Today an increasing number of countries around the world have acquired almost the same metaphorical speech about teaching and learning. These theories grown in the Western world are largely produced within the framework of psychology and individualistic oriented educational philosophy and fits with the ever-expanding financial growth paradigm. This article gives a brief reference to an exchange that in the early 1900's took place between two different ways to go in American educational philosophy. Then selects John Dewey's route choice, which took a step away from attempts to create a rationalistic ultimate definition of teaching and learning. Instead, a couple of different metaphors for education are demonstrated that can be used as a basis for pragmatically organizing teaching toward specific purposes and consequences in relation to different cultural traditions.