Annotated Bibliography
(Since this is all I've done with my life lately!)

Bartky, John. Social Issues in Public Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963.
In Social Issues in Public Education, John Bartky assists future teachers and citizens in their endeavor to find answers and solutions to various education problems. Bartky answers questions such as how education is organized, how it should be organized, how does education relate to other institutions, how might these relationships be improved, and the role of education in the resolution of social issues. Rather than directly answering these questions and providing a bias viewpoint, Bartky means to inquire deeper into the implications behind education in order to encourage thought. By examining the sociological and foundational approaches, Bartky looks at the nature, social purposes, political unit, finances, and government of public education. Furthermore, he examines the interaction between schools and other social institutions, including, church, family, universities, and community. Lastly, Bartky studies the school and social problems, including problems of moral, spiritual, and democratic values, school segregation, politics, juvenile delinquency, and demographics.

Dewey, John. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926.

In Democracy and Education, Dewy explains that humans naturally look to be self-renewed, and that just as nutrition is essential to growth education is essential to growth. Because democracy is not set up for only individuals but for complex societies, one’s experience in education must supply skills to be an excellent individual as well as skills to be an active member of society. Thus, education is a social function, with the school as a unique and special environment ideal for social growth. Dewey seeks to strongly connect knowledge with moral development, arguing that information is only useful if it further expands the student’s character.

Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938.
Dewey considers it his responsibility to reach a deeper level and of understanding than is represented by the practices and ideas of the contending parties. Before delving into explaining the modes of education, Dewey establishes that it is difficult to establish a philosophy of education because often, with change comes defense against other “’isms” (such as progressivism) instead of a survey of literal needs, problems, and possibilities. Thus, in Experience and Education Dewey attempts to call attention to larger and deeper Educational problems to assign them to correct frames of reference. In order to do assign these frames of reference, Dewey examines traditional versus progressive education, the need of a theory of experience, criteria of experience, social control, and the nature of freedom, the meaning of purpose, and the means and goal of education. Dewey’s final conclusion is that he means only to point out some of the conditions that must be fulfilled if education is to utilize scientific method to expand experience, rather than state that education must move one way or another. Because he realized that people want education, pure and simple, he devotes himself to finding out how to make education a reality rather than a name or a slogan, which is why he calls for a sound philosophy of education.