I believe that the school is primarily a social institution... I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.
—John Dewey
No book on education would be complete without John Dewey. A visionary American philosopher, educator, and social critic, Dewey wrote about many aspects of life but is perhaps best known now for
his beliefs, books, and projects on education. Education, Dewey wrote, is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.
To a 21st-century reader, the essay in which Dewey wrote those lines, "My Pedagogic Creed," can be both exciting and startling. Exciting because it is such a clear and compelling call to educational reform, and startling because this progressive platform was laid out more than 100 years ago. Dewey argues that much of education fails because it neglects the principle that school is a real and vital form of community life, and instead conceives of it as a place where lessons are to be learned and habits formed. As a result, says Dewey, schools fail to become part of the life experience of the child and so do not truly educate.
That will likely sound all too familiar. Many of our schools are still conceived of in the limited way Dewey laments, and are separated from their communities by long highways, limited hours, inflexible spaces, and, most of all, blinkered vision about the myriad ways in which schools can and should be part of the social ecosystem, in the process enriching both students and communities.
A small but inspiring collection of strategies for school-community symbiosis are detailed in this chapter. Parents, educators, and designers from around the world offer anecdotes, evidence, and ideas. Their testimony proves the relevance and necessity of planning, designing, and building schools that are as vital and interconnected as life itself.
