preview

Essay about My Philosophy on Education

Better Essays

My Philosophy on Education

“Wake up! It’s time to get ready for school.” I loved those words as a child but grew to hate them as a teen. As a child, school consisted of hands-on activities, mingling with others, and enticing lessons. As a teen, school consisted of being forced to remain seated, reading a chapter, answering the questions at the end of the chapter, and completing a worksheet. I found school to be boring and excessively routine. Therefore, I never aspired to be a teacher. I cringed at the thought of that routine! After graduating from college with a degree in recreation and spending ten years in wonderful jobs that always led me back to children, like working at a child-care center for the abused, a children's …show more content…

Along with the help of the learning community such as parents or other family contacts, other teachers, events and activities, we need to discover what sparks each child and help him in his development. This includes determining his learning style whether it’s auditory where he learns by hearing, visual where he learns by seeing, or kinesthetic where he learns by doing, or a mixture of the three. This also includes determining for each child what Howard Gardner calls Multiple Intelligence. While I wouldn’t necessarily label learning styles so specifically for the fear of omitting one or failing to recognize others, I do agree with Gardners’ concepts and agree that we can determine and offer learning through linguistic, mathematical, musical, kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, or other abilities.

I so believe in re-enforcers. I hesitate to refer to it as “conditioning” as did mid-twentieth researchers Ivan Pavlov and BF Skinner because of the connotations of brain washing, altering, or influencing but I do believe that positive reinforcement is key for students and teachers. In many schools where I’ve substituted, teachers spend an excessive amount of time reprimanding students who are misbehaving. Rather, I believe in proximity control, approaching the student but continuing to teach.

Get Access