The whole goal of public education was to create obedient citizens. Dewey and Webster had a bunch of docile automatons in mind with their plans for schools. Dewey was a socialist.
The left today wants control of our kids from infancy on starting in government-run daycare and pre-schools. They do not want parents raising independent thinkers.
Dewey was also a key figure in the post-modern humanist movement. One of 34 signatories on the Humanist Manifesto.