Abstract

Habit is central to John Dewey's philosophy of education. Further, since education is central to understanding the various situations of life, habit is central to Dewey's philosophy in general. It is only by means of habits that human beings transact with their environments and thereby grow and develop as individuals within their surroundings. ;While William James holds that habits may serve to free the agent's mind for creative, spontaneous activities, Dewey claims that habits do not take care of certain tasks in order that the agent may be free; rather, they are the mode itself in which she may be free. But in order for a person to know which habits to develop in order to function within this freedom, she needs to understand the various situations in which she participates. Situations are not set stimuli necessitating certain habits in response. Rather, says Dewey, whether a habit is viewed as a necessary response to the circumstances depends on the end-in-view and how the agent wants to get there. ;Getting to know the situation enables the agent to develop those habits which will facilitate her self-realization. Habits are ways of acting, and if well combined provide the unity to one's character that is needed for the moral goal of self-realization of all those involved in a situation. ;The classroom is one setting in which an agent may learn how to develop those habits most conducive to her personal end of self-realization. In the classroom the teacher needs to discover the interests of the individual student so that the teacher may guide her in a direction which suits her, leading to the realization of her unified self. And the teacher's task is not only to help the student to develop those habits which will enable her to reach the ends she already has, but also to show her other directions of development that she might want to explore