Philosphy Reflection

As students we don’t really think about what philosophy of education our teacher’s are adhering to. We figure out what kind of learners we are, such as visual, oral or hands on. When teachers use certain techniques that fall into our specific learning category we learn better and usual remember the teacher. Although we notice things such as methods, as the student we don’t usually analyze their educational philosophy. Looking back on my experience as an elementary school student I remember my teacher Mrs. Alleger. Her educational philosophy seems to have been progressivism. We would always have hands on projects and real life problems to solve. For example at one point we had a caterpillar/butterfly garden within our classroom. We had to make sure that they were fed with sugar water and had places to build their cocoons. We eventually released them into the wild, and my classmates and I never forgot our part in the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Hands on projects like that with real world application was always a part of her class, thus placing her within the progressive philosophy. She was also involved within our social and emotional development. She wasn’t afraid to be a part of our lives, help us make decisions and ultimately help shape our personalities and views on life.
As I moved into my middle school years I noticed that the teaching methods became less hands on and more about just learning the material. The teacher’s methods seemed to shift from pure progressivism to a mixture of progressivism and essentialism. The teacher’s had to make sure that we were ready to move onto high school. We had to demonstrate that we comprehended the information through recitation and traditional testing. The shift in philosophies went with the students getting older and the need for the students to learn at a higher level.
High school was also a mixture of progressivism and essentialism. Although progressivism was still a part of the educational philosophy for most teachers there were some who obviously were following the essentialist philosophy. I had an AP English teacher who taught in a way that only emphasized the critical core of knowledge. Their wasn’t any personal involvement in the class or from the teacher to his students. When I got to college I found that most of my classes have been fueled by the essentialist and perennialist philosophies. In my opinion the college classroom does need to be run like that, simply because we are held to higher standards and are trying to become qualified enough for a ’real life’ career.
After all my years of school I’ve been able to observe many different educational philosophies and how teacher’s execute them. Since I am aspiring to be an elementary school teacher I am going to implement the progressive philosophy as much as I can. Since my teacher, Mrs. Alleger, made my years with her so memorable by using many hand on techniques I will too. I feel that if I use the philosophy of progressivism rather than just essentialism my students will remember the lessons, thus remembering the concepts and knowledge taught.