Philosophy Of Education in History

Throughout history, there’s been a countless amount of different views and perspectives on what should be taught in classrooms. More importantly, how they are taught. Ancient philosophers had a great influence on the dynamics of our modern-day classroom activities in the sense that their educational philosophies are how we have established the methods in which we teach our children. There’s a couple philosophies of theirs that I want to discuss along with my personal philosophy, which is somewhat of a mix of some the existing ones.

I’m a junior in high school and my experiences with American schools have not particularly improved or evolved since I began attending school here. I was not born in this country, nor was any family, relative, or anyone of any blood relation to me. I was born in Nicaragua, a previously communist country with an egocentric man that has been president for the past 12 years despite the fact that a presidential term there lasts only 5 years.

Get quality help now

Marrie pro writer

Verified writer

Proficient in: Philosophy of education

5 (204)

“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

My schooling life began in that environment. Granted, I left a year after Daniel Ortega, the egocentric president, was re-elected. However, my pre-school/ kindergarten year was spent there. When I arrived to the United States, the change was very notable. From the moment I walked into my school on the first day and was hit with the feeling of cool air conditioning, I realized it was nothing like what I had been accustomed to the first few years of my life. This country has a learning environment that other countries simply have not yet developed.

It was a privilege to be able to live here and receive my education here. However, the strategies and philosophies utilized here aren’t exactly ideal in my opinion.

The philosophy that I've noticed is established here in the U. S is primarily essentialism. The concept of essentialism in education revolves around academic knowledge, standardized tests, traditional learning subjects, and a teacher to teach you about these subjects as well as discipline you. While these are not necessarily bad things, my personal belief of educational philosophy lies somewhere in between humanism, social reconstructionism, and progressivism. Humanism When referring to humanism, theorists that come to mind are Abraham Maslow and Carol Rogers.

The basic overview of this philosophy is that humans have freedom and can make personal choices that will affect their future, as opposed to fate leading humans to certain places and being mainly influenced by their environment (like behaviorists believe). According to The Humanist Education Foundation, “The goal of humanistic education is to contribute to the development of energetic, positive, self-respecting, caring human beings who can meet all challenges. ” In a humanist environment, the educator’s responsibility is to allow each student to grow at their own pace. Abraham Maslow created his ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ which include self actualization, esteem needs, belonging and love needs, safety needs, and physiological needs. Carl Rogers is known as “The father of humanist psychology”, he added on to Maslow’s theory and stated that in order for someone to grow they must be placed in an environment that provides them acceptance, free will, and empathy.

According to “Simply Psychology”, “Carl Rogers believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize - i. e. , to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can. ” This is applied to education by allowing students to learn things they want to learn about, grades and tests are excluded, and feelings are inclusive in the process of learning. I would appreciate it if this strategy was implemented more in classrooms. Teaching students to understand themselves and their feelings is crucial, as well as relieving them of the stress to obtain the best grades and a ridiculously high GPA. Personally, I sacrifice time with friends, family, social events, and doing things I’m passionate about to make time for the hours and hours of homework I have to do. The purpose of homework is to learn, but the problem is that I don’t do homework because I'm interested in learning. I do it solely for the purpose of getting a grade for it and raising my GPA.

This is a terrible mindset to have but it’s how most students feel in regard to school in today’s society. We're not there to learn, we’re there to get good grades, good attendance, and good test scores. If I was in a humanist environment of education, I might enjoy school since I'm able to learn things I want to learn instead of the same 4 subjects I'm forced to learn year after year. This would be something positive in all aspects of education by having children engaged and motivated to learn more.

Social Reconstructionism

In social reconstructionism, a classroom is organized with the intent of educating students to be future leaders and provoke social change. This philosophy was founded by Theodore Brameld, who according to “Philosophical perspectives in Education”, “Recognized the potential for either human annihilation through technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using technology and human compassion. ” The learning conditions for social reconstructionism involve an educator who discusses social issues with the students in hopes of getting them to improve their own actions. The students evaluate the issues and then formulate a plan to make change happen.

The mission of this theory is to make the world a better place by educating children from a young age about things that go on in the world. This would make students more open-minded, progressive, and in theory, free from oppression. This is a philosophy I really gravitate to because I'm extremely passionate about activism and striving for equality in the world. It’s a shame that schools I've been to don’t have social reconstructionism as a priority, because I find it very important to educate students on other topics that are not related to math and reading skills. My classmates and I don’t learn about politics in school, instead, we discover social issues on social media. Imagine someone who has no access to social media and was raised around narrow-minded beliefs.

How would they view the world and other people? It's important to be well educated on social issues and schools need to be enforcing that before we send a new batch of young adults into ‘the real world’. Without my twitter account, I most likely would’ve never learned about the people running for office, the history and negative connotation of ‘The N-Word', or even what the word xenophobia means. These are topics that need to be taught in schools for students to learn and be able to go out into the world with a mindset free from oppression.

Progressivism

The educational philosophy of progressivism was established in the United States in the 1920s with John Dewey being the head theorist. In the article, “Philosophical Perspectives in Education”, it is stated that “one of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. ” This ideology revolves around students being encouraged to learn things from their own experiences. Teachers can highlight and implement this by deciding and planning with students in schools. Instead of formal learning, progressivism has a higher concentration on a student’s talents, interests, and needs. According to a Youtube video titled “Progressivism in Education”, “The classroom is very active and is more self-directed. It also focuses on a democracy environment and show case citizenship. ” In my opinion, This gives students the needed amount of space to learn and grow on their own.

For example, I learn best by working independently, because I can discover my ability to retain information and apply it to my life in a much more authentic way. I’ve noticed a lot of people I know, including myself, find it hard to think for themselves in the essentialist proximity they’ve been placed in. If it was a progressive-like environment, we would be granted the freedom to learn for ourselves with hands on activities that give us our own experiences. The philosophies of education I just mentioned (humanism, social reconstructionism, progressivism) are what have led me to form my own philosophy. My philosophy is represented by the reoccurring theme in all three of these philosophies, which is to simply give students the space to learn for themselves. I take pleasure in learning, but for some reason, not in school. I love watching Ted Talks and learning about psychology on my own time, but with the American school system, I actually dread going to my psychology class. There’s something wrong in the way we’ve decided to teach students and it deserves to change. Students should be given the chance to experience a different system of education.

In my ideal classroom, students would be taught about important things going on in the world and educated on equality. They would learn things they are interested in learning about like their passions. They would be allowed opportunities to express their talents. They would not be seen as inferior to their educator. Most importantly, they would be provided a safe environment where they can express themselves freely. I believe it is like this that children will be motivated to learn, and really learn.