Columbia University

Columbia University is a defining setting in the account of a student's education and early intellectual work. He supported himself while studying there, studied with John Dewey, received a travelling fellowship, and wrote a book on the Gary schools; the episode links university study to both practical labor and wider intellectual experience.

Work and Study

The student worked his way through Columbia University while holding a succession of jobs: in a pianola-record factory in Newark, as a proofreader and piano tuner, and as an accompanist in a vocal studio at Carnegie Hall. His education is thus described not as separate from employment but as something pursued alongside it, across factory, editorial, musical, and performance work.

Academic Formation

At Columbia University, he studied with John Dewey. The account identifies Dewey as part of his academic experience without detailing particular courses or specifying what influence that study had on his later ideas. It also records a concrete outcome of his own scholarly work: he wrote a book on the Gary schools.

Fellowship and Wider Experience

Columbia University awarded him a travelling fellowship that took him to England, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Copenhagen. The fellowship extended his experience beyond the university and placed travel alongside his work and study as part of this period of formation. The account supplies the destinations but does not describe the purpose or itinerary of the journeys.