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Philosophy Paper

Kenna Bandura

Chandler-Gilbert Community College

Dr. Joni Burris

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When people think of kids, they think of them as creative, bubbly, energetic, and having

the entire world in their hands. They know that kids have an amazing heart and only want beauty

and kindness in the world. Kids have goals, ambitions, and smart minds. Not only do kids learn

through imagination, but they also learn through their teachers and how their teachers pour into

their kids and how much they care for each of their students. Teachers put in endless hours

preparing for lessons and making sure their kids are going to understand the material. Each

teacher has their own way of teaching and have a philosophy they love and follow. I too have my

own philosophy that I follow. The one that I find most interesting and the one that I base my

educational philosophy off of is John Deweys Existentialism.

John Dewey was born on October 20th, 1859 and died on June 1st, 1952. He was an

American philosopher and educator who was a founder of the philosophical movement known as

pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, and a leader of the progressive movement in

education in the United States. He had different philosophies and one specific one is

Existentialism. Existentialism is described as students choosing their own course of study as part

of their effort to figure out their place in the world and the meaning of their lives. Applying

existentialism to education, existentialism proposes that students make all decisions about their

choice of subject matter and activities as they seek to make meaning of their place in the world.

This philosophy has not made the biggest impact on the United States schools, but it has given

kids the chance to make their own decisions about what is important and decisions based off

what they believe in. Existentialism takes student-centered learning to an extreme. (Koch, 2016,

p. 45).

Existentialism not only involves all of the kids in a classroom, but existentialism lets the

kids be who they are and choose their own course in life because that lets them find their own
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place in the world and lets them find their own place in the classroom. (Koch, 2016). Being an

existentialist means that I am giving my kids in the classroom freedom to choose and be

whatever and or whoever they want to be. They get to choose the way they live their life and

they get to choose the things that they love. For example, in my classroom if we do a project, I

will let the students choose what topic they want to study and do the project on. This gives the

students a chance to find out what interests them. Students should be able to feel free in the

comments they make, and they should be able to feel a sense of hope and safety when choosing

where they belong in this world.

My future students feelings, their goals and dreams are going to be so important to me. It

is such a beautiful gift to have dreams and ambitions and taking that away from a kid does

nothing but hurt them. John Dewey believed strongly that each student deserves to be heard and

deserves to find a place on their own because thats when they truly find the meaning in their

lives. My students will feel a sense of comfort in the classroom because they know that their

opinions and beliefs matter. I will make sure that each and every day we come into the

classroom, we talk to each other with respect, we listen to others when they have something to

say, and we dream big no matter how little we may feel. I want to not only be a teacher to these

kids, but I want to be someone who they look up to, someone they can come talk to when they

feel sad and alone. I want to be their guide, their hope and their passion to do better each and

every day.

Knowing that students want to learn and want to be valued is something that I will

cherish forever. I want to make sure that education and school is important to these kids and that

they can dream big dreams no matter what. I want these kids to know that they can do anything

they set their mind to. John Dewey has come up with some great philosophies, but existentialism
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is the one I plan to implement. By allowing my students to choose their own paths not only in the

classroom but in their everyday life, they will succeed far more than we can ever imagine.
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References

Koch, J. (2016). TEACH. 2nd Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,

Cengage Learning.