Steele’s “The New Sovereignty”, Dewey’s “My Pedagogic Creed”, and Emerson’s “The American Scholar” discuss their own ideas on how education should affect society. When the three articles are combined and examined together, all authors agree that education has an important function in changing society for the better, but focus on different aspects of society that should change.
Steele talks about integrating education and lessening the divide between individuals in the education system as a way to learn equally and most effectively. Furthermore, Steele (1992) states that focusing on collective entitlements based on any type of group, such as gender or ethnicity, are always undemocratic. He wants to make education more generalized and not focus on the social differences. However, Dewey focuses on the role of education in the development of the individual, particularly from a social standpoint. He argues that education’s main purpose should be to equip the individual to function within society. For example, Dewey (1897) says that the point of exams should be to “test the child’s
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For example, Emerson (1837) mentions the philosophers Cicero, Locke, and Bacon and how people accept their views and fail to remember that they were only young men when writing these books. In addition, Emerson (1837) states that books are only there to inspire. It is the recreation of what is learned in books that enhances learning and develops a person’s views and understanding. Steele, Emerson, and Dewey believe that education should contain subject matter books. However, Emerson’s argument is to only use books for inspiration, Dewey’s arguments is to use it as along as it enhances the individual’s social self for the real world, and Steele (1992) wants the material to be shared equally by intergrading those studies into the departments that have once neglected