Ism's and Philosophies

As an educator it is important for me to understand that I have my own beliefs and opinions that make up who I am as a person, but these characteristics will also make up who I am as a teacher. I need to discover and understand exactly what I believe in and learn how this will ultimately effect a classroom full of students that I am teaching. I do not want to push my beliefs on students, rather I want to implement my philosophies and ideas into my teaching methods in order to provide instruction the best way I know how. I think once a teacher completely understands what they stand for and believe in when it comes to life and education, that is really when they can become an effective teacher. As an educator you want to help and guide your students in to forming their own beliefs and philosophies through the knowledge they gain in your classroom and every other classroom they are a part of throughout their life. The certain philosophies and the different outlooks on life can really help to pin point what a person, and furthermore, a teacher is all about.

There were some philosophies out there that I didn’t exactly fit into, and weren’t really convinced by for the most part. I think everyone carries a piece of each philosophy with them, but one larger piece will greatly outweigh the rest. Idealism is really thinking outside of the box and beyond physical boundaries. An Idealist thinks of the world in terms of the abstract, they believe in thoughts and ideas, things that are not physical but mental. Education is closely related to spirituality and you better your knowledge to better your spiritual beliefs and find “Ultimate Truth”. I believe I think outside of the box, but not this far out. I do not think that spirituality and education should be so closely linked, but there can be a time and place for it within the confines of school. Idealist concepts are a little too far out for me to grasp and I can see why I do not fit into this category. I can also see why I did not fall into the category of a Realist. Realism is greatly influenced by the world and nature. I am a firm believer that our surroundings have a great impact on our lives and ways of thinking and can be a great inspiration at times, but I don’t think that it is everything. Understanding the material world is a very important aspect in the learning process, but it is only one aspect, and I feel like every aspect needs to be accounted for. I was very close to being a pragmatist, which focuses more on reality and the idea that everything in the world is subject to change. I can see how this relates to me because I see the world as a constantly changing and evolving thing, just as education should be. Education to me, means constantly learning and obtaining knowledge, where one can never learn it all.

Now, I did find that I was an existentialist. This philosophy clearly relates to me and my personality as a person and an educator. It is the philosophy I am most interested in and believe in. This is the most recent philosophy in which strongly emphasizes choice and where people must create the own meaning of their lives through the choices that they make. I completely agree with the concept of choice in this philosophy, because life is filled with choices, and that is the beauty of it. Just as life is filled with choices I think that education should be as well. Grades kindergarten through twelfth should allow students to explore what interests them and what their strengths and weaknesses are through a variety of different subjects. College is the place where things need to be narrowed down, so the sky should be the limit from elementary all the way up to high school. Choice can be overwhelming to students, but it also allows for self discovery and understanding.

The existentialist philosophy also mentions that how we view our past is a choice as well. Everyone had a choice in the past, and then once it has happened and locked in time there is still room for choice, the choice on how you want to view those past experiences. You have the choice to view them in a good light or in a bad light. I think this is a very powerful concept that should be embraced in school. Students need to know that even if they have or might make a mistake that it does not mean complete failure. Mistakes and not doing so well in school in the past can help students and teachers to build from and work with in order to create the ultimate learning experience in the present. Choice is a never ending wheel, and bad choices may seem bad at the time, but when you get beyond them you have the choice to redeem it by looking back at it in a good light and learning from it.

Existentialism also believes in individualized learning and I completely agree with this in the bigger perspective of education. I have heard that education in the future could involve individualized curriculum and instruction for all students, similar to IEP’s for students with special needs. I think that every single student has some kind of special need that needs to be discovered and catered to during their educational experience. Students would have the power to design their own paths in education, they would have the power of choice. It would mean a lot of work and evaluation of each and every student, but it could be such a powerful way to deliver knowledge. Constructivism, which is based around existentialism, encourages this individualized curriculum and instruction for all students because it believes that education should be based around what each individual student already knows and build from that. Constructivism is a very hands on and student centered approach to education. The reason why a school is a school is because students come there to learn, the whole purpose of school is to teach these students, so it only makes sense to make everything revolve around them in one way or another. Constructivism believes at looking at the big picture which would include the primary concepts in education. The teacher is there to encourage open ended questions and discussion in order for students to explore possibilities and different outlooks. Constructivism seems to be a very powerful approach to education in which I plan to embrace in my own pedagogy.

As for the educational pioneers and their philosophies, I agree with all of them to a certain extent. The reason why I say I agree with all of them to some degree is because philosophies on education had to start some where and you can see the similarities in these philosophers ideas, they took from one another and built their own opinions. Everyone builds from others ideas, you either agree with them and expand the ideas or you disagree and go in another direction. Reading these philosophies is like watching the formation of education take place. A lot of these ideas are out dated, but I can see today’s great ideas and opinions shining through in a lot of them as well. I think that even though these philosophies may be outdated they still are the backbone of education in which we have built from and expanded upon. I quite obviously agree with the philosophies that believe in an education for all, including women, the disabled, and people of color. Philosophers such as Wollstonecraft, Comenius, and DuBois believed in inclusion and equality. But I believe, for the most part, that these battles are already won so that they are not taken into consideration in todays approaches. I say for the most part because issues of race and sex are not much of a problem in education anymore as far as being included, some fights are still prevalent today but are very successful. What I need to focus on now that everyone is included in education, is how exactly to teach this wide variety of students day in and day out.

The educational pioneers that I do agree with are due to the fact that their ideas are still prevalent today, where they could still be applied and carried forth with due to the demands of education today. I believe Rousseau only where he believed that education should be centered around the child and not the subject, because this goes back to constructivism. Also, Pestalozzi emphasizes teaching to the “whole child”, meaning understanding their interests and personal lives. He believed that teachers and students should have a strong bond in order to create a comfortable learning environment which is so stressed upon today. I appreciate Forbel’s philosophy which centers around physical and verbal activities. I obviously agree with Mann’s ideas because they were the basis for forming the public school where an education is available to all children. I have yet to find a philosopher that states that school is a place for students to discover who they are and not to push them in any specific direction except forward. Dewey came the closest to believing in this where it is stated that “one should not regard education as a preparation for life, but rather as a process of living in itself”.

I have taken bits and pieces of some of the educational pioneers in order to determine what I believe to be important to my educational beliefs. There wasn’t one person’s beliefs that I completely agreed with one hundred percent, and I think it better to piece together different ideas in order to relate to my own. I think that is what education is all about as well, gathering bits and pieces to form and understand all knowledge being given to you. Teachers borrow from one another every day to build the best instruction for their students. I have formed my beliefs on education just as I will form instruction for students, by forming a well rounded outlook on the topic based on various ideas, input, and sources.

The Scoop on the Four Ism's

Idealism - It's said that this ism is one of the oldest and so I can see why it may not apply to most people in today's world. This theory has a lot to do with spirituality and abstract thinking. It's out side of the box thinking, where mind is over matter. Ideas and thoughts are more feasible than materialistic things. Materials do not matter, but thoughts associated with them do. Education is closely associated with spirituality, and one betters their knowledge in order to improve their ideas in order to reach the "Ultimate Truth". Every student has a mind, soul, and spirit and a teacher is the ideal role model for the students.

Realism - Realism is also another old philosophy and seems to be the counter to idealism. By this I do not mean that realism values materialistic things such as cars and money but rather materialistic things such as nature and the physical world surrounding us. Our experiences with and about the world around us is stressed most. Everything about us goes back to nature and is rooted from it in some way or another. The purpose of school is to help students understand the purpose of things and is largely based around scientific inquiry. The teacher helps the students to understand the material world, which seems a lot like helping prepare students for the real world once they graduate.

Pragmatism - This ism shies away from the more traditional ones. This ism focuses more around reality and how it is constantly subject to change. Everything is determined by experiences and knowledge is never conclusive. Pragmatists envision a well rounded education similar to what is in place today that stresses methodical approaches. Students learn from experiences and interactions, so a more kinesthetic and naturalistic approach to learning is stressed. Working together is also emphasized and the role of the teacher is to model how and what to learn.

Existentialism - This is the most recent philosophy where it discourages the societies control. Individuals should have their own control over things relating to their lives. The world is a place of chance with no order to things, so because of this we have to create our own meaning as we live. In order to determine the truth of things is a matter for an individual to discover on their own because we have the freedom to decide this. Education revolves around the individual and helps them to discover themselves by understanding the consequences of their actions. The teacher is on a journey to discover themselves along with the students and supports every walk of life.

Background Statement

One of the greatest benefits of teaching is that you can actually tell your students that you’ve been in their position before. I may not be able to relate to exact circumstances but I get the idea because I have been through all the phases of school at one point. But let’s face it, as teachers we would love to say we remember a lot of the great things we were taught or how good or bad a teacher may have been, but what really sticks in our minds are those embarrassing moments or good moments with friends at school. Of course I remember some good assignments and one particular great teacher and a few not so great teachers, but what comes most vividly to me is the social aspects of school. I remember being out on the playground in elementary school waiting in line to play tether ball only to find a bee in the pocket of my corduroys that stings me. I remember the beginning of middle school marked the time that boys no longer had “cooties” and I should now play “footsies” with them under the table. I also remember girls being completely mean and caddy in high school.

Believe it or not, these memories may be the most useful to me as a teacher. No matter what grade a student is in they are going through some sort of change, because kids are constantly growing and changing. We can’t get anywhere with our students if we do not try to relate to them and using our own experiences can be the most powerful tool in doing so. Starting with elementary school I remember having a reading loft in my first grade classroom and if you were good you got to go up in it and read. I think that was a great motivational tool to get students to read. I was taught cursive in the third grade and loved making capital J’s, but now I realize that the only thing I need cursive for is to sign my name, oh and sign a statement on the Praxis II test. Apparently we should have wasted less time on cursive and simply learned how to sign our names. I think the most important thing I learned from my elementary experiences is when I wrote an e-mail to a girl telling her I didn’t want to be her friend anymore. Well, she told her father, who was a teacher at our school and he made me stay in for recess to discuss the incident. Looking back on this incident I believe it is important for a teacher not to get tied up in personal matters at school because he obviously took this situation personally and should have either dealt with it outside of school as his daughters parent or had another teacher deal with the situation. I believe that it is important to leave personal matters such as this at home when being a teacher.

Now, onto middle school, where I really do not know where to start. But, I do feel that the most pivotal aspect of my middle school experiences were the physical and emotional transformations that were taking place in me and in everyone else. My middle school was set up with two teams for each grade and there were wings designated for each grade as well. We had bells and block scheduling and looking back at this from a teachers perspective I believe that I really like this set up. I only vividly remember a few of my teachers from middle school and I think it is because they were the teachers with the most personality. I had a new teacher my seventh grade year, and I was talking when I shouldn’t and she dealt with the situation by putting all the attention on me and the other student. She told us to stop flirting, which is a big no no is so many ways. She embarrassed us by singling us out and for suggesting that we were flirting at a time when the whole boy girl situation was extremely confusing. Of course she felt horrible about it after I cried in the bathroom for the rest of the day but, I will always keep this experience in my memory so I won’t put my own student in a similar situation. This also shows me that as a new teacher I am going to make mistakes but I will learn from them. One great technique one of my middle school teachers used was meditation. She would shut the lights off and have us lay on the floor and she would play nature sounds on the CD player and talk to us in a soothing voice telling us to imagine a place. All the students in my class went along with it and it seemed to be pretty powerful, I think it really helped us to relax and wash away our worries for a few minutes. I wouldn’t mind trying something similar in my own classroom.

Now high school was a little different than middle school. I had more freedom in the classes I took and began to realize which subjects I excelled in. My freshmen year I did really well in my english class, but then my sophomore year my teacher wasn’t giving me very great grades. I would ask him why and he didn’t have any answers that related to my work, only he compared me to the rest of the class. He said it was the best grade in the class. I learned from him that my grading will not be based on every student in the class but will be based on what each individual student is capable of and the progress that they are making personally. After this I was destined to prove this teacher wrong so I took AP Language and met the best teacher in the world. He gave us a lot of freedom in the class and I ended up learning so much in that class and did really well. He discussed my work with me like I was an equal and always pushed me to do my best but at the same time only what I was comfortable with. He showed an enthusiasm for my work and showed that he really cared about his students. Having him as a teacher has really set the bar for me as a teacher and I hope to be a great teacher just like him. I had very mixed experiences during high school and from it I have learned that it is a two way street, you have to take the good with the bad. I think if teachers and other school officials would have been working more collaboratively together then my high school would have been a better place.

I think that my own school experiences shape who I am as a person but will ultimately shape who I am as a teacher. I will look back on my own experiences and base my decisions and actions on them. I will shape myself as a teacher that I would have liked to have while I was in school. I am not going to lie, I have had a lot of bad experiences in school, but I think those will be the most powerful and useful to me at this time in my life. I know how I would have liked the bad experiences to be handled and will always keep that in mind during my own professional career. The funny thing is I stumbled into this career path, but I wouldn’t have in any other way now. I have always had a passion for English and began with English at college. But I soon realized English wasn’t enough, I wanted to share my passion with others and teaching is the best outlet for this. Maybe my own experiences in school are what ultimately sent me down this path, I want to make a difference in my students life because I didn’t have many teachers or other school leaders that did that for me.

I love English and have a great passion for it otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am right now. But the closer I get to actually being out in the teaching world the more I realize that my subject matter is not going to be my biggest passion anymore, my biggest passion is going to be my students. My subject matter is going to mean nothing if I can’t get through to my students. I know becoming a great teacher is not going to start with me but it is going to start with my students. I don’t think I could even begin to describe what a great teacher is or looks like, I just know I want to be one. I can explain what I know about myself so far. I know that I want to understand all my students on a level that I understand which ways they learn best. I know I want my students to feel comfortable with me in a way that they can come to me with anything. I know that seeing my students grow and succeed is going to be the most powerful thing of all. I know that I need to create a comfortable and inviting environment for my students to be immersed in every day that they are in my class. I know that I am going to work with my colleges to create the best learning environment possible for my students. I know that I want to have fun in my classroom. I know that I want to create the most innovative and creative lesson plans out there. I know that creating these amazing lessons will involve help from others and building off others ideas. I know that in order to be a great teacher I need to give one hundred and ten percent of myself to the profession because if I’m not in it completely then I shouldn’t be in it at all.

If I can do all these things I know that I want to do then I will be on the right path to becoming a superior teacher. I don’t think becoming a superior teacher is about living up the the expectations of some all mighty teacher, but it is about living up to what you think is your best and what is best for your students. I do not want to go down in history as some great teacher or even go down in history as the greatest teacher at the school I teach at, it’s not about being the greatest to others, it’s about being the greatest to myself. I want to make changes in the school that I teach at. I have learned many powerful and innovative ways in transforming a school into a better place. Change is good and in order for a school to provide the best education to it’s student it needs to be constantly changing their approach on education. My main concern in teaching is that I will let my flaws hold me back. I fear I will allow my shyness and lack of confidence to hold me back in standing up for what I believe in, and I hope it does not get in the way of getting to know my students.