Philosophy Of Education

Ian Goodlett
LBS 400
Crisostomo
California State University, Dominguez Hills
03/08/2016

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Purpose of Education
Thomas Jefferson was one of the first to argue for public education in America. He
argued the idea that Creative and rational thought must be the foundation of orderly and stable
modern society. (Oakes and Lipton, 2002) This means, since we live in a democratic society,
where it is the duty of each individual to have a say in how the entire society runs, we all need
the same basic level of education. But education is more than just being a part of society, there
are also lessons we can find within ourselves that can be found in basic education. Literature
taught us vocabulary, so that we could more efficiently describe the thoughts in our head. History
taught us lessons about life; how certain downfalls of humanity happened and how we can make
things better. Mathematics and Science taught us to ask questions and find answers about the
physical world. All of these subjects lay the foundation for progression and helps all of us
discover who we are and our place in history.
Learning Environment
I currently do not know the best way to set up a classroom. I plan on learning this as I
progress though my teacher education, but I do have ideas on the environment that students
should be in. Children should be in a positive environment for learning. As an educator, should
stress positivity so that everyone in the classroom are positive to each other. They should be
learning not only WITH a group of peers but also FROM the peers. Studies have been done to
show that students should use each others differences to learn. According to Suzanne Wilson and
Penelope Peterson (2006), they write that Cross-cultural research on teaching also supports the
notion that individual differences among students can be resources... individual differences
produce a range of ideas and problem-solving strategies for students discussion and reflection
(p. 7). Students should be given chances to work with each other as much as possible. Children

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should be able and encouraged to express themselves in the classroom. A classroom should not
be a place where kids are forced to mindlessly work, but a place of stimulation and learning. I
believe there should be a sense of fun involved with learning. Learning is fun, and this idea
should be stressed.
For a classroom to be a positive environment, everyone should be treated fairly and
justly. Everyone is different. Everyone has different lives, different home lives, and different
ways of being raised. This should be taken into consideration for every student. Teacher should
try to relate things back to the students in their lives. They should teach things that will inform
the students of other cultures and ideas, which will make educated adults who will use this
knowledge to make a more conscious and caring society. Teachers should be conscientious of
every student and help to teach in a way that will include everyone so they all can be prepared to
progress our society.
Commitment to Social Justice
As a free society, all levels should be able to move up in society if they have the desire to.
The best way for people to move up is through education. For those in lower socioeconomic
statuses, they are unable to attain a good education they are unable to attain a good education.
Not being able to attain a good base of education, will make it very difficult to rise up in society.
According to Darling-Hammond and Bransford (2005), evidence suggests that schools do make
a noticeable contribution to what children learn and that teachers are an important part of what
matters. This means, that if a child has a good school and teacher, they will have a better
chance of moving up in society.

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This is important to me because I have always wanted to have a part in bettering peoples
lives. Coming from an pretty affluent background and having more options than others, it
seemed incredibly disrespectful for me to not help others. Education as social justice is important
because I would have the ability to lay the foundation in someone so they didn't have to be stuck
in the same impoverished cycle, and they will have the ability to move up in society. I don't plan
on changing the world, but I at least want to try.
Curriculum
Everything should be taught with excitement and focus. If a student sees you dont like a
subject then they wont like it. Things should be taught with inquiry based ideas so that the kids
want to learn. According to Barbara Striping (2008), Both experience and research tell us that
students engaged in inquiry are more motivated to pursue learning on their own than students
who are fed pre-organized information that they are expected to remember. I think the number
one thing to stress to all students is that learning is fun, which is how you should teach all the
subjects. A way for children to have fun while learning is to express themselves. Creative
processes should be taught along with every subject. Kids should also be taught the variety of
creative subjects sot they can properly express themselves in the creative outlet they prefer.
Maybe one kid prefers acting out skits to drawing, so all mediums should be used to teach other
subjects. Math could be taught from a game, history could be taught by acting out historical
event, literature could be taught by having the kids draw a comic of the story, and science could
be taught by putting the science into a song. Along with all of this health and physical education
should be stressed just as equal as the other subjects. I feel that a healthy body will make a
healthy mind. Mixing and combining subjects will make for a more exciting classroom
environment and kids will learn things without even knowing they are learning.

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Teacher
All teachers should be caring, positive, and educated. Teachers need to know what they
are talking about so that they dont steer the children to wrong information. They need to be
caring so that they can care for the students needs. They need to look and know how a student
learns so they can teach them properly. They need to be positive most of all so that environment
the students are in is a positive one. This will make it so the students actually enjoys being there.
Most of all a teacher need to learn from their teaching. Learn from their students, and learn from
themselves. Teachers should be progressive and constantly improving themselves and their
classroom. They need to strive to being the best teacher they can be, and making sure every
student is doing the best they can too.

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Work Cited

Bransford, J., Darling-Hammond, L., and LePage, P. (2005). Introduction. In Darling-Hammond,

L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers
should learn and be able to do (p. 1 -39). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lipton, M., & Oakes, J. (2002). Schooling: Wrestling with History and Tradition. Teaching to
Change the World (2nd ed., pp. 2-39). Boston: McGraw hill.
Peterson, P., & Wilson, S. (2006). Theories Of Learning And Teaching: What Do They Mean
For Educators? (p. 7) Washington, D.C.: National Education Association.
Stripling, B. (2008). Inquiry: Inquiring Minds Want To Know. Schol Library Media Activities
Monthly, 25(1), 50-53.