Building My Philosophy

I hope my future students give me a thumbs-up, too.

This weekend I have been developing my philosophy of education. Though I had to do it now for my education class, it is something future employers will ask me to define. Thus it is a rather vital part of my future career that I build my philosophy of education.

The philosophy I developed is based largely on the philosophies of progressivism and social reconstructionism. These revolve around students working together to improve society. I also favor the focus on criticism that postmodernism creates, as well as the supportive and open classroom it tries to build. Finally, I still value the traditional subjects and liberal arts education promoted by perennialism. Essentially, I believe that schools and teachers should strive to develop well-rounded students who collaborate to take what they learn and apply it outside the classroom to create a better society.

While detailing my philosophy, I worried that I was being too idealistic and even attempting to include too many beliefs. My ideal curriculum, for instance, seems almost impossible to attain. I suppose that is what a philosophy is for, though: to have a basis on which I form my eventually classroom. I don’t necessarily have to incorporate everything I wrote. I simply have to have a clear vision of what I believe so that everything I do in the classroom supports my beliefs.