Essay Educational Philosophy and Idealism

My life has been influenced greatly by teachers. Since I was a child, teaching is all I wanted to do. My mother is a fifth grade teacher. I have quite a few friends that are teachers. I have been fortunate to be influenced by some great teachers throughout my academic career. I love to be around kids and I like participating in the process of learning. I appreciate learning even today. I enjoy the learning process and hope to one day influence students in the future. I hope to one day become a high school social studies teacher. I enjoy history and geography, and I especially love politics and discussing current events. I like class discussions and letting different opinions express themselves.

For many individuals, choosing a career is one of the hardest decisions to be faced with. The majority of students in college spend their first year stressing about what they are going to do with the rest of their life. I, fortunately, have known since I was in middle school that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. As a future teacher I feel that essentialism and progressivism are going to be my unique philosophies of education.

Education entails individual human development in the cognitive, emotional, creative and social areas. All children are entitled to a free education regardless of race, cultural background or handicaps. For education to be an effective part of the students life, the student and teacher must be actively and enthusiastically involved in learning. A teacher needs to be well prepared and organized. They need to know the perspective goals for each student and ways to achieve these goals. Teachers need to work with students to help them grow and develop ways to use their knowledge.

A famous author once said, “When you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” There is truth in that statement when we look at the nature of humans today. Today’s society is filled with people who are wondering around with no purpose or direction in life. People today are content with this helpless lifestyle and so generation after generation will continue until the society has no leaders. I attribute this directly to the education of these individuals. As a future teacher, I must look at what the nature of students has become, the nature of knowledge, and ask myself why we have public education. In order for me to be an effective educator, I must reevaluate my philosophy

Education is inevitable. It is all around us because we can learn from virtually anything. When you are cooking, dancing, talking or any other activity you have actually had to learn several things to be able to do them. In the educational perspective, I am a pragmatist and I tend to follow after Dewey's footsteps. The concept of Pragmatism is one that developed in the 20th century. My philosophy is based on the idea that learning should involve real-life situations. Learning becomes more concrete to a student when they apply it to real-life situations, as where learning things that do not connect to them has more of an abstract sense. Personally, I would have to agree with Dewey when he said, "I

In order for a society to function, individuals must be productive members of that society. This is accomplished through education. The philosophy of education is determined by society. As society changes so does the concept of education.

The word character can be defined as the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Teaching, unlike any other profession, requires character, but I believe it goes deeper than that. When broken down there are key ingredients found as to what makes a good teacher. The phrase, “To be a good teacher”, has no clear meaning if we do not know what makes up an effective educator. Students sometimes need to be shown how to be successful not only in their work, but in their life. Think upon a cookbook for a moment. This item does not just supply a list of ingredients, for how are you to know what to do with them? Rather, it supplies the ingredients needed, along with the application and limitations of how to create something that, when made correctly, in genuinely good. The act of teaching is considerably similar to this idea. True that there is no book in the world that has an exact list of what educators need to do and how educators need to act in order to be effective. But there are books that list traits needed in order to be good, and how to apply these traits to yourself in order to help those around you. Writers John Dewey, William Bagley, Richard Mitchell, and Plato are all people who have tried to give us that list, in order to teach us how to, well, teach! But without a set of guidelines on how to apply these techniques, the academic world can be lost in the chaotic and ever changing era of today. As a prospective teacher, I

Education what is it? Is it only, how it is defined, as the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning? Is education only something you receive in a school. Education to me begins at birth; a journey that has begun, as you experience new things you learn and grow mentally and emotionally. By the time a child begins school they have learned a multitude of things which include a number of things like walking, speaking, listening this is just the beginning of their learning career. My beliefs are that all children can learn they have a right to be educated and be safe in the environment in which they learning in are, these things are a must.

The first and most important reason that I want to become an educator is because of my love for children. I cherish the thought of being involved in a child's learning process. I think that my classroom will have a mixture of the philosophy of idealism and pragmatism. I want to be very knowledgeable in my area of teaching and I love the idea of teaching what I know to my students. My students are going to challenge themselves as learners. Any problems that arise in my classroom will be handled by me the student in an appropriate manner. I also want to engage learning by using first-hand activities. Reading, writing, and arithmetic will be emphasized greatly in my classroom. I want the class

I believe that every child has the ability to learn, but it takes a good teacher to be able to bring this ability out. This is a role I would like to take. I believe the purposes of education are necessary for the child to live a successful life. In my opinion, the school's goals should begin with providing students the necessary knowledge and experiences to help contribute to our society. And it will be a very important goal for me to help my students succeed any where they go.

To describe my educational philosophy, I needed to combine two philosophers into one making it my own. I plan to explain my philosophical view by discussing the purpose of public education in society.

I spent some time looking back upon my time in elementary, junior high and high school and thinking about all of my favorite teachers, and what exactly made them such outstanding, inspiring educators. I came to several conclusions. A good teacher is one who can not only show a student how to add four and seven, but also help them see why it is important for them to know how to do so. A good teacher is one who can explain to a child the process of photosynthesis while at the same time instilling an appreciation for the beauty of a flower. A good teacher is one who can accept and cherish a hug from a child and conveniently overlook the muddy handprints left on her skirt. I feel that successful teaching is made of

The philosophical perspective possessed by a teacher has on affects the ability and effectiveness of their teaching methods. Therefore a teacher must be one who appreciates and respects education and formalized schooling. In the following paragraphs I will give a general description of my views on education. I will describe how I view the acquisition of knowledge, common student nature, what I believe the purpose of education is and my desired method and curriculum. Future teachers should carefully consider each of these aspects.

My philosophy regarding the best way to manage a classroom is through a model of ownership and preventative discipline. In order to accomplish this, the teacher needs to set the tone for the class during the first two weeks of school and never veer from it. During this time, the students will be made aware of my classroom rules as well as what I expect out of each of them on a daily basis. This will create an open atmosphere in which all members of the classroom are aware of their rights and responsibilities.

There are all different kinds of students and each of them deserve the chance at a fulfilling education that improves their self - esteem and self - efficiency in the world. Every child deserves a teacher that is fair and understanding of the different ability levels of each student in their classroom. This is my philosophy of education. In preparing to become a teacher who truly tries to understand the vast differences between children, I want to address the nature of students, the nature of knowledge, the purposes of public education, the methods of teaching, and the curriculum area that I am studying.