John Dewey was born on October 20, 1859, in Burlington, Vermont. He attended public school until graduation and entered the University of Vermont (UVM). While attending UVM Dewey was exposed to evolutionary theory through one of his professors G. H. Perkins. Dewey continued to focus his attention on the interactions between the human organism and its environment; it ultimately led Dewey to his theory of knowledge. After graduating in 1879, Dewey taught high school for two years and then enrolled as a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). While attending JHU, Dewey was influenced by Hegelian philosophy regarding G. Stanley Hall's organic model of nature and the power of scientific methodology within the humanities. After receiving his doctorate in 1884, Dewey accepted a teaching position at the University of Michigan (UM). Dewey worked at UM for ten years, with the exception of one year in 1888, when he worked for the University of Minnesota. While at UM he wrote his first two of Leibniz's forty books Psychology (1887) and New Essays on the Human Intellect (1888). In 1894, Dewey began his tenure at the University of Chicago (U of C). Dewey's studies led him to what was known as pragmatism or what he called instrumentalism. While at U of C Dewey founded and ran the Laboratory School which gave him the opportunity to develop his ideas about pedagogical method and his first major works, The School and Society (1899). Shortly thereafter, in 1904, Dewey left the U of C due to disagreements. on the Laboratory School. With his resignation at U of C, Dewey was asked to join the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. During his tenure he wrote; Darwin's influence on philosophy and other subjects... middle of paper... gave the child the opportunity to take part in those occupations which still remain.” (Marxists). Children subjected to a great increase in stimuli and pressures from the environment will lose the practical and motor skills necessary to balance intellectual development, use it or lose it. In the 1950s, with Cold War anxiety and cultural conservatism, progressive education was widely rejected. and feared and was soon forgotten. But Dewey's reputation gained a greater international following for his educational reforms than for his instrumentalist philosophy. (Marxists). Between the two world wars, where previously backward countries were forced to quickly catch up with more modern methods, as in Turkey, Japan, China, the Soviet Union, and Latin America, educational reformers turned to Dewey's innovations to the orientation. Marxists).