Philosophy of Education paper

Ariel Schneider
04/16/2011
SPED 201

           Philosophy of Education Paper I believe that children are our future and they need to be our number one priority and I also believe that we need to teach the students of the next generation to be more globally competent so our societies can thrive. In my paper I will talk about; first what you should expect from the learner, the role of the society and the role the teachers play in the life of the learner, how to prepare the students for global competence in the 21st century, and then I will end with talking about how a classroom should be organized and what kind of environment should be provided for the student. All of these things are equally needed in the life of the students to insure that they will be equally educated and put to the highest standards.

             I remember when I was in 6th grade and my math teacher would always tell us how she wished that she could just unscrew the top of our heads and just put the information into us without any effort. This would solve many problems if it worked, but as you grow up you realize that life is not an easy thing and has very few easy answers. After watching many videos and reading many articles on education I feel like I am left with even more questions than answers then I was to begin with. Hopefully with my paper I can figure out and answers a few of the biggest questions that are hurting are education system in today’s fast and busy world.

            The most important thing in our societies is the youth of our world. The next generation should always be the most important thing to any societies because they keep the society moving by creating new things and come up with new and fresh ideas that are needed to keep societies up and running for hundreds of years to come. I believe that all children are born with a want to learn new things. Human being’s are all born with a few similar basic instincts and I believe that a want to learn, is one of those instincts that all human beings have. It does not matter where you are born or what ethnicity you are, everyone wants to learn new things and be able to be a part of a functioning society. No child is born with any type of stereotypes nor do they have any prejudice against anyone, all of these things are learned by the child’s family or the society that they grew up in. That is why it is our job as members of a society to teach children the differences in people and teach them how to except and embrace these differences.

            In order to be more globally competent with the rest of the world we need to make students our number one priority. We can do this by first making sure that every school in America has the same technology as every other school around them. What is the purpose of schools that are failing their students because they do not have the same things that other schools are fortunate to have. Why should there be a price tag on what we are willing to spend on the children of our nation. Not only do I think that we are putting a price tag on our children but I also think we are putting some of them on clearance, and as many people know when you buy things that are cheaper, they are also of cheaper quality. I think that kids should be the most well done thing in our society.

              I believe that schools should focus less on having the students take tests and put a bigger focus on preparing the students to figure things out on their own. After watching a video on how and why Finland is ranking the highest in education, I can see that tests are not needed and sometimes do not accurately measure a student’s level of education. By having the students learn something by themselves you are not only having them learn whatever they are researching but you are also allowing them to see how to solve a problem on their own and use their own ideas, which will greatly benefit them later on in life when they are in their carrier. Today’s new generation is all about having their own independence, so I believe by focusing more on projects then tests, will provide a more comfortable environment for today’s students to learn.

            A school should also emphasize other cultures in the world. I believe that students should have to, at the very least, learn to be fluent in two languages. I think that students should learn these two different languages starting in kindergarten. I think that a student in America should either be fluent in Spanish or Chinese because they are the two leading languages other than English in the world. In order for America to have a good standing in world, we need to be able to communicate with people from other parts of the world. After watching a video on the Chinese Immersion Program I was able to see that the students that learn Chinese are not only still fluent in English but they are also doing better than the students that only learned English. I think that the only reason that the kids today are not learning different languages is because of the fear of change that a lot of Americans have today. Many people in America just assume that by having their kids learn another language other than English, is going to somehow effect the fluency in their own language, when in reality it helps the kids learn better. We need educate the people in our society so they can see how these kinds of changes in our education system will greatly help the future generations.

              The teachers of our schools play one of the most important roles in each student’s educational lives. Teachers should be people that a student feels comfortable to talk to and they should also be someone that the student’s respect. In order for the students to feel comfortable with the teacher, they need to know that the teacher believes in them. By knowing that a teacher believes in your abilities to learn, you will be more apt to want to prove the teacher right. Teachers need to realize just how much of an impact that they have on their students lives. I believe that having an engaging teacher that not only demands respect but also gives it will help the students in their quest in learning.

            In order for a student to learn they need to have a good teacher. Teachers need to find an effective way to teach their students. I have known teachers that can make a very interesting subject boring, but I have also met teachers that can make a very boring subject surprisingly interesting. I remember when I took a class on rocks and minerals, I thought it was going to be the most boring class I have ever taken before, but it turned out to be one of the best classes I have ever taken in my life. All though the subject of rocks is not interesting to me, the teacher was just so excited and so happy to teach us about rocks that you found yourself in her class, also getting happy and excited to learn about rocks. That teacher indirectly taught me a lot about what it means to be a good and effective teacher. She would have us go out in the middle of a lecture and find a rock outside and bring it in and she would come up to you and start talking to you about what your rock is and other things that you did not even know about it. In order to be a good teacher you need to engage your students, have them figure things out on their own so that they are able to create new things and come up with their own ideas for the future.

           As I have stated early, in order for our students to be globally competent they need to be able to communicate with other countries in other ways then just English. We should teach kids other languages when they are very young so they are able to become very fluent in many languages. We should also put a big emphasis on teaching students about other cultures and ethnicities. We should teach kids today that not everyone in the world is the same and we should learn about other people’s differences so we know how to best communicate with other people in the world. Businesses that want to sell things to places around the world need to know about other countries culture. An example of a company that did not have really good global competence was Kellogg cereal company. Although Kellogg does really well here in America, they did not realize when they tried to sell their stuff in India it would not do as well. They failed to realize some of India’s basic cultural rituals. They did not realize that most people in India do not like to have cold things in the morning, so when they tried to have cereal in hot milk it turned to mush and the cereal was soon not being bought by the people of India. Simple things like this can cost companies millions of dollars so we need to teach our students that it is important to know about other cultures.

           Another way to prepare students to be globally competent is to show them how much better other countries are doing than us and that we are not as good as many people think we are. When I watched a movie called “Waiting for Superman”, I learned that the only thing that America comes first in that has to do with education is confidence. While it is good sometimes to be confident, there comes a point where we have to realize that we are not as good as we think we are. I had no idea until this class that the United States was not number one in education. I think that people in America are very competitive, and if people realize that we are competing with people that do not even live in America they will hopefully realize that they have to try even harder to make it in the world. I think that many of the kids today do not realize how much competition they are going to have to face after they graduate from high school.

           When I become a teacher I will make sure that everyone in my classroom is able to understand what I am talking about. I plan to bring up other cultures and other beliefs from other places around the world that have to do with whatever topic I am talking about. I want my students to be able to know many things from not just our culture but from other people cultures as well. I will do this by not just talking about one culture for one week then never bring it up again, I plan to constantly remind my students that different people have different beliefs and different ways of going about things.

          Not only will I make sure that my students are culturally aware but I will also make sure they, like Wagner says, in his book “The Global Achievement Gap”, are able to figure things out on their own and I will make sure that they are confident enough in their own abilities to make up their own ideas and their own answers. I will do these things by having many discussions in my classroom and having the students run the discussion without my help. I will also do this by having many projects that put the student in charge of learning the material on their own. I might also, if it can work, have my kids have no homework and trust in them that they will learn what they are suppose to by the time of the test. I want my kids in my classroom to feel comfortable enough to talk to me and most importantly I want them to want to come to class each and every day.

            I believe that kids are the most important thing in our society and they should be treated as such. I believe kids should also become more globally competent in today’s competitive world. We can make this happen by cutting down on the amount of tests students have to take, focus on other cultures in the classroom and realize their differences from our own, and we also need to make it so there is equal opportunity for every student in every school district all over America. I believe that teachers are one of the most important people in every student’s life and every teacher needs to realize that they are a role model for a lot of people. I hope to be a teacher that can gain the respect from their student’s and provide an environment for the students that is welcoming and a place where they feel safe. I believe that teachers are just as important as doctors in our world. They are both professions with people who want to help and take care of other people and they are both highly needed in order to keep a society functioning. I have known I had wanted to be a teacher since the 4th grade. When I was in the 4th grade I was really bad at reading and hated to do it and my teacher knew this so one day she pulled me aside and asked if I would like to eat lunch with her that day. During lunch she told me about all these books that she was reading and was telling me how much she wanted me to try and read them, and when I told her that I was not a good enough reader to read book she looked and me like I was crazy and said “yes you can, I know you can read those books”. She gave a few of her books from her shelf and told me to go home and read some of them so we could talk about them during lunch the next day. So that is what I did and ever since, have loved to read books and I owe it all to her believing in me and I just wish to someday have that kind of impact on a child. I want to be a teacher that kids will look back on years after school and think about how much that teacher had changed how they live their life.