My Philosophy Manifesto

What is education and what does good education look like? I think the only way to really understand what good education is, is by acknowledging and knowing what bad education is. In other words, understanding what education is not. I have studied several books in depth, focusing on the educational learning and philosophical thinking throughout each of them. What I have come to find is that they all have one thing in common. Each book shares views on what education is and what it is not. Through my readings of Hope in Troubled Times, Democracy and Education, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed I have accumulated a vision for myself and an understanding of good education and bad education.

Education is not perfect. Education is filled with ideologies. The authors of the book Hope in Troubled Times, Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen, and David Van Heemst explain in their book what an ideology is. An ideology is a positive idea that is founded to help restore something bad, but then is perverted into something bad. There are many examples of this in education. One specifically would be the idea that grades are important and students need to focus on getting good grades, but once getting good grades becomes the most important thing about learning, then it has become an ideology. It is now a competition and no longer a place to learn and grow. Education is not a place where students should feel uncomfortable. If a student feels uncomfortable to share his or her opinions or questions in class, then they will not get the most out of their education, and neither will the rest of their classmates. Education is not just for the individual. Students should not keep their own creative ideas bottled up to themselves, if they do this then there will be no room for growing together as a class. There will be no challenge to learning. Education is not just teachers pouring information into their students. If this were the case, then students would learn what they need to in order to get by and then forget it. They would not carry the information they learn into their everyday lives and it would in some sense be useless. Education is not a “one-way” type of learning. If there was only one way to teach and one way to learn, then some students would have it easy and others would struggled. This would be a boring school to attend, if all learning was done the exact same way. Education is not just a preparation for your career. Although preparing students for their future careers is important in education, it is not the may focus of education. All of these examples throughout education are merely educational ideologies. They are all things that can be looked at in some ways good, but are not the main focus of education and should not be the main focuses of education. All is all, education is not perfect.

Education is good, despite the fact that it is not perfect. Education is a process. It is a process of taking past experiences and information and using them to continue to learn and grow and develop your education and thinking. John Dewey in the book Democracy and Education says, “We thus reach a technical definition of education: It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.” This emphasizes that education is a life-long process. Students and teachers both are continually pouring out knowledge and growing from past experiences and current experiences. Education is for finding students passions. Teachers are called to help give students the opportunities to succeed in every aspect of their lives. Teachers do this by learning about the students, what their dislikes and likes are, and what they desire to be. Paulo Friere talks about the importance of knowing what your students like in order to help make learning exciting for students by relating it to their interests in the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Teachers are called to help develop students socially, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally. Education is a comfortable place. A classroom should be open and honest always. If a student has a question, they should always be able to ask if because no questions is a dumb question. Teachers want to encourage their students to participate and make them feel like what they have to say is valuable to the class and to them. Education is through sharing individualist views with a group. It is important for students to be themselves and have their own answers, but it is only good when it is shared among the group to help advance the thinking of other students and the teacher. If students have their own thoughts, but are unwilling to speak about them, they will never further their understanding or knowledge. They will only know things from their own perspectives and that is limited. Education is a “multiple way” process. Students cannot be pushed into one single mold because each student is very different. One student may learn best by visually seeing something, while others work best by physically working on something. We need to know our students and find the best ways to develop their gifts, there are multiple ways. Education is developing the future of America. Teachers hold the responsibilities of teaching and leading students, who are the future leaders of our country. We need to raise our students to be good leaders, decision makers, and morally correct people. There many reasons that education is good and there are so many things that education does for us. Overall, education is good, although it is imperfect.

         Education is very important to me. I am a Special Education and Elementary Education double major. I love working and interacting with people and I plan to become a teacher of some sort after I graduate. As a future teacher, it has been very important to me to be able to reflect upon what education is and what it is not. This has helped me shape what I want my future to look like and what my purpose is. I find that everything is meaningless unless we do it for the Lord, so I plan to shape my future accordingly. The purpose of education through my Christian perspective is to prepare students with good morals, values, and character. I wish to be a light to my students and provide not only guidance, but a model that displays hard work, good character, hope, learning, and values. As I continue to teach, learn, and grow I pray that my philosophy of education does as well, shaping me into a better teacher each and every day.

            In conclusion, the understanding of what good and bad education is helps to fully understand what education is. Education is a constant learning process that helps better people, us, work places, objects, and so much more. It shapes our minds, our ambitions, future, and our everyday philosophies. I plan to be a teacher that pushes my students to be the best that they can be. I want to be able to give my students opportunities to be themselves and to learn from other classmates. We are all learners and teachers. The question is not what education can do for us, it is we can do for education. 

Dewey and Friere Book Review

 Want to install a lifelong interest and desire for learning for you students? John Dewey in his book Democracy and Education and Paulo Freire in his book Pedagogy of The Oppressed I have written about how important this goal is for teachers. Also it can be a difficult goal because of oppression and ideologies that are formed in society.  Both of these authors provide thoughtful responses that seem to be quite comparable to help improve education.

            What is education? Education is a constant process of thinking and learning. In chapter six, Dewey mentions the definition of “education”. He says, “We thus reach a technical definition of education: It is that reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.” This is a great example of the idea of education being a process. It is a process of taking past experiences and information and using them to continue to learn and grow and develop your education and thinking. We used an analogy in class about how society says that we are all empty cups and there is a fountain of past knowledge that teachers are pouring into us. Dewey says this is wrong! He says that we need to live in the now and grow from our past experiences. We do this by pulling out important things from our past to help us with the now. Freire would agree that teachers should want to help their students to actually understand the material they are being taught. Teaching is not just about learning methods and techniques, but being able to break away from those methods when needed. For example, teachers need to give students the opportunity to actually form their own thinking processes through variety of teaching methods based off who the students are and how they learn. After all, education is a thinking process.

What is philosophy? Philosophy of education is not defined by a definite subject matter; it is deeper than that and can be used among many different subjects. Specifically in chapter 23 it says, “Philosophy was stated to be a form of thinking, which, like all thinking, finds its origin in what is uncertain in the subject matter of experience, which aims to locate the nature of the perplexity and to form hypotheses for its uncertainties with which it deals are found in widespread social conditions and aim, consisting in a conflict of organized interests and institutional claims.” So we see that philosophy is a continual practice and it is not just about a subject matter, it is about thinking. What do I mean when I say “it is not about a subject matter”? I mean that it is not about just understanding the material and having the knowledge “poured” into our “empty cups” by teachers. It is about actually understanding what we are learning and applying it and keeping the process going outside of school. Friere would argue that the best way to continue the process is to find out what the students enjoy and actually apply the learning in class to these topics. If students like running, then when teaching math, the teacher should try using an example or project that is related to running. We need to make sure our students are excited about learning and by relating their interests to learning; it will help students get excited.  Overall, teachers need to remember that philosophy is not about one specific subject; it can be used for various ones because philosophy and education is a deeper thinking.

Education and philosophy are both thinking processes, therefore they are the same. Education is not just learning one subject, but applying it to other aspects of your life and thinking deeper. Dewey feels that education is about taking individual students and letting them be their own individual. As teachers, we need to give our students time to think further and apply deeper meanings to the material we teach them. We need to be able to let our students have their own ideas and let their ideas form our classroom discussions and topics. It is important to let our students have freedom in the classroom to grow how they desire to grow and give them the best opportunities to do so. Freire says that this is best done through interests and teachers recognizing that they can relate them to subjects. We need to make sure our students are not just memorizing the material and getting through it; we want our students to actually understand what they are learning and be able to use it again. Education is so important and not just in the classroom. It is important to all aspects of life. Being able to recognize that philosophy and thinking will help our educational system is the key to success in our classrooms.

Both authors recognize that setting these goals are wonderful, but they are difficult. Friere would say that one reason why this is difficult is because of oppression in society. On page 53 it says, “Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry.” Education is not perfect, so teachers need to form unity in classrooms and school in order to get rid of the oppression. He feels that this is one of the only ways to transform classrooms and education. If teachers can find something in each class to unify the group, it will make learning and the exciting for learning to increase and improve. Freire also says that these are not the same for each class, which is why teachers also need to be involved in the learning process and open to changing and improving constantly. Dewey says that education was formed with good intentions, but it has become an ideology. Teachers intend to help students grow, but sometimes they get caught up in the rules, guidelines, and methods and forget that straying away from the book and discussing is also a way to learn. Our classrooms should be open to trying new things. After all, our society is constantly changing, so we should change and modify along with it. Transforming education can be difficult, but we just need to realize this and then be open to new things and unifying our classes.

 Personally, I understand where both authors are coming from, but our world is not perfect. It is sinful and as a Christian I hope to be a teacher that knows my students and tries to find the best possible way to teach each student and ignite a fire within them. I think that it is always a growing experience though. I plan to try new things and I may fail a few times before something works, but I will keep working at bettering society and education because it is what we are called to do. Everything is meaningless on this earth unless we are doing it for Christ. When studying Dewey’s book, I myself wishing that he could share with us more ideas on how to create the type of atmosphere that he describes for our classrooms. He has awesome insight into what the classroom should look like, but does not specifically share with us ideas on how to make this reality. I do not disagree with him, but I do question how I will do this in specific situations. Some years I may encounter myself with challenging students who do not like learning or can find no motivation to work hard. What now would Dewey say to me? How will I put his advice into action? I felt that Freire’s book gave me the answers I had from Dewey’s book. Freire says that we can get rid of oppression and help make the desired classroom atmosphere reality by unifying our classroom. We can unify our classrooms through knowing ours students and their interests and connecting them to learning. To conclude Dewey made me think and Friere helped me make connections. These two authors correspondingly said that education is an ongoing process of thinking supported by a very similar idea, philosophy. Overall, I feel challenged after studying Democracy and Education and Pedagogy of the Oppressed to install a lifelong interest and desire for learning into each one of my students, don’t you?

Hope in Troubled Times

          What is an ideology? How does an ideology work? Why are ideologies important? These are three important questions when attempting to understand the book Hope in Troubled Times by Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen, and David Van Heemst. An ideology is a positive idea that is founded to help restore something bad, almost like a solution, but then is perverted. This perversion is ultimately the idea that ideologies are originated to fill a space, but it ends up filling our need for God in society; therefore, causing more problems than before. Ideologies are usually founded in troubling times, to try and fix something that seems broken and in need of our assistance. This book focuses on all the different aspects of society such as technology, time, and money that are becoming idolized. It emphasizes all these negative things and gives us no sense of hope until the 9^th chapter where we learn about three different approaches to finding hope in today’s world.  Finally, we are troubled sinners who need to acknowledge we are imperfect, but keep striving for something more: God.

            When I was in high school, I struggled a lot with grades in certain classes, along with some other friends. We noticed that each one of us understood different parts of classes and that if we got together to do homework and study, we began to succeed. Each other’s strengths were filling the other’s weaknesses. Unfortunately, this safe haven to study and do homework became a place of hard feelings and hurt. It turned into a huge competition for better grades, and we began to use each other for help and then did not do the same in return. I find that this is true a lot in not only small study groups, but in school as a whole. Schools are intended to be a safe haven for students to learn, grow, and help others. I find that it is becoming a place of competition and grades. The students that are succeeding and doing well in the class seem to be pushing for better grades or a higher “A” instead of turning to the student next to them who is struggling. Obviously, this is not always the case, but school is becoming a very stressful and high competition place. I dare to say that it was not intended for this. This is an example of ideology in education. It is something that stared off as good with good intentions, but was skewed into something bad.

            “God is dreaming of a world where all people, black and white, rich and poor, clever and not so clever, are drawn into one family, a world where all of us participate as agents in God’s inexorable transfiguration of evil into good. How can we lose?” (Pg. 11) I think it is important to take a step back and find a new hopeful approach to this ideology in education and classrooms. In the 9^th chapter, we learn about three different approaches to redeeming hope to our fallen and idolized world.  First, is the approach called the “minesweeper”. They go and undo the bad and dangerous stuff going on in society. They clean out and “de-bomb” the “mine”. Second, is the “rope ladder”. This requires different technique and coordination to go forward. Each step is a dangerous one, but puts you one step closer to the top or a better world. Last, is the “periscope”. This gives us a chance to take a step back and see a wider picture and get perspective on our world or situations. From my example earlier, I think it is important to take the “periscope” approach. As teachers and students, we need to take a step back and be reminded of this perspective of the world that our authors paint for us. It is easy to get caught up in the best grades, being the best student, being the best teacher, but we need to be able to take a step back and be reminded that we are not the best. We are merely humans who sin daily and mess up; imperfect. Although we have these imperfects and tendencies to twist good ideas into bad, we need to continue to strive for good. We need to be able to step back from those tendencies and dream of that world where all people are agents in changing God’s world into good. As teachers, we need to remind not only ourselves, but our students of this dream. Only by doing this, will we be able to shine some hope into the classrooms and the competition that has been placed there.

            Everyone has a purpose. I think as teachers, we need to encourage our students to find their purpose in life. School is a place that is made for students to be able to learn and find out what they are good at. They should be able to explore many different options and be pushed to be successful in what they chose to do. What is success? Is it getting a high score on a standardized test as an overall school? Is it finishing a class with an “A”? Is it having a high ACT score? How do we define successfulness? Should we define it the same way for everyone? I think absolutely not. Not one person is the same; therefore, not one person should have their success judge the same way. One person’s failure is another person’s success. What I mean by that is some people may find that a “B” on a test is the end of the world, but to another student it could be great because they finally understood something in class. Schools should encourage students to find purpose, yet it seems to emphasize grades and test scores and judge the effectiveness of schools in this way.

            Technology, money, time, and from an educational perspective, grades are becoming like an idol to people. Technology is playing a huge role in today’s world. People are trying to use technology and science to solve world problems and depending on it so much so that it is becoming almost like an idol. Grades are playing a huge role in today’s classroom. Students are trying to use grades and test results to improve themselves and are depending on their grades so much so that it is becoming like an idol.

             Overall, there are ideologies in education and the rest of the world. People replacing what was once good for bad. Schools should be a place where minds can positively expand and learn without a competitive and negative edge. Sin has put a place for ideology in the world. We need to remember as stewards of God’s creation to take a step back, refocus our goals and vision. Then we need to aim for God and his original purpose for life and education, only then will we be in the slightest successful.