Abstract
The aim of this paper is to remind a few ideas of John Dewey, which relate to the contemporary considerations of general education. It is mainly a question of the impact of significant social changes in educational practice and of building educational theory.
The accelerating pace of development in economic and technical areas give rise to new social needs. The impact of social environment one grows up in plays an increasingly larger role in educational theory.
The paper notes that Dewey was the first to consider social environment to be the basis and driving force of mental and emotional development of a child, a breeding ground for its future development and educational opportunities. Dewey's theory linking education with the analysis of social environment implies rejection of attempts at independence of pedagogy from other disciplines and philosophy.
The text also recalls Dewey's view that the educational aspects are specific not only to the situations at school but also to everyday life. In the (post) modern times, however, the educational environment is constantly changing, and thus Dewey's question is still up to date: is it possible to define sound and promising educational objectives for constantly changing and diversified society?