Philosophy of Education

Joseph McNure

EDUC 300

Dr. Haraway

I. The Purpose of Education

In the days of American Colonial educators such as Christopher Lamb, students left the

classroom with reading skills, bible verses, and sometimes bruises. Today we would consider

this a futile environment, incapable of producing well-rounded students. However during

Christopher Lambs time, it served its purpose. Its purpose was simple - to produce good

Christians, wives, and workers. These were the societal roles that needed fulfilling. Lamb saw

the need for change. He found that behavioral manipulation and secular material was more

fitting; Times were changing gradually and so were the roles of his students. Fast forward a

few centuries or so, and women are voting citizens in these United States. They now need to

be educated to the same basic level as men, and they are beginning to share some of the same

societal responsibilities (working, voting, etc). Another need for reform is necessary. Reforms

will continue to be necessary, and the purpose of education will continue to shift to fit who needs

to be educated and why. These are just a few examples of historical events that changed the

role of the citizen for a specific group of people. We have always considered the most important

aspect of education to be a consistent baseline for information that needs to be known. But, the

baseline changes.

The purpose of education will forever remain on a continuum of changing ideas and

societies. The purpose of education is to produce people and citizens who are better. Better, a

word here that will change definition upon historical context, is all we ever ask for when it comes
to education. Today, there are countless legislations that seek to produce better citizens. We

use standardized tests and other forms of assessment to comparatively measure how the

children of America are performing, and to let us know what needs to change so that our

students can be successful in the environment that they live in. However, when the

environment changes over time, so will our educational tactics.

Education is student-centered. We cant ignore teachers, however. We always need to

be ensuring the production of good teachers, but ultimately so they can serve our students.

After all, education has been gradually becoming progressively student-centered in nature.

Christopher Lambs change in discipline was an early example of behavior modification that

produced better results from this students than physical pain. Now we have progressed to

practices that allow students to be involved in deciding their own curriculum. It will continue to

be this way so that our students learn responsibility and become more engaged, until sometime

in the far future our society changes the definition for what productive citizens need to be.

II. What should be taught and why?

The core curriculum is a great thing. It includes basic information about the natural

world, language arts, and other essential skills that we think students should know about the

world they live in. However, they world they live in is often left out of the curriculum. Teachers

constantly wonder why students ask in class why do we need to know this? Everything

students learn should be applicable to their lives. Of course, not every student will want to be a

scientist. However, students who understand the scientific complexities and importance of

space travel can make informed decisions when it becomes their time to vote for politicians who

may or may not want to cut funding to NASA. In order to produce better citizens who participate

in democracy, we have to teach material within the context of what is happening around our
students. I consider myself a social reconstructivist when looking through my educational lense.

I do not believe in changing the material, especially the great works that have persevered

through the centuries, however I do believe that all material needs to be viewed through a more

relevant lense.

There are many relevant issues that are ignored in education. Our changing social

dynamic that includes complexities with LGBT students, immigrants who may not speak our

language, and others is often ignored. Its hard to politically address these issues when writing

our core curriculum if our students and parents (who used to be students and also need to have

known these issues) are left out of the loop. We should include literature that examines the

social lense of an LGBT citizen or student, we should include memoirs of immigrants who

struggled in American public schools. If we teach using these perspectives, it will become the

standard to be aware of the people around us, making changes to the national core curriculum

much easier for politicians who will have informed constituents.

III. The nature of the learner.

Its sometimes difficult to keep students engaged. The nature of our students is for

them to mentally disconnect from things that they dont find relevant to their lives. I addressed

this already with the social reconstructivist lense so that the material is relevant, however, it

would be additionally beneficial for students to be directly involved in classroom management

and the curricular progress. Teachers should not be afraid to engage through conversation

about the material that they have to learn, about how the school manages itself and its students,

and about what changes the students would like to make to such things. Changing the

established national curriculum is a bigger feat than just discussing with students, but, that

curriculum can be achieved through a large variety of source material that your students should
feel comfortable choosing. Allowing the students more responsibility with their educational

environment (not just the curriculum and classroom, but schoolwide policies as well!), will help

them stay engaged. Administrators can also help encourage this kind of environment by

making policy decisions with student input. Utilizing student leadership (class presidents, etc.)

to help make decisions allows more student responsibility and representation. This serves as a

laboratory for what political activism looks like in the real world.

IV. Teaching methods that should be used and why.

I once had a teacher who had the students teach the curriculum. She gave us the

outline for the course at the beginning of the semester and assigned every student a day to

teach. They didnt teach all of the material, as there were certainly more school days than

students in the class. What better way for a student to thoroughly understand something other

than having to teach it to someone else? We arent just talking about repeating information to

the class - if another class member did not understand, the student teacher had to come up

with a clever analogy or activity to represent the knowledge in another way. This exercise was

successful throughout the year, and the teaching we were assigned was guided by the teacher.

We had to submit an outline of what we were going to do in class on our assigned teaching day

well before it was time to teach, and we received enough feedback from the teacher. This

model might not work with every subject or class, but it is just one way to hand curricular

responsibility over to the students to help them feel engaged and relevant. They werent totally

in charge, as it is still the teachers responsibility to supervise and make sure that the material is

taught, however, it at least makes the students feel more engaged in the process. This is not
restricted to the classroom, but also schoolwide activities (pep rallies, student info nights, senior

ceremonies, etc) can be organized and run by students.

V. The role of the teacher

I think the teacher has several roles, one of which is tied to the purpose of education.

Sometimes political change is slow, but that doesnt mean teachers cant stay ahead of the

game. It is ultimately our job to prepare students for their future. What used to be religion and

reading, has now turned in social, scientific, political, and personal competencies. Each teacher

is responsible for a subject that they teach, but every classroom can include source material

that alludes to these competencies even though they might not be a part of the established

curriculum yet.

Additionally, teachers should be involved in the educational environment. There is

nothing engaging or interesting about teachers who show up, teach, and leave. The best

teachers I remember were the ones who were involved in school policy, and who communicated

with administrators about issues that were relevant to my peers. Teachers who can make

change when it is necessary is an attractive quality. Teachers can even talk to students and

show them how to approach some issues and let the students then communicate their concerns

to the administrators. This lets the students have confidence that the teachers care about the

students issues, as well as teaches the students how to solve these issues for themselves.