My educational philosophy is based on my experience in several educational settings and several countries. Curriculum should be a dialectic between the subject matter and the learner. There is long lasting content, but how each generation and each learner interacts and adds to the content is the ultimate challenge of education.
I believe there is a division in education between brain functions and content. To use an information age analogy, there is hardware-the way our brain thinks, and software–what it thinks about. Two of the most prominent human processing systems are language and mathematics. Others may exist as well, such a artistic representation. The systems could correspond with Jungian archtypes. It is essential to fully develop these modes of reality interpretation at an early age. I think this somewhat corresponds to the perennialist philosophy. I support deep and profound study of languages and mathematics at a very early age.
As students progress through late grade school and into middle school, my view becomes more essentialist This world view believes that there are basic subjects that should be learned thoroughly and rigorously. As students mature and reach middle school and high school age, it is important to connect them with what is truly human and the big existential questions that have engaged people for ages. I believe that all kids can learn these challenging ideas, but not all in the same way. It is, however, important that adults stand up for the world and present it to students. As the philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote; “…the educators here stand in relation to the young as representatives to the world for which they must assume resposibility, although they themselves did not make it, and even though they may, secretly or openly, wish it were other than it is.” (Between Past and Future) The curriculum in middle school should be heavy on core subjects, and include lots of literature, science, foreign language, mathematics, history, and the arts.
As students mature and progress into later high school and university, they become more and more interested and capable of engaging the world. Here my philosophical beliefs are based on two great teachers: 1) Socrates, “know thyself” and 2) Jesus of Nazareth, “Love they neighbor”. At this stage, curriculum should become at the same time, more individualized: students learning more about themselves, and more community oriented: they need to engage in the community. I think subjects as diverse as philosophy and economics need to be part of the later high school curriculum. One of the strong elements of many American high schools is the emphasis on community service. The ultimate goal of education is creating a better common world for all people. The end goal is essentially political, that is, creating people who are aware of what it means to be human and then being courageous enough to go into the world and change it
It is ultimately radical.
Dean – you’re a much deeper thinker than I, which I appreciate. Helps me look at things with a different perspective. Until I became older (and presumably more mature) – I skated through education, doing as little as possible while maintaining a GPA just high enough to keep my parents off my back (usually in that 3.3 range). So studying math or language at a “deep and profound” level, during my early years, would have been beyond my ability or level of interest. I wonder how one could motivate a student like that? It would certainly take a lot of investment in the teacher, maybe one who could see this child’s potential ….
Love the ending of your statement: encouraging folks to be courageous enough to change the world: it is, indeed, ultimately radical. And also most likely where I finally arrived on my return to graduate school when I was 37 (I also skated through my undergraduate career in my 20′s). I guess some of us take longer to reach this higher level of thinking and interest in understanding our world. Sadly, I believe that too many of our current students never do reach this level – which may help explain the situation our country is in (dysfunctional families, erratic financial difficulties, uncertainty in our future ….). But whose to blame; families who need both parents to work? High rate of divorce? An underfunded educational system? and on and on … no easy answers to help get our students where they should be ….
WOW!! Deep thought!! It also hits the mark on education. You bring with you the valuable experience of having been in many different educational settings. When you look to the future what you have experienced will be a great asset.