--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There is, I think, no point in the…" description: "\"There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of t..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg" --- # There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of… ![“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his [sic] activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional…” quote by John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg) > “There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his \[sic\] activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.” [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Effective education requires learners to actively shape learning goals, not just follow prescribed objectives. **In simple terms:** Learners must help set their own learning purposes. Key Takeaway Engage learners in goal-setting. Themes education participation learner agency purpose pedagogy Mood inspirational thoughtful reflective Type educational philosophical When to use this quote - classroom projects - student-led research - community learning - curriculum planning Key Concepts constructivism democratic education curriculum design Questions to Reflect On - How can teachers balance guidance with autonomy? - What structures support active participation? A Different Perspective Traditional methods can still provide structure and foundational knowledge. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Active](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/active/) [Construction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/construction/) [Cooperation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cooperation/) [Cooperation Pupil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cooperation-pupil-4374553/) [Defects](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/defects/) [Direct](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/direct/) [Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/) [Emphasis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/emphasis/) [Failure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/) [Importance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/importance/) [Importance Participation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/importance-participation-4374554/) [Learners](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/learners/) [Learning process](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/learning-process/) [Participation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/participation/) [Philosophy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy/) [Philosophy Progressive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-progressive-1939938/) [Process](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/process/) [Progressive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/progressive/) [Progressive Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/progressive-education-341845/) [Pupils](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pupils/) [Purpose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/purpose/) [Sounder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sounder/) [Study](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/study/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Traditional education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/traditional-education/) ## Related quotes > [“Traditional education tended to ignore the importance of personal impulse and desire as moving springs. But this is no reason why progressive education should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/traditional-education-tended-to-ignore-the-importance-of-personal/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [“In a time when the chance of another civil war did not seem remote, a philosophy that warned against the idolatry of ideas was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-menand/in-a-time-when-the-chance-of-another-civil-war-did-not-seem-remote-a/) [Louis Menand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-menand/) > [“The lesson for progressive education is that it requires in an urgent degree, a degree more pressing than was incumbent upon former innovators, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-lesson-for-progressive-education-is-that-it-requires-in-an-urgent/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [There is no such thing as educational value in the abstract. The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-no-such-thing-as-educational-value-in-the-abstract-the/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Every single progressive education fad of the past thirty years has hurt poor black children.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shelby-steele/every-single-progressive-education-fad-of-the-past-thirty-years-has/) [Shelby Steele](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shelby-steele/) > [Sending our kids in my family to private school was a big, big, big deal. And it was a giant family discussion. But it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matt-damon/sending-our-kids-in-my-family-to-private-school-was-a-big-big-big/) [Matt Damon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matt-damon/) > [When I was in high school, it was sort of the peak of progressive education.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-penn/when-i-was-in-high-school-it-was-sort-of-the-peak-of-progressive/) [Michael Penn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-penn/) > [“For Dewey, the Great Community was the basic fact of history. The individual and the soul were invalid concepts, man was truly man, not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-j-rushdoony/for-dewey-the-great-community-was-the-basic-fact-of-history-the/) [R.J. Rushdoony](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-j-rushdoony/) > [“In the main, the trouble with American education is that we have put into practice the educational philosophy expounded by John Dewey and his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-m-goldwater/in-the-main-the-trouble-with-american-education-is-that-we-have-put/) [Barry M. Goldwater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-m-goldwater/) > [Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning by those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/russell-l-ackoff/traditional-education-focuses-on-teaching-not-learning-it-incorrectly/) [Russell L. Ackoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/russell-l-ackoff/) > [“Your traditional EDUCATION is not going to CHANGE your life but the life you are experiencing that can change you. Choose a POSITIVE life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rashedur-ryan-rahman/your-traditional-education-is-not-going-to-change-your-life-but-the/) [Rashedur Ryan Rahman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rashedur-ryan-rahman/) > [“One of the problems is that our traditional educational system—and most of our business training—reward focus and execution, limiting the opportunity to become a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joi-ito/one-of-the-problems-is-that-our-traditional-educational-system-and/) [Joi Ito](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joi-ito/) > [The greatest danger of traditional education is that learning may remain purely verbal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mirra-komarovsky/the-greatest-danger-of-traditional-education-is-that-learning-may/) [Mirra Komarovsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mirra-komarovsky/) > [The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic andfood…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-land-is-the-appointed-remedy-for-whatever-is-false-and-fantastic/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [“Charles is difficult to pigeonhole politically. Tony Blair wrote that he considered him a “curious mixture of the traditional and the radical (at one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sally-bedell-smith/charles-is-difficult-to-pigeonhole-politically-tony-blair-wrote-that/) [Sally Bedell Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sally-bedell-smith/) ## More by John Dewey > [“The deepest urge in human nature is the desire to be important.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/the-deepest-urge-in-human-nature-is-the-desire-to-be-important/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [“Empirically, things are poignant, tragic, beautiful, humorous, settled, disturbed, comfortable, annoying, barren, harsh, consoling, splendid, fearful; are such immediately and in their own right…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/empirically-things-are-poignant-tragic-beautiful-humorous-settled/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [A good aim surveys the present state of experience of pupils, and forming a tentative plan of treatment, keeps the plan constantly in view…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/a-good-aim-surveys-the-present-state-of-experience-of-pupils-and/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Experiences in order to be educative must lead out into an expanding world of subject matter, a subject matter of facts or information and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/experiences-in-order-to-be-educative-must-lead-out-into-an-expanding/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [A tribe, let us say, is warlike. 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The notion that some subjects and methods and that acquaintance with certain facts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-no-such-thing-as-educational-value-in-the-abstract-the/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Men live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/men-live-in-a-community-in-virtue-of-the-things-which-they-have-in/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/we-can-have-facts-without-thinking-but-we-cannot-have-thinking/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [But progress in knowledge has made us aware of the superficiality of Plato's lumping of individuals and their original powers into a few sharply…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/but-progress-in-knowledge-has-made-us-aware-of-the-superficiality-of/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Even the alleged benefits of war, so far as more than alleged, spring from the fact that conflict of peoples at least enforces intercourse…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/even-the-alleged-benefits-of-war-so-far-as-more-than-alleged-spring/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [“When the organization called soul is free, moving and operative, initial as well as terminal, it is spirit. 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Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carter-heyward/love-like-truth-and-beauty-is-concrete-love-is-not-fundamentally-a/) [Carter Heyward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carter-heyward/) > [Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable - research…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-shostak/studying-sol-s-interior-by-looking-for-analogous-patterns-on-its/) [Seth Shostak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-shostak/) > [Science manipulates things and gives up living in them. 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That's always easier once you've made…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-brownlee/you-need-to-enjoy-yourself-and-just-get-into-the-routine-of-keeping/) [Alistair Brownlee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-brownlee/) [Browse all 2,212 Active quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/active/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his [sic] activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "John Dewey" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philosophy-of-progressive-education/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Active" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philosophy-of-progressive-education/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/john-dewey-545_active_there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philoso_2939283.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis…” — John Dewey", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "John Dewey", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "There is, I think, no point...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philosophy-of-progressive-education/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/there-is-i-think-no-point-in-the-philosophy-of-progressive-education/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```