attribution was the year 1899
which is the year that Dewey gave the lectures
that formed the basis for The School and Society,
one of his key books on education. So I turned to
the Past Masters database, which contains a
searchable full-text database of both The
Collected Works of John Dewey and The

Collected Correspondence of John Dewey. I put in

various phrases from the longer quote and asked
for results.
I came up empty.
I did some more searching in the archives of the
electronic Dewey mailing list, and learned that a
few years back, the users of that list tried to track
down the original source of the quote as well.
They had no more luck at pinning down the
attribution than I did. So while I cant completely
rule out the idea that this quote was made in a
context not included in the Collected Works or
the Collected Correspondence, my best guess is
that this is a caricature of a paraphrase that
somehow came to be seen as a direct quote. The
only other alternative I can think of is someone
deliberately falsifying a citation, and Id like to be
more charitable than that.
As long as I was in the database, I decided to see
what Dewey does say about the notion of children
and people thinking for themselves. I got the
following hits for the exact phrase think for
themselves from Deweys published writings.
(There were two additional hits, one from an
account of an interview with Dewey, and one from
an unpublished manuscript. I wanted to focus on
the published instances for this post.)
From The Middle Works Vol. 8 (1915), page 398:

If we train our children to take orders, to do things

simply because they are told to, and fail to give
them confidence to act and think for themselves,
we are putting an almost insurmountable obstacle
in the way of overcoming the present defects of
our system and of establishing the truth of
democratic ideals. (Schools of Tomorrow, Chapter
11)
In the passage from which this quote is taken,
Dewey does mention the idea of collective action.
But he is explicitly talking about democratic
government. Heres the larger passage:
The conventional type of education which trains
children to docility and obedience, to the careful
performance of imposed tasks because they are
imposed, regardless of where they lead, is suited
to an autocratic society. These are the traits
needed in a state where there is one head to plan
and care for the lives and institutions of the
people. But in a democracy they interfere with the
successful conduct of society and government.
Our famous, brief definition of a democracy, as
government of the people, for the people and by
the people, gives perhaps the best clue to what is
involved in a democratic society. Responsibility for
the conduct of society and government rests on
every member of society. Therefore, every one
must receive a training that will enable him to
meet this responsibility, giving him just ideas of the
condition and needs of the people collectively, and

developing those qualities which will insure his

doing a fair share of the work of government. If we
train our children to take orders, to do things
simply because they are told to, and fail to give
them confidence to act and think for themselves,
we are putting an almost insurmountable obstacle
in the way of overcoming the present defects of
our system and of establishing the truth of
democratic ideals. Our State is founded on
freedom, but when we train the State of tomorrow, we allow it just as little freedom as
possible. Children in school must be allowed
freedom so that they will know what its use means
when they become the controlling body, and they
must be allowed to develop active qualities of
initiative, independence, and resourcefulness,
before the abuses and failures of democracy will
disappear.
If democratic government is not a means by which
individuals come together so that their collective
judgement can determine the states course of
action, then what is it? (It is true that Dewey wants
to expand the notion of a democratic society, and
thats an issue thats up for debate maybe
democracy shouldnt be a way of life, the way
Dewey advocates. But thats a wholly different
argument.)
From The Middle Works Vol. 11 (1918-1919),
pages 120-121:

This is the psychological factor which cooperates

with the physical centralization of the agencies of
news gathering and distribution to develop the
new paternalistic solicitude for the masses who
cannot yet be trusted to think for themselves.
(The New Paternalism.)
Now this quote, with its talk of masses who cant
be trusted, is pretty close to the way some
opponents characterize Dewey. But Dewey is, in
fact, criticizing this paternalistic attitude, arguing
that its a bad idea to try and shape the publics
thinking by withholding or distorting information. In
larger context, I think this is clear:
Let us make democracy safe for the world by a
careful editing and expurgation of the facts upon
which it bases the opinions which in the end
decide social action. The men most active in
urging that state paternalism be surrendered in
exchange for private initiative in transportation,
banking, investments and manufacturing (barring
of course benevolence to the poor working man
through a protective tariff) will be most vigorous in
solicitude to safeguard against private initiative in
belief.
From The Middle Works Vol. 15 (1923-1924),
page 175:
We need, on the whole, more elbow-room for
activity of the outer sort, more freedom and
spontaneity of action in the schoolroom and on the

playground than we usually get, not because that

is the act of self-expression or end in itself, but
because, with a certain degree of elbow-room we
can get opportunity for the students to think for
themselves, to work out their own plans, to
formulate their own problems, to carry their ideas
into execution, and to test their plans and ideas to
determine how they work out. (Individuality in
Education.)
Now this is definitely an area where Deweys
critics have unloaded both barrels this idea that
giving the student more freedom contributes to a
loss of discipline and a failure of the student to
actually learn. I disagree with that criticism, but
thats a topic for another time. Whats important to
note here is that Dewey argues that his emphasis
on freedom for the student is justified because it
helps the students learn to think for themselves.
This is, in fact, a very individualistic approach,
whether one approves of it or not.
From The Later Works Vol. 5 (1929-1930), page
341:
The College, more than most educational
institutions of whatever sort, has been truly
educational in living up to its effort to lead
students to thinkwhich means, of course, to think
for themselves. (Labor Politics and Labor
Education.)

Dewey is speaking here of Brookwood Labor

College, an institution devoted to training labor
leaders, which wound up feuding with the
administrative leadership of the American
Federation of Labor. Brookwood was accused of
being too radical and possibly sympathetic to
communism, and so the AFL wanted its member
unions to withdraw all support. Dewey supported
the College. Which, again, will do nothing to
dissuade those who think Dewey was a
communist himself. But look again at the way
Dewey praises the College he says it taught its
adult students how to think, which means that it
taught them how to think for themselves. So if
teaching students to think for themselves is
somehow supporting of communism, that would
make the alleged 1899 quote a logical
contradiction.
From The Later Works Vol. 6 (1931-1932), pages
97-98
Democracy will be a farce unless individuals are
trained to think for themselves, to judge
independently, to be critical, to be able to detect
subtle propaganda and the motives which inspire
it. (American Education Past and Future.)
I think that one speaks for itself. In fact, I may put
it on a bumper sticker.
About Dave Thomer

Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied

philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx,
where I made many great friends and met my
wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia,
where I studied philosophy some more and
became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for
ways that we can be better citizens and build
stronger communities.
January 3, 2006 @ 9:37 pm
Readability An Arc90 Laboratory Experiment
Follow us on Twitter