A respondent wrote:
« In Experience and Education, Dewey warns that when two parties square off in a long cultural battle ... most likely both were stuck in a blind alley and should get out on the Open Road for a new perspective. “Fulfillment is fulfilling, perfection is perfecting,” wrote Dewey, “and the good is now or never.” »
Voltaire once observed that what’s too silly to say, can be sung. But this ...
------ Reverie on ------
Memphis, Tennessee — Graceland, 1960.
Elvis: I hear you found a new song for me.
Jake: You bet. Listen to this.
[sings]
Fulfillment is fulfilling
Perfection is perfecting.
And the good
Is now or never.
Elvis: [making a face] Who the hell wrote that?
Jake: A real up and comer, John Dewey.
Elvis: Well he can up and go somewhere else.
Maybe could use the last line though.
[strums E major chord, recalls O Sole Mio,
sings]
It’s now or ne-ver, come hold ...
------ Reverie off ------
Dewey’s prose style is a forerunner of what critics of teacher colleges call educationese, also known as edubabble — the incredibly bad writing endemic among education professors and school administrators. Dewey was the first edubabbler. His students scatter “rich,” “vital,” “full,” “growing” throughout a pack of nonsense and send it off to the publisher.