Krystal Sanders

EDU 124
25 November 2013
Philosophy of Education
Throughout the world, there are many different philosophies of education. These range
from the most teacher-centered techniques such as Perennialists, to the most student centered
approaches like Existentialists. Having all of these styles of teaching philosophies are good
because they allow for each type of student to learn, but some of them can tend to be irrelevant in
todays world. For example, Perennialists tactics of teaching a Great Books Curriculum is not
helpful in a present day setting. At the same time on the other end of the spectrum, existentialist
seems to be the perfect solution, but when you begin to closely analyze the theory, you soon
realize that not everyone will cooperate to make the human free will-based theory work properly.
Students need to learn in a way that will best prepare them for the remainder of their lives.
I believe that education is a necessary task for people of all ages in our society. Starting
from a young age, parents should work with their children to teach them basic skills such as
speaking and walking. These skills prepares children for pre-school, which prepares them for
kindergarten and so on throughout life. The old saying goes, you learn something new every
day. I strongly believe in the idea and that education does not end when you graduate high
school or college; it ends the day you die. As humans, we are not perfect and are constantly
learning from ourselves and others. The general purpose of schools is to teach children and
adults basic skills for them to apply to their everyday lives.

When I get the opportunity to create my own classroom, I want it to be a fun, yet learning
environment. I will have a strict set of rules because I want my students to have the ability to
learn and establishing these rules will create a mutual respect between my students and myself
and also among the students themselves. I will also have a reward system so that when students
achieve certain things, whether it be an academic, citizenship, or behavior achievement, they can
earn a prize. In my classroom, I will do my best to teach to all learning styles. Some children can
grasp concepts even if it is not their preferred way of learning so even when using a style that is
not as common in my classroom, the students will still be able to learn.
My philosophy of education comes from a mixture of Essentialism and
Progressivism/Constructivists. Essentialism goes back to the basics of learning and focuses on
reading, writing, and arithmetic, thus making it career driven for todays society. Even if these
jobs that students are being trained for today change, they can change with them and learn the
new technology and ways of doing the job. Progressivists on the other hand, question common
techniques and ideas to lead to problem solving and new ideas. The theory thrives on student
motivation and is a great way to prepare students for the challenges that they will face
throughout their lives. I believe that the basic skills are necessary in order to succeed in life but
you must also have the ability to problem solve and think outside of the box in some situations.
I have always been a person who stays set in their ways. In the teaching realm, it is a
necessity to stick to your values while also being open to new ideas that may work better than
your own. As a new teacher especially, it is important to find more experienced teachers who are
willing to help you define yourself in the classroom. You have to be willing to tweak ideas and
make them your own, you will naturally fall into your role as long as you are confident in
yourself and your students.