According to Dewey, education is a

According to John Dewey, education is a social need, a process of living and social continuity, not mere preparation for future life.

A personal need alone misses Dewey's stress on education as a shared, community-based process.

A status need frames education as a marker of prestige, which is contrary to his democratic view.

A financial need reduces education to economic gain, which is not Dewey's central idea.

Dewey held that education is life itself and school a form of community living.

His pragmatist philosophy is set out in works like Democracy and Education, published in 1916.