Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, January 2009

cause of the changeability and diversity of reality, learning is based on the principle of novelty viewed as a virtue and, 6 See William James, Pragmatism. A new name for some old ways of thinking (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1978). 7 See John Dewey, Democracy and education. An introduction to the philosophy of education (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929). New Inspirations and Religious Education in Poland 23 consequently, on pluralism which leads to that novelty. A school, therefore, is a place in which knowledge is not merely transmitted but created through the exchange of experiences of the participants (teachers, students, authors of course books, etc.). Being in a rut kills the spirit of development while an educational success consists of awakening the students’ courage to experiment with and change the reality they experience. Despite his emphasis on diversity in education, Dewey carefully avoided the two extremes of individualism and collectivism. An individual is always a part of a larger social organism; that is why it is important to be aware of common pursuits and achieve a relative uniformity in perceiving o the world. Democracy is therefore primarily a form of exchange of experiences and it is in this sense that it is vitally important for the development of both individuals and entire societies. The life of an individual must not be considered apart from the life of the social organism but, at the same time, it is individuals that affect the character of society. This mutual and constant influence is a result of communicative processes, that is, interactions between all participants of a community. This democratic ideal of education is founded on the conviction that the occurrence of desirable changes is directly proportional to the intensity of exchange of experiences between the participants of social life. The evolution of thought is therefore founded on the freedom of individuals and social groups as well as on shared activity. Cooperation and dialogical coexistence of participants of the social life is the absolute foundation for the development of culture and social organisation. Likewise, Charles H. Cooley - because of the assumption concerning the organicity of social life - maintained that notions and phenomena that appear to be mutually exclusive (e.g. freedom and necessity, the individual and the group, the spirit and the matter, science and art) must not be separated as antinomies but viewed in a complementary way as collective and distributive aspects of one reality. 8 9 That is why we should oppose any particularism and artificial isolation of specific aspects (e.g. biological, economic, psychological, etc.) as if they functioned independently of one another. For everything is a part of a single process of life in its entirety. From this perspective, both isolated collectivism and individualism must be viewed as destructive extremes; through