MYPHILOSOPHYOFEDUCATION

My Philosophy of Education
Hannah R. Garza
Wesleyan College

MYPHILOSOPHYOFEDUCATION

Growing up as a child I always wanted to be a teacher. Of course, I did not completely

understand what it meant to be a teacher, but now that I am in college pursuing a goal I have
always wanted to accomplish, I am beginning to learn the fundamentals included in the
educational profession. The school of educational philosophy I am drawn to is progressivism
because I believe the teacher should be the facilitator and students should give feedback,
therefore the class will have discussions instead of the teacher lecturing the whole class period.
Bayles stated, Children are exploratory rather than explanatory (Foundations, 2010). I agree
with the statement from Bayles because every child begins to explore the moment they are
brought in the world. Teachers dedicate their knowledge to feed the students hunger for
information.
My parents have always been my motivation. They support me and believe in me even
when my decisions are not so great. Education is taken very seriously in my family. My parents
expect a great deal in me since I am the first generation college student. Being the first in my
family to go to college my first year has been a challenge, but despite the stress and rigorous
classes I feel that I found where I belong and that is in a classroom with children. I am very
happy so far in my field experience class; I cannot wait to be able to have a class of my own.
Growing up, my school experience was great. Similar to many students, there were
motivators and there were dream crushers. I always loved mathematics and science as a student
and I always put all my effort into those subjects. However, Reading and History were not my
favorite subjects and I always dreaded doing those subjects. Once I was in eighth grade my
teacher made reading and history fun. She made class fun, she had open discussions, and she
made us do projects to express our creative side. Since I am inspiring to be a math teacher I want

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to create an environment where the students want to learn and enjoy subject that may not be so
exciting to them.
Although I am a hard working student and I inspire to be a great teacher I know I will not
be able to accomplish anything if it were not for my parents and past teachers who cheer me on
every step of the way. My parents always pushed me to be the best student I could be. Without
them I may have never would have received honor roll throughout school and I may not have
graduated with honors, which was a huge accomplishment for me. Since I have done so well
throughout school my teachers were excited to write my letters of recommendation. The letters
led to my acceptance to Wesleyan College, which has been by far my most proud and greatest
accomplishment I have achieved thus far.
I believe the purpose of school is to give children the ability to succeed in life by learning
new things such as math, science, reading, and history, but also life long tips that will help them
succeed within humanity such as respect, confidence, and responsibility. A school should be a
place where all the children feel safe. The school should provide services such as security and
meals for each student. No child should fear going to school, therefore, bullying should never be
tolerated. Each student should feel welcomed and want to go to school because I believe school
should have an environment every child wants to be in for seven to nine hours a day for nine
months of the year.
I believe that teaching is about patience. In early childhood education, patience plays an
enormous role in teaching. Teachers have to teach not only curriculum but some life skills as
well, such as respect and responsibility. Teachers are the commencement of all careers. Teachers
put students on a path to follow and succeed, therefore, without teachers there will be no
presidents, doctors, and lawyer that will help to motivate children to focus on their educational

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studies to pursue any goal they want to invest their mind into. In school, teachers are not there
just to teach but they are there to learn as well. Teaching is a learning experience because we
learn how to handle certain situation we normally would not. We are forced to stand up for the
children if anything were to happen. Our goal as teachers is to protect and help the student
succeed in life whether that means just teaching them, or someday saving their lives. The
children in the classroom may change from year to year because of different learning styles.
Thomas Armstrong quoted in his book 7 kinds of smart, You may be a math genius, a decent
athlete, a good reader, poor visualizer, a party animal, and a musical klutz all wrapped up in
one magnificently unique package(7). Teaching is about accommodating to your students to
give them the best learning experience you have available for them as their teacher.
A part of learning is the outcome of it. I believe the classroom should have discussions
among the students so there is not just one view but the students can expand their ideas with
others to form more perspectives within the class. Peer learning is great because it shows how
diversity can change different views and show different perspectives of topics taught in science,
history, reading, and math. I believe it is a privilege to be able to say what you want in a
classroom freely and express ideas because we live in a country where we have the freedom to
express our opinion freely so we should support that amendment in our schooling. Thinking
critically is an important part of education. When a student cannot speak freely in a classroom, I
fear that the critical thinking skills slowly fade away and we are forced to think from the
textbook we are being taught in. I believe learning goes beyond than just memorizing notes and
textbooks. I believe learning includes things that you hold on to for the rest of your life, such as
multiplication tables and how to respect other around you. Frank Smith stated in The Book of
Learning and Forgetting, The classical view says that learning is continual, effortless,

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inconspicuous, a social activity, and growth (5). In the Smith quote, the multiple descriptions
about the classical learning, I find that they are the most important for students to learn. Learning
brings all cultures together and students take it with them for the rest of their life. Social activity
is a part of everyday life so discussion will be good for the student to express their opinions and
be accepting of others. Smith also stated that learning is growth. Learning something new
everyday brings growth to not only the student but to society as well as new ideas are formed and
the world will grow as one when the younger generations bring in new perspectives and ways of
accomplishing goals for humanity.
I believe math, history, English, reading, and science are not the only things that should
be taught in school. Those subjects are very important in education but there are other factors in
being in an environment with other ages, ethnics, and religions, which allow the students to learn
from each other. At Peach County High School, respect, confidence, and responsibility played a
huge part in our school system. We were taught to treat our teachers and fellow classmates with
the respect we desired. Our school was project based learning so all assignments were done in
groups and were presented to the class. With a learning system like that respect is very important
during group work and presentations. Confidence was important because the educators wanted
us to be confident with our opinions and wanted us to speak up if we do not understand or agree
with something be taught or said in the class discussion. Responsibility is key because each
student is responsible for his or her grade and to bring it up if the grades are not proficient.
Students are responsible for his or her work within their group and work for individual
assignments. Responsibility is something you learn in school that is used for the rest of life like
when you start college, start a career, and start a family.

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Children are great observers. They will pick up on different habits and behavior they see.
That is why the classroom should always be child friendly and bad influences should not be
tolerated. Bullying can be manipulating to other students because they think it is cool and they
think they are better than the victim of the bullying. Children learn through play and peers so that
is how they learn different behaviors and choose to act the way they do. Although it is good for
children to observe and copy some behaviors, it is good for students to find themselves so they
know who they are. Daniel Goleman stated in Emotional Intelligence, At its best, selfobservation allows just such an equanimous awareness of passionate or turbulent feelings (46).
In that statement the students should be able to control their emotions if they are angered or
upset. While some students may act out, other students may feel the need to copy those actions to
get the attention of the teacher and other students. Those types of behaviors need to be addressed
early in the school year. Students need to learn to handle their emotions and stay focused on what
is important in school, which is to receive the education needed to succeed in life.
Classroom management is very important in a classroom setting. In my classroom I will
set up a form of classroom management that will include the whole class. To get the classs
attention I will raise my fist and start to count to five with each according finger that goes up. So,
Index is one, index and middle is two, and so on. Once the students get to five there is complete
silence. Students shall not count to six or higher, or the whole process is redone until it is done
right and there is complete silence at the end. I will use a conflict resolution similar to the one in
Esm Codells book Educating Esm Diary of a Teachers First Year. In the book Esm had steps
of how to confront whatever was troubling you. Esm stated her conflict resolution steps are,
What happened that you didnt like? And, How did it make you feel? (Esm, 33). In those
steps there is a bond making with the class and building confidence to confront certain issue you

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are having in a reasonable way. With this method of conflict resolution there is no name-calling
or tattle tailing on other classmates. No student has to feel the embarrassment of being called out.
The student who is upset gets to express his or her feelings and they will work it out now that the
victim shared their feelings and they can work together to solve their issues.
Although the school of progressivism is the school I am most drawn to, I feel that other
aspects of the school of philosophies can be mixed together to make the perfect environment I
will best teach in. In Perennialism the curriculum is focused around liberal art. That is important
to teach the children because the children can learn about different cultures, languages, and
behaviors of the students around them. Behaviorism is important because students should be
disciplined while in the classroom to create a safe environment and good learning environment
for the other students. As for teaching students I will focus most on the Progressivism. Students
need the ability to express the creativity and being active while in class. When activities become
part of the curriculum we will have less bored students and the energy they will go straight
toward their learning and they will focus on the subjects being taught.

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Citations:
Codell, E. (1999). Educating Esm: Diary of a Teachers First Year. New York, NY: Workman
Publishing.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Dell.
Smith, F. (1998). The Book of Learning and Forgetting. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Webb, L. D. (2010). Foundations of American Education. Columbus, OH: Kevin M. Davis.