John Dewey was born into a family with average means in 1859. He graduated in 1879 from the University of Vermont and went on to teach high school in Pennsylvania. After three years, he gave up the notion of being a secondary school teacher and returned to school, as a student, on borrowed dimes.

John Dewey received his Ph.D. from John Hopkins University. He returned to education but this time, he decided to take a position at the University of Michigan. He then took a position at the University of Chicago and it was there that he would write four masterpieces that would fall under the collection of Thought and Its Subject Matter.

Dewey was instrumental in the groundwork for the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Due to irreconcilable differences, Dewey eventually left the university and when he did, he landed at Columbia University. He was a professor of philosophy there from 1904 until 1952.

Heavily influenced by Plato, William James, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pierce, and Hegel; John Dewey pursued educational progressivism. His beliefs were rooted in several principles and incorporated his model for learning.

John Dewey’s model for learning included: (1) Becoming aware of the so-called "problem" (2) Being able to define or relay the problem (3) Being able to offer a way to solve the problem (4) Being able to predict the outcome based on the historical past proof from similar situations (5) Being able to test the solutions offered.

John Dewey used this model of learning and he believed that it was important to use past experiences so he tried to do this as much as possible in the classroom. John Dewey has been dubbed an instrumentalist. Dewey has been called an experimentalist. He has been connected with theories that would leave many to believe that he was a naturalist, an empiricist and a functionalist.

The truth is, John Dewey couldn’t possibly be summed up in one word. That is, unless the word chosen was ingenious. His creative work in various papers and publications prove that he was one who possessed a most beautiful mind.