Dewey pointed out that children's growth has its own characteristics, and it takes some time for children to mature, so educators should respect the needs and opportunities of children's growth. In Dewey's view, education is by no means to force children to absorb external things, but to enable people's innate ability to grow.

In order to emphasize the essential role of education in children's instinctive growth and development, Dewey put forward the educational principle of child-centrism, and opposed the tendency to turn education into an external pressure and ignore children's internal functions. It advocates taking children as the center and organizing educational measures around children. Dewey's child-centered view has had a great impact on the traditional view of children, and at the same time, it has also caused changes in the methods of children's education, which has had a great impact.

On the essence of education:

1, education is life: education is the process of children's life, not the preparation for future life. Life is development, and continuous development is life. The best education is to learn from life and experience. Education is to provide children with conditions to ensure their growth or complete life.

2. School is society: since education is a process of social life, school is a form of social life. Schools should become a small society, a primary society. In school, we should simplify the real social life into an embryonic state and present the social life of children.