Dewey Lab School at the University of Chicago

John Dewey established an experimental school in 1896 at the University of Chicago. He and his wife Alice were involved with the school until 1904 when they left Chicago. Dewey wanted to put into practice his ideas about education, test these ideas, and encourage what we now call action research, as well as provide schooling for his own children. Dewey’s writings at the time about the school include brief descriptive articles (e.g., 1896) as well as his well-known book School and Society (1899).

Two principal accounts of the school other than Dewey’s own reflect different views and help provide here a holistic account of the Laboratory School: The Dewey School (1936/1966) and Dewey’s Laboratory School: Lessons for Today (1997). The first account is by Katherine Camp Mayhew and Anna Camp Edwards, two teachers at the school, with an introduction by Dewey himself. They note that Dewey’s purpose was “to discover in administration, selection of subject matter, methods of learning,...