It has sometimes been suggested among educational theorists that the child-centered education involves two distinctive aspects, which may be called the epistemological and the socio-philosophical. The epistemological aspect of child-centered education directs the educator's attention to the understanding of children for the efficiency of education. It proposes the methodological principles, and has little to do with the ethical prescription. In this aspect, holding children in reverence means that teachers must make allowances for the differences between children and adults. On the other hand, the socio - philosophical aspect of child-centered education indicates the ethical principles that educators should treat a child as a 'person'. In this aspect, holding in reverence means that teachers must pay attention to the sameness between children and adults. Here, the child-centered movement in education can be viewed as a part of the wider social movement for extending the human rights to the categories of human beings which had hitherto been denied respect as persons. The child-centered educationists assert that children have a right to consideration and treatment as intrinsically valuable human beings, and are respect as given to adults. Even though the above two aspects of child-centered education are usually intermingled in an educational theory, it is important to try to separate the one from the other, since they require quite different modes of evaluation. This study is an attempt to separate the two aspects in Dewey's educational theory and to assess Dewey's idea of child-centered education in the light of those two aspects. Dewey's idea of child-centered education can be analyzed under four interrelated headings: The criteria of educational aims, the importance of experience in education, the meaning of immaturity, and the concept of interest. In Dewey's educational theory, the aims of education are defined as 'ends in view' of the present activities. The objects that can not be viewed as ends by children can not be the real aims of education. Two conditions are necessary for an object to be an end in view. One is the adequacy of educational aim itself, and the orther is the capacity of children for recognizing it. Dewey holds that education is the reorganization, reconstruction of experiences, and start with giving children experiences. Experiences involve two phases; active and passive. Children acquire the intellectual and emotional dispositions through these two phases of experience, and educational situation .cannot be different from life situation outside school. The textbooks should be the results of children's experiences, and are the means of next experiences of children. Dewey maintains that the necessary condition of growth is the immaturity of children. immaturity designates a positive force or ability-the 'power' to grow. Taken absolutley, instead of comparatively, immaturity has two chief traits of dependene and plasticity. The former means the possibility of growth, and the latter the specific adaptability of an immature creature for growth. Children's immaturity can 'not be compared with adults' maturity, and it has intrinsic value. In other words, it should be repected in itself. According to Dewey, interest is defined as the relation between subjective attitude and objects. Self and object acquire identity be interest. Any object that can not be identified with the self can not be the object of education. Two conditions are necessary for an object to be identified whith the self. One is the function of the object itself for being identified with the self, and the other is the intellectual capacity of children for recognizing the object in its proper relation. The former is the logically necessary condition for the latter. It is to be noted that, with regard to the concept of child-centered education, Dewey's ideas on the first three topics are all related to the concept of interest. Dewey's view of educational aims and experiences is justified by the concept of interest, and his view of immaturity works for maintaining the importance for interest in education. Dewey's view of immaturity, buttressed by the importance of interest, leads him to the view that immaturity itself has an intrinsic value. It may be said that Dewey's confusion about the meaning of child-centered education is a reflection of his confusion' about the concept of interest. In conclusion, the validity of Dewey's idea of child-centered education rests on the aspect in which we take it. Taken in the epistemologial aspect, Dewey's view of child-centered education offers sound methodological principles. But taken in the socio-philosophical aspect, Dewey's view of child-centered education raises a serious doubt concerning the justification of education.