Dewey points out that much of what students learn in school settings is not related to taught subject matter. Students develop habits and attitudes toward learning that educators should monitor as carefully as subject knowledge.

Dewey’s philosophy of education based on experience proceeds from two main principles. The principle of continuity acknowledges that all life experiences relate to one another in a nested fashion, with older experiences shaping how a person encounters and interprets new experiences.

The core message of this book is that people learn through experience, and experience is therefore the proper basis for a philosophy of education. By experience, Dewey means the lived experiences of individual students.