The Greatest Works of John Dewey - Джон Дьюи

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with a course of action

      III. EFFORT, THINKING, AND MOTIVATION

      1 The demand for effort is a demand for continuity in the face of difficulties

      2 It has no significance apart from an end to be reached

      3 Persistent but obstructed activity creates conflicting tendencies; dislike and longing

      4 The emotion of effort or stress is a warning to reflect(a) On the worth of the end(b) On the provision of new means

      5 The experience of difficulty may have a double effect(a) To weaken the impetus in a forward direction(b) To increase consciousness of the end

      6 A conscious aim inspirits and guides in two ways(a) It makes the individual more conscious of his purpose(b) It turns his energy from thoughtless struggle to reflective judgment

      7 The difference between educative and uneducative tasks

      8 The criteria to be borne in mind(a) Is it so easy that it fails to stimulate thought?(b) Is it so difficult that it discourages activity?

      9 Some specific consequences of violating these criteria

      10 Good teaching must stimulate initiative

      11 Difficulties and effort occur normally with increased depth and scope of thinking

      12 Motive is a name for end in its active or dynamic capacity

      13 Personal motivation cannot be thought of apart from an object or end in view

      14 The problem is not to find a motive, but materials and conditions for the exercise of activities

      15 The use and function of subject-matter is to promote the growth of personal powers

      IV. TYPES OF EDUCATIVE INTEREST

      1 Genuine interest is always marked by the absorption of powers in an occupation or pursuit

      2 Activity includes all the expressions that involve growth of power(a) It specially includes: Power to realize the meaning of what is done(b) It excludes action under external constraint, random reaction, and habitual action

      3 True educative interests or activities vary indefinitely

      4 Physical activity(a) In so far as physical activity has to be learned it is intellectual in value(b) The importance of school occupations which involves the exercise of senses and movements(c) Sense organs are simply the pathways of stimuli to motor responses(d) Growth of knowledge occurs In adapting sense-stimulus and motor response(e) The great value of a wide range of play games, and occupations

      5 Constructive activity(a) The use of tools and appliances makes possible development through complicated activities of long duration(b) The use of intervening tools distinguishes games and work from play(c) Work is distinguished from play only by the presence of an intellectual quality(d) Children need both work and play

      6 Intellectual activity(a) The intellectual phases previously subordinate, develop and become dominant(b) Interest in the theoretical becomes direct

      7 Social activity(a) The child early identifies his concerns with those of others(b) His social interest also suffuses his interest in things(c) Impersonal material should be presented in the rôle it actually plays in life(d) There is a close connection between social and moral interests(e) Interest itself is not selfish; its character depends upon its objects

      V. THE PLACE OF INTEREST IN THE THEORY OF EDUCATION

      1 All interests mark an identification of self with ends and means

      2 All misconceptions of interest come from ignoring its moving, developing nature

      3 The idea of interest protects pedagogical theory(a) From a merely internal conception of mind(b) From a merely external conception of subject-matter

      4 Interest is obtained by considering and aiming at the conditions that lie back of it

      Health and Sex in Higher Education

       Table of Contents

      It may not generally be known that the alumnæ of the more important centers of female higher education in this country have an organized intercollegiate association for the promotion of woman's education and the study of questions regarding her training. This association has justified its existence, if justification were necessary, by the inquiries which it has made regarding the health of those women who have pursued college courses. The importance of the results thus obtained has led to their incorporation in the "Current Report of the Massachusetts Labor Bureau." For the first time the discussion is taken from the a priori realm of theory on the one hand, and the haphazard estimate of physician and college instructor on the other. The returns have the value of all good statistics: they not only enable us to come to some conclusion upon the main point discussed, but they are so full and varied that they suggest and mark the way toward the discussion of a large number of other hardly less important questions. The figures, in short, call up as many problems as they settle, thus fulfilling the first requisite of fruitful research.

      Pursuing this line, we shall first state the general character of the investigation followed and conclusions reached; and, secondly, isolate a few special problems for more detailed though brief treatment. The result may be summed up in the words of the report, as follows: "The female graduates of our colleges and universities do not seem to show, as the result of their college studies and duties, any marked difference in general health from the average health likely to be reported by an equal number of women engaged in other kinds of work. It is true that there has been, and it was to be expected that there would be, a certain deterioration in health on the part of some of the graduates. On the other hand, an almost identical improvement in health for a like number was reported, showing very plainly that we must look elsewhere for the causes of the greater part of this decline in health during college-life. If we attempt to trace the cause, we find that this deterioration is largely due, not to the requirements of college-life particularly, but to predisposing causes natural to the graduates themselves, born in them, as it were, and for which college-life or study should not be made responsible."

      Through some oversight the statement is made that the returns include statistics from every higher institution in the United States open to women; while, as a matter of fact, it includes a not comparatively large number. The institutions represented, however, are typical. The data are contained in the following table:

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Name of College. Sex distinction. Date of organization. Total number of female graduates to 1882 inclusive. Number of returns received. Percentage of returns received.
Boston University Co-educational. 1873 47 29 61·70
Cornell University Co-educational. 1868 80 36 45·00
Kansas, University of Co-educational. 1866 36 20 55·56
Mass. Institute of Technology. Co-educational. 1865 5 3 60·00
Michigan, University of Co-educational. 1841 87 46 52·87