“Progressivism evolved under the influence of four factors: the industrial revolution, modern science, the development of democracy and the favourable cultural environment in the United States. It is worth mentioning that it competed with the current of essentialist education in the U.S.A. for over twenty years, and that this rivalry ended with the victory of essentialism. But before essentialism began to dominate in the 1930s, progressivism had been the most influential philosophy of education in America in the first decades of that century.

“Democracy in progressive philosophy is a value that is associated with a more fundamental question of freedom. Progressivists understand it positively as an opportunity of individuals living next to one another to take full advantage of their capabilities for the sake of self-development and the development of the community.” (Kostylo, 2014, p. 27)

“Respect for the existing culture and being aware that education, trying to change the world, cannot do this in isolation from it, are the two attitudes characterizing reconstructionism.”

“Effective cultural change through education is possible only while observing democratic procedures.”

“Theodore Brameld, who developed reconstructionist philosophy, said that reconstruction cannot destroy that which it finds, that any change is possible only under the condition that we will first thoroughly get to know the culture that we want to change.”

"Perennialism focuses the hope for proper education and, indeed, also for a healthy culture in returning to the idea of the Middle Ages, to the eternal principles of truth, good and beauty" (Kostylo, 2014, p. 23-24).

“The originality of reconstructionism, however, does not lie with the fact that it assigns the task of emancipation to education . In the case of reconstructionism, the road that leads to this general goal is much more important than the goal itself. The road to democracy.”

Perennialist - ever-lasting, resurgent and returning to the previous form

The essence of essentialism is to strive to maintain the legacy of past cultural patterns. According to essentialism, these patterns are not only real, but also good. It follows that the main goal of education should be their transmission. (Kostylo, 2014, p. 25)

To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judgment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently

“I believe that the social life of the child is the basis of concentration, or correlation, in all his training or growth. The social life gives the unconscious unity and the background of all his efforts and of all his attainments.”

“I believe that the only way to make the child conscious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those fundamental types of activity which makes civilization what it is.”

“The child's own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education.” (Dewey, 1897, p. 1).

“I believe finally, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing.”

I believe that we violate the child's nature and render difficult the best ethical results, by introducing the child too abruptly to a number of special studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc., out of relation to this social life

“I believe that at present we lose much of the value of literature and language studies because of our elimination of the social element. Language is almost always treated in the books of pedagogy simply as the expression of thought. It is true that language is a logical instrument, but it is fundamentally and primarily a social instrument. Language is the device for communication; it is the tool through which one individual comes to share the ideas and feelings of others. When treated simply as a way of getting individual information, or as a means of showing off what one has learned, it loses its social motive and end” (Dewey 1897 p.7).

“I believe that if we can only secure right habits of action and thought, with reference to the good, the true, and the beautiful, the emotions will for the most part take care of themselves. I believe that next to deadness and dullness, formalism and routine, our education is threatened with no greater evil than sentimentalism. I believe that this sentimentalism is the necessary result of the attempt to divorce feeling from action.” (Dewey 2014. P. 9)

"I believe that this conception has due regard for both the individualistic and socialistic ideals. It is duly individual because it recognizes the formation of a certain character as the only genuine basis of right living. It is socialistic because it recognizes that this right character is not to be formed by merely individual precept, example, or exhortation, but rather by the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual, and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may determine ethical results” (Dewey 1897 p.10).

“I believe that interests are the signs and symptoms of growing power. I believe that they represent dawning capacities. Accordingly the constant and careful observation of interests is of the utmost importance for the educator.”

It is socialistic because it recognizes that this right character is not to be formed by merely individual precept, example, or exhortation, but rather by the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual, and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may determine ethical results

“Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends.” (Dewey, 1897, pp. 3).

“I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two, or a superimposition of one upon the other. We are told that the psychological definition of education is barren and formal that it gives us only the idea of a development of all the mental powers without giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put.” (Dewey, 1897, p. 2).

a. “Perennialist philosophy recognizes the authority of reason as the source of freedom. Therefore, the main task of education is to maximize the development of reason. This allows us to understand in what sense perennialists talk about liberating education. The superior purpose of this education is to liberate in a person his rational I, i.e. to bring him to the maximum potential of his freedom. This is tantamount to the maximum development of the rational (mental) potential, which is learning how to philosophize rising to intellectual virtues. The ultimate point of thinking is full intuition, which gives us a sense of absolute freedom.” (Kostylo, 2014, p. 24)

“We are told that the psychological definition of education is barren and formal that it gives us only the idea of a development of all the mental powers without giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put” (Dewey, 1897, pp. 2).

“The essence of essentialism is to strive to maintain the legacy of past cultural patterns.”

“According to essentialism, these patterns are not only real, but also good

“The measure of progress in learning is a more perfect representation of the reality of the subject of study.”

“The social life gives the unconscious unity and the background of all his efforts and of all his attainments” (Dewey, 1897, pp. 5).

“Language is the device for communication; it is the tool through which one individual comes to share the ideas and feelings of others” (Dewey, 1897, pp. 7).