My Philosophical Garden

This week in our Education class we discussed philosophies. Things such as existentialism, essentialism, cognitivism and reconstructivism. Through an educational philosophy assessment and scoring guide, I found that I resonated most with progressivim with a splash of existentialism. Progressivism, as stated above, is concerned with the individual student. In this video by Ken Robinson, we see that schools came about in the 19th century. They were geared for a specific type of student and you were either academic/smart or you were non-academic/smart. The educational systems treated students as objects and institutions were factories in which intellectual human beings were created. Teachers were the source of information and the students were the information processors. In today's society, we can see that there are so many different types of learners. One type of learner Robinson mentioned were those with ADHD. He referred to this as an "epidemic", and instead of teachers modifying instruction to fit the needs of these students, they wanted them to be medicated in order for them to focus on subject matter that was boring to them. He calls for a transformation of education in which the students have more control over their education.

Existentialism is the idea that students should be given the choice on how and what they learn. One school that uses this philosophy is the Summerhill Boarding School in the UK. The students are able to decided when and which classes they want to attend. They are able to decide how and what they learn which creates a desire in learning. If students have no desire to learn, how are we as educators supposed to expect them to learn anything?

This website on Student Centered Philosophies discusses multiple types of philosophies. These philosophies are focused on the student as an individual. The curriculum supported by these philosophies are designed to fit the needs, interests and abilities of the students. They are expected to be responsible for themselves and they are given the freedom that mandatory education in today's society does not.

Each and every teacher has a different philosophy and way of looking at education. Students themselves also respond to a certain philosophy better than others. Some students could learn better with an essentialism philosophy, meaning that they learn for the sake of learning. They learn best through lectures and assessments. Other students require a more existentialism philosophy meaning that they require the freedom to learn how and what they want to.

I believe the assessment worked well. However, it is not a science and it is not so clear-cut. Philosophies can be a melting pot of different ideas and opinions. Someone could be a little bit of a perrenialist and a little bit of a progressivist. It is up to you as a teacher to decide what your view is and what works best for you. As a teacher, I want to be able to give my students choices on how and what they want to learn. I want to teach them to be responsible for themselves and I want them to have a desire to learn.