Chapter 26: Theories of Morals

Dewey concludes Democracy and Education by making the connection between knowledge and morals in education. Knowledge and morals are married in experience. Habits are what we live by, but habits need not be static. For inquiring minds, habits can be dynamic--i.e., in a state of continuous development. Knowledge, gathered in our lived experience with others, is what represents that state of progressive change and affects conduct in significant ways.

In a complex society, schools should be an environment for exploring knowledge and acquiring the inquiry mindset. Dewey offers two bedrocks on which to build toward this in schools.
- School must itself be a community life, and
- The learning in school should be continuous with that out of school.

There is an old saying to the effect that it is not enough for a man to be ood; he must be good for something. The something for which a man must be good is capacity to live as a social member so that what he gets from living with others balances with what he contributes (p. 288).