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ESSAY PAPER NO.

1: MY REACTIONS ON THE IDEALISM PRINCIPLES

Plato is one of the first philosophers to discuss what might be termed idealism.

Usually Plato was referred to as Platonic Realism. This is because of his doctrine

describes forms or universals. (Which are certainly non-material “ideals” in a broad

sense). Plato maintained that these forms had their own independent existence. Plato

believed that “full reality” it is achieved only through thought and could be describe as

a non-subjective “transcendental” idealist (Watson, 2008).

Plato was an idealist philosopher who founded the first school of philosophy in

Athens. His work forms the foundation of western philosophy. His presentation of

philosophical works in the form of “Dialogues” gave the world of philosophy the

dialectic. Plato took Socrates’ maxim “virtue is knowledge” and extrapolated it into an

elaborate theory of knowledge which envisaged a level of reality beyond that

immediately available to the senses but accessible to reason and intellect. The

students of Plato’s academy the first school of philosophy in Athens, were to go

beyond the concrete world of perception and come to understand the universal “ideas”

or forms which represented a higher level of reality (Heru, 2006). Plato’s idealism

extended to the concept of an ideal state as outlined in his “Republic”. This was a state

ruled by intellectual elite of philosopher kings.

Idealism is a very old philosophical thought and it has exercised a potent

influence on the mind of man throughout the ages. Even in modern times when people

are not inclined towards accepting any dogmatic creed or philosophy, idealism has

certain attractions which appeal to the human mind and thereby exercise a great

influence on human thinking. In education the influence of idealism has gone a long

way to restrict some of the radical thinking and establish the worth of the eternal ideals

and values of life (Louman, 2011). The word idealism is derived from two distinct

sources-the idea and the ideal. Idea means true and testified knowledge. The word

ideal stands for the perfected form of an idea or ideas. An idealist does not have

considerations for material values of life. A thinker who idolizes ‘Mind and Self’ is an

idealist. Idealism is one of the oldest schools of philosophy.


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IDEA…What is it? I have an idea in my head of how I would like my house to

look like when renovated. I have this space in my kitchen that could be maximized. I

have an idea of putting a pond, planting minimalist flowers in the plant box and making

this space a guest-friendly area. I think I have a great idea of what I want to do…But

all this are just solid figures in my head. How can these ideas become a reality? I used

to think that ideas are just idealistic thoughts and not reality but Plato, one of the

greatest philosophers of his time, thinks otherwise. He suggests for us to think

formally, to form these ideas in our mind so as to keep in tabs with reality (Slater,

2015). Reality is where these ideas live. It where goodness, justice and beauty exist.

The idea of my maximized space becomes a reality because of its form in my head

and by adding value to the form, like the value of beautifying my place, my idea now

becomes a perfect form, hence; reality sets in.

IDEALISM IN PHILIPPINE EDUCATION

IDEALISTIC education aims to bring reality to the students through thinking or

through their ideas. The teacher is required to communicate a clear vision of essential

forms like beauty, goodness, truth and justice (Cohen, 1999). The teacher should

teach students how not to be deceived by their senses and what is real comes from

their minds. Teachers should make students into truth seekers and must make them

go through personal transformation to the good, true and beautiful. Teachers should be

models to their students as well. Idealist teachers are considered learned masters in

the classroom. They believe that students have existing knowledge of things already,

therefore; their task is to creatively bring out these knowledge or ideas.

How then do I become an effective teacher to my students now when the school

is bounded by a set of idealist rules and limited to a certain idealist curriculum? An

idealist curriculum is that of preserving truth and knowledge by transmitting it to each

succeeding generation and encouraging wholeness and excellence as a human being

through liberal and general education.

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Idealism is a philosophical belief that tells us that the only reality that is ideal

comes from the mind. This is basically seen in rituals, religions or in the nature of man

(Momany & Khasawneh, 2014).

According to Marquez (2013), idealism plays a big role in Philippine education.

Many of the schools still use idealism in their methods of teaching and even in the

curriculum.

Philippine classrooms have tables and chairs for the students and a bigger desk

and chair in the middle of the classroom for the teacher. Usually, the teacher is tasked

to give a lecture while the students are mere passive listeners. In Philippine schools, a

teacher is seen as the master of the classroom and the students are receivers of the

information that the teacher is teaching. Moreover, the teacher dictates to a student

what to do and how to do a particular thing. Hence, in a way, creative expressions of

the children are somehow limited.

I, myself, am a product of an idealist school. I would like to relate idealism to the

traditional way of teaching based on my experience. I say they are related because a

traditional school is classified as an old school and part of old school training entails

memorizations of facts and several number of quizzes and long tests as means of

assessment of one’s learning and understanding. These schools train their students

this way because they believe that they need deep knowledge on things to see the

ideal world. The teacher usually does most of the talking and probing in the classroom.

The teacher is the brain in the classroom and the source of information. Usually, the

attitudes of the students are developed according to how the teacher conducts the

class and how the teacher exhibits her good moral character. These ways of teaching

highly reflect an idealism belief.

I am a believer of the use of idealism in education since, as earlier mentioned, I

am a product of one. This is the method that I grew up with. I am happy to be who I am

now and there is no denying that I owe this to the training that my former schools have

given me. However, I also believe that the students nowadays should just not be

passive listeners but they should be active learners as well. I also feel that some of
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items in the curriculum should be revised in a way that the ones that would be included

are the ones that could be applied in real life and the ones that will allow students to

explore and discover things as part of their learning process. The curriculum should be

updated accordingly and must be appropriate to the present needs of the students

today. Keeping these notions in mind, I then wonder…”How can I be an effective

teacher for my students when I am bounded by a set of rules and limited to a certain

curriculum?”

I believe that there are still a lot of schools now that practice Idealism, however;

these schools are not purely idealists. One of the ways for me to adapt to the modern

times yet follow the set of idealist formula, if the school dictates, is by combining the

methods of modern teaching and the idealist way of teaching. I can make use of the

resources around me to present the topics in a more interesting way. Since idealists

believes that much of ideas exists in the mind, I can do my class discussion using any

place in school that resembles my current lesson like conducting the class in a garden

setting when topic is about plants and flowers. In this way, my students will see and

understand the lesson better since they are also learning visually and seeing the

beauty around them. Their ideas can also come to life. I can also use the socratic

method as means of discussion in which the students are encouraged to think and

express their ideas. With this method, I can draw out what they know and even impart

my knowledge on the topic. In this way, students will somehow look for the truth and

the reasons for what they are doing.

Even if there are limitations to the school’s curriculum, I believe that teachers

like me, who truly have passion for teaching, will always find a way to be effective and

make learning interesting and meaningful for their students. There are always ways

and means to bridge the gap between the traditional ways of teaching and modern

ways. Old ideas can be made to fit into the puzzle of the technologically advance

students of today. It just all depends on my presentation of the topic and my creative

questioning as well.

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It is very fortunate that we, as a democratic nation, perceive the value of

education since democracy will only work if the citizens are educated. However, there

is still a lingering misconception that exists in our collective consciousness regarding

the value of education. Education aims to liberate and empower. Unfortunately, we

send our youth to schools not to develop their idealism but to train them for the

demands of the workforce.

This is the rationale behind vocational schools and the K-12 program – to equip

the students with enough knowledge and skills to land a job that will provide for the

family and to contribute taxes to the government. To make something clear, I am not

against these programs. I am against most Filipinos’ misplaced motivations for sending

their children to school.

When the K-12 program was initially announced, a lot of parents were

dismayed because they would have to wait for two more years before their children

can graduate from high school and find a job. Meanwhile, the government sold the

program to the public by saying that once students graduate from high school, it will be

easier for them to find jobs because by then, they would have acquired enough

knowledge and skills for vocational work. I am not against this, but then again, such

motivation is misplaced.

The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, “Although our age far surpasses all

previous ages in knowledge, there has been no correlative increase in wisdom.” Our

children may have gained more than enough knowledge in schools, but have they

grown any wiser?

Again, in order for democracy to work, the people must be educated. But

education here does not simply mean acquisition of knowledge and skills. The future

generations must be educated in ideals. What our education system should strive for

is to teach the youth how to be wise for it is only through wisdom that we can make

proper choices in life.

Knowledge can be used in the service of evil and selfish gains, but wisdom

helps us to choose not to do so.


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Ultimately, if only we strive to regain the sense of idealism that we have lost; if

only we protect our young from losing their ideals; if only we put the collective good

before our own personal interests, I believe that we will have a fighting chance to

transcend the culture of politicking that have been pulling us down for so long towards

that ideal world that Plato was talking about.

Essentially idealism philosophy which argues that the only thing actually

knowable is consciousness whereas we never can be sure that matter or anything in


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the outside world really exists thus the only the real things are mental entities not

physical things which exist only in the sense that they are perceived. A broad definition

of idealism could include many religious viewpoints although an idealistic viewpoint

need not necessarily include God, supernatural beings or existences after death. In

general parlance, “idealism” is also used to describe a person’s high ideals (principles

or values actively pursued as a goal) the word “ideal” is also commonly used as an

adjective to designate qualities of perfection, desirability and excellence.

Having said the words above, here’s my reaction on the principles of idealism:

Idealists lay more emphasis on aims and principles of education than on models, aids

and devices.

Idealistic give greater importance to spiritual values in comparison with material

attainments.

Education should lead and guide man to face with nature and to unity and God”.

Idealists give more importance to thoughts, feelings ideals and values than to the child

and his activities. They firmly hold that curriculum should be concerned with the whole

humanity and its experience.

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Having been a teacher for thirteen years, I have observed and experienced that our

educational system is faced by several issues and concerns that need to be

addressed.

The high cognitive level of education that idealists promote.

• Their concern for safeguarding and promoting cultural learning.

• Their great concern for morality and character development.

• Their view of the teacher as a revered person central to the educational process.

• Their belief in the importance of self-realization.

• Their stress on the human and personal side of life.

• Their comprehensive, systematic, and holistic approach.

Historically, the influence of idealism on education has been so strong that even today

it is hard to find schools that do not in some way reflect idealist principles. Many of our

earliest universities saw themselves as having a religious mission, and the first

benefactor of Harvard was John Harvard, an English clergyman. Emerson went to

Harvard and was a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. When Thomas Jefferson

founded the University of Virginia in 1819, it was unique as the first secular university

not devoted to turning out ministers or promoting any one religious position as was

done at Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton, as well as at the College of William and Mary

that Jefferson had attended. Thus, although idealism’s influence has suffered in recent

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decades, no other philosophy has affected education, both lower and higher

education, for so long a time.

Beginning with Plato in the fourth century B.C.E., through Scholasticism in the

Middle Ages, to Kant and Hegel, and up to the twenty-first century, idealism has been

a strong and significant force in education. In recent years, however, several factors

have contributed to a weakening of idealist philosophy. Industrialization and

technological advances have taken their toll, and developments in science have

brought about fundamental challenges to idealistic principles. We live in a very

materialist culture, and the renewed vigor of secular realism and other naturalistic

philosophies result from the increased emphasis put on the material as opposed to the

ideal aspects of life. In addition, the contemporary emphasis on newness as opposed

to cultural heritage and lasting values has further eroded traditional idealist positions.

Many idealists insist that certain ideas contained in traditional writings, some written

more than 2,000 years ago, are as relevant today as they were before. They maintain,

with Ecclesiastes, that “There is nothing new under the sun” because many of the

problems that we face today are problems that philosophers and others faced long

ago. Plato, for example, dealt extensively with the problems of government, society,

individuality, and language, which are still being vigorously argued today, and Aristotle,

who extolled many ideas that idealists like, was a scientist as well as a philosopher.

Idealists continue to argue that their ideas are not necessarily incompatible with

scientific ideas and the methods of science, as many critics claim.

Yet, opponents of idealism react strongly against what they feel to be the unduly

conservative nature of idealism. In effect, they object primarily to its fundamental

premises. For example, they think that the idealist notion of a finished and absolute

universe waiting to be discovered has hindered progress in science and the creation of

new ideas and processes. If one accepts the concept of absolute ideas, it is not

possible to go beyond those ideas without questioning or doubting their absoluteness.

This was one chief problem that modern science had in gaining acceptance, because
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science is premised on tentativeness and hypotheses rather than on absoluteness.

Indeed, modern science is characterized today by such ideas as that of physicist

Werner Heisenberg’s indeterminacy principle, which holds that one cannot accurately

measure simultaneously the position and the momentum of a subatomic particle; that

is, the act of measuring one property will alter the other. In addition, Albert Einstein’s

theory of relativity has also been used to challenge the assertion of idealists of a fixed

or stable universe. Still another cause of the weakening of idealism is the historical

decline of the influence of traditional religion in contemporary affairs. Because idealism

has been linked intimately with traditional religion, the weakening of the one has led to

the weakening of the other. Indications are, however, that the decline in religion might

be changing. Although the influence of traditional organized religion has decreased,

interest has increased in other forms of spirituality, such as mysticism and New Age

beliefs that often incorporate classical ideas. Various Eastern religions have also been

transformed and have taken on new roles that make them more acceptable and

relevant to contemporary thought. In addition, a resurgence of evangelical Christianity

in recent years has placed considerable emphasis on education, especially education

of the young, and such education often extols idealist principles.

From the standpoint of education, several issues need further scrutiny. The

idealist influence on education has been immense historically, but some feel that

influence might not always have been beneficial. Although idealist education has

emphasized not only the spiritual but also the cognitive side of life, charges are that it

has tended toward intellectualism to the detriment of the affective and physical sides of

life. It also has often ignored the belief of many people who find its cognitive emphasis

narrow and pedantic, and this has further led to the charge that idealism leans toward

a narrow, provincial view of life or toward intellectual elitism.

The problem of elitism goes deep into idealism’s roots. Plato advocated an

intellectual elite of philosopher-kings. Augustine argued for the superiority of the

monastic life over the secular one because of the higher quality of minds and

intelligence to be found there; monks were a select group set aside for special
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treatment. Thus, idealists have tended to view formal education as not for the masses

but for a chosen few who could understand and appreciate it properly; consequently,

they have concentrated on education for the upper classes of society, particularly

those going into leadership positions in academic careers, government, or religion.

This factor often has led formal education to be treated as a luxury, available only to

the privileged few. To the extent that idealist educators have tried to extend only a

small degree of intellectual studies to the public sector, the view seems to be that

vocational and technical studies are sufficient for the masses, whereas liberal studies

are suitable only for an elite class of people. Although not all idealists have thought this

way, the tendency toward elitism is strong.

References:

Heru, K. (2006) Idealism in Education. Unit 2 Lecture Notes. Retrieved from


http://kheru2006.webs.com/idealism_pdf on April 26, 2017

Louman, L. (2011). Educational System: A Narration on Education. Retrieved from


https://education.loumanl.com/2011/09/implications-of-idealism.html on April 29,
2017

Watson, D. (2008). Idealism and Education. British Educational Research Journal Vol.
8 No.1. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/idealism-and-education on
April 26, 2017

Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/Idealism-in-education/ on April 28,


2017

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