I have been largely positive of Dewey’s view on how learning happens (the book is pretty great).

But in reading The School and Society and The Child and Curriculum, I have found much much more to critique.

Dewey’s applications of his generally great theory of learning are quite bad.

He strongly advocates for a type of experiencial learning that would take ages. As always, the goal is good (child sees connections between subjects/concepts and gains real interest and understanding)

But the way he advocates this happen would take ages and lose many (most?) students in the process.
He positively gives an example of students ginning cotton by hand for 30 minutes and only finishing an ounce.
30 minutes on this!

From here, you can talk about the material of cotton, how it grows, and compare it with other clothing materials. You can talk about the cotton gin (engineering) and history too. To make it all integrated.

But he also wants the school to have a cotton gin and the other plant material and on and on. I’m not sure how he can expect a school to have this much space when you need stuff like this for all subjects.

And the students would get lost in these experiences.

But the is still worth reading because of his influence and he has a much better thought process than many discovery/experiencial advocates today.
He leaves room for teachers directly influencing students, for example.

*he is, not the is