“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
This is a paraphrase of an idea that Dewey expressed using other words in My Pedagogic Creed (1897) and Democracy and Education (1916); it is widely misattributed to Dewey as a quotation.
Cf. James William Norman, A Comparison of Tendencies in Secondary Education in England and the United States (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1922), [//books.google.com/books?id=qrmgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA140 p. 140] (emphasis added): "...there has for years been a strong and growing tendency in the United States under the leadership of Dewey, and more recently of Kilpatrick, to find an educational method correlative of democracy in society with the belief that education is life itself rather than a mere preparation for life, and that practice in democratic living is the best preparation for democracy."
Misattributed
Variant: Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.
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John Dewey 62
American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer 1859–1952Related quotes
“It is life itself that educates.”
Das Leben bildet.
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“Education prepares the next generation for life and debt.”
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
Source: The Discovery of the Child (1948), Ch. 8 : The Exercises, p. 141
Variant translation:
This then is the first duty of an educator: to stir up life but leave it free to develop.
Context: This is our mission: to cast a ray of light and pass on. I compare the effects of these first lessons the impressions of a solitary wanderer who is walking serene and happy in a shady grove, meditating; that is leaving his inner thought free to wander. Suddenly a church bell pealing out nearby recalls to himself; then he feels more keenly that peaceful bliss which had already been born, though dormant, within him.
To stimulate life, leaving it free, however, to unfold itself, that is the first duty of the educator.
For such a delicate mission great art is required to suggest the right moment and to limit intervention, last one should disturb or lead astray rather than help the soul which is coming to life and which will live by virtue of it's own efforts.
This art must accompany the scientific method, because the simplicity of our lessons bears a great resemblance to experiments in experimental psychology.
“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
Source: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
“All of life is a constant education.”
Source: The Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt
“It is life that educates, and perhaps love more than anything else in life.”
Source: Fallen Leaves (2014), Ch. 2 : On Youth
“To be successful in life what you need is education.”
Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,
Amritanandamayi's Address Upon Receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the State University of New York (2010)