Part 4, Chapter 12 Chicago, Section 5 Summary

Dewey started the laboratory school because he felt that the Chicago public schools had a negative effect on children. His school started out with sixteen students and two teachers. Within two years, the school had 140 students enrolled, 23 teachers on staff, and 10 graduate teaching assistants.

Instead of running the school as was the norm of the time, the students were taught by example and the learning of everyday tasks. Cooking classes were often used for science classes; field trips explored geography. The student experienced the knowledge to learn the correct answers. Dewey believed his school was a laboratory of philosophy, and it operated on the premise of "unity of knowledge."

During the same time as the creation of the Laboratory School, many physiological psychologists were studying the human reflex and trying to define human attention. Many people ran...