My Philosophy on Education
Given some time to reflect, my philosophy on
education is confused. Really what is education? What are students
suppose to learn? Education can be thought of as a thing that a child
gathers information, learns, applies, and synthesizes and eventually
graduates from, but is it such a thing? In my opinion, education is a
thing that students want to do, which is opposed to the view of
education being forced upon children. Students become educated;
education does not make the student. People are educated in all
environments, so education is more than just a teacher’s job.
While a student is in school, they are there to learn to read, to
write, and to do arithmetic (the three R’s). Education can be
both how students learn the three R’s and what they want to learn
about. If I had to choose one particular educational philosophy I could
not. I believe students need to have a basic curriculum which is
described as essentialism, but the students should have fun learning
them, and also help decide what they want to learn which progressivism
is. The teacher does not understand all the children’s interests.
A child will learn better when interested in a subject or excited about
the presentation by the teacher.
As I have observed through babysitting and working
at a day care, and this child first enters school, they do not believe
they are going for an education. They are just really excited that they
are finally old enough to go to school. They are interested in what
they are doing at school. Eventually students lose interest; I know I
lost interest in middle school because I thought it was boring. In this
boring environment, my class learned with few hands on activities, but
when we had activities, I was much more interested. Learning takes
place visually, auditorily and hands on learning. I do not think
that students should go to school because they have to; I want students
to go to school because they enjoy what they are doing in the
classroom. The purpose of education is to not force the students to
learn by quizzing their knowledge, but is to create an enriching
environment that facilitates the learning process. The students should
go to school and participate in many activities that are exciting to
them. The classroom should be spontaneous if an exciting experiment
comes up, but structured enough so the teacher can follow the
guidelines of the curriculum. All students learn differently, the
teacher should make plans that have a variety of ways the student can
learn. For example, students in special education have Individual
Education Plans, which are customized to each student because they
learn differently. I believe that even if the child should not be in
special education, they still should have their own little IEP. It may
not be as intense as special education students, but all students learn
differently and it is the teacher’s responsibility to challenge
each student’s success.
It is the teacher’s responsibility to help
each individual child learn. Teachers should also have a structured
plan for each day because if not the day could become chaotic, and this
is part of essentialism. I do not completely believe in progressivism,
because the students should have some structure, and be
“forced” to learn the three R’s in a fun way. The
teacher should take information from the textbook and present it in a
variety of ways. For example, in American Teachers by Joseph Newman, he
describes a classroom where the students planted a garden. With that
garden the teachers formed lessons on why plants grow, how to take care
of something, and how to grow a particular crop in each season. While
teaching the children about the garden, the teacher can give
assignments that include the three R’s about the garden. It would
be a hands-on learning project that is a large aspect of progressivism
because of the hands-on learning. Ultimately, it is the teacher’s
responsibility to make the children want to learn and to teach
different concepts in different ways.
The teacher should also have a structured curriculum
to map out what the students will learn. The curriculum has to be based
on the guidelines set by the school district. The curriculum should be
flexible enough so that it can be adjusted with each student’s
wants, needs, and interests. The student should want to come to school
because their curriculum is interesting and engaging. When I was in
middle school, I remember enjoying math class because my teacher
brought out blocks and other learning devices that helped me stay
involved in the class. Our math book was based on real-life stories
that I, as a middle school student, could relate to. The combination of
the book and the hands-on activity really helped me learn and I enjoyed
it. So curriculum should not be reading from a text book but presenting
textbook information in different ways. There should be guidelines to
the curriculum, because a high school graduate is expected to read,
write, and do arithmetic, maybe not to the levels of some students but
they need the basics.
Along with the curriculum, the school environment
should be structured and friendly. The environment needs to welcome the
children and allow them to work in groups or by themselves with
different seating arrangements. It should give the students choices of
different enriching areas. The environment is not just the classroom so
it needs to be enriching in all aspects: hallway, classroom, and
playground/outside. The classroom needs to have many options but, not
too many stimulants that take away from the students learning. The
classroom should have three main areas: learning, reading, and free
choice area. Each area should be equipped with the proper furniture and
materials that help individuals learn. It is also important for the
environment to be safe, as well as enriching. I have not experienced an
unsafe school, but I can imagine that if I did not feel safe at school
I would be unable to concentrate on work.
Progressivism is a philosophy that is flexible, but
sometimes too flexible for specific children who need structure to make
it throughout the day. So essentialism is also a good philosophy to
baseline at school. A mixture of the two would be my perfect classroom.
Students have many different learning needs which are to be recognized
by the teacher. Along with the basic curriculum the students need to
learn in a safe environment. All of these aspects need to be pulled
together to create that positive, enriching, learning environment for
all children.