Final Paper

Alicia Clynick

EDF 670

Fall 2016

Northern Arizona University

 Throughout this course my eyes have been open to the roots of educational

philosophy, tying back to some of the original masterminds behind concepts that we take

for granted today. By analyzing the thoughts of both ancient and modern philosophers we

are able to recognize how the views of education have altered over time, as well as how

certain ideals have truly stayed the same despite the many years that have passed. While

every individual believes they know what is best for our students, some with differing

opinions, there are some commonalities that exist between philosophers that I also stand

by after discovering their work. As an educator and a leader, I now understand how

crucial it is to include morals, ethics, and self- exploration within our education. We must

begin to move away from the standardized grading and testing system, and begin to

encourage teachers to teach through experiences, and emphasize the importance of

education to our students so that they may learn and grow to be outstanding members of

society.

To begin with, I have become a strong supporter of Rousseau’s ideology in Emile

in which he described that students should be taught through experience (Rousseau, p.

13). While his viewpoints were a bit more extreme- stating to “give your scholar no

verbal lessons”, I do connect with his emphasis on learning through experience rather

than through orders or discussions. By allowing a child to delve into a topic on their own,

they are able to expand their horizons and make discoveries that allow them to collect

new knowledge on what they are learning. A teacher can stand up and lecture as students

write down notes and listen, followed by the standardized multiple-choice assessment at

the end of the unit in which they can hope for 75% of their students to memorize the facts

they provided. Unfortunately, this method of instruction hinders students from truly
mastering the concepts, and the information will be lost to them, notably because there is

no importance instilled in that topic. Rousseau was also against this type of education,

stating in Emile that it is simply a “collection of facts”, adding on that studying languages

and memorizing is “among the useless lumber of education” (Rousseau, p. 19). On the

other hand, learning through experience can leave students with a lasting impact as they

themselves conduct experiments, study what they are personally interested in, and have

the ability to derive their own beliefs based off of personal discoveries.

Similarly, in Plato’s Apology, Socrates defends the idea of teaching students to be

“free thinkers”, despite the belief at the time that he was going against the state to have

these methods of teaching. As an educator, I personally agree with the belief that all

students should be taught to think for themselves. As I mentioned in my Discussion

Board post in this course, I believe that students should be taught to form their ideas, and

question the words of all people, regardless of their position. When we repeatedly use

standardized testing and curriculum, we are forcing such a large amount of facts and

basic information on students that they learn simply to memorize and accept all concepts

that are fed to them. Schools tend to emphasize rules and expectations without

explanation of why they are important, simply ordering students to follow them or else

face the consequences. In a sense, modern education has lost its drive to truly educate,

and has instead turned towards a focus on creating robots that can pass a standardized

test. We put emphasis on making students “College and Career Ready” through Common

Core, and yet the education we provide them simply prepares them to continue following

the regulations and become excellent test takers.

 Upon reading Plato’s Apology I rediscovered the importance of guiding students

to become free thinkers and individuals rather than a replication of the “ideal” model of a

student. Children and adolescents should be taught to derive their own ideas based off of

their personal morals and even their goals in life. Our society is far from perfect, but

perhaps the reason we have been unable to move forward as a nation, or even on an

international level, is due to the lack of questioning and reasoning that our world leaders

provide. It is possible that the reason we do not progress is because we are trained not to

question what is already in place; instead children are told to follow the rules, laws, and

expectations. In my own classroom, I plan to put a stronger emphasis on allowing

students to discover why they believe in different morals, beliefs, and ideals. In doing so,

they will learn how to expand their horizons not just in education, but in the nation and

world that they live in. I now see that it is my responsibility to lead my students in

becoming active members of society that can think for themselves and develop new ideas

that could benefit themselves and the world.

The German Romantics, though existing years later, also held a strong belief that

education should place an emphasis on self-realization in the curriculum. Individuality,

disapproval of sexual stereotypes, and both sexes having the opportunity of education

were just a few aspects of the Romantic’s point of view that continued on into modern

times (Beiser, p. 132). They decided that education should be useful, and should include

more topics than before, including languages, mathematics, natural sciences, geography,

and history. To them, education should be more than simply learning the narrow skills of

one basic vocation. Rather, education should encompass a variety of learning as well as a

search for individuality and self-exploration.

 As an educator I hope to devise new methods and lessons of instruction that allow

students to delve farther into discovering themselves and what their true beliefs and

motivations are. I believe our creativity and freedom are essentially lost through the

standardization of education as it is now. Teachers are no longer able to truly teach.

Instead, we are given a set of standards and a deeply outlined curriculum that states

exactly what we have to do and say each day of the school year. With education being so

incredibly structured, there is no room left in the school year for teachers to truly have

time for self- exploration activities that allow students to actually discover what their own

thoughts and ideas are. The Romantics’ emphasis on the arts, sciences, and ethics in

schools should be brought back rather than pushed out. As testing becomes increasingly

strenuous and staff members are thus evaluated based off of the numbers we receive for

our students’ scores, the arts and sciences tend to be the first areas eliminated from the

classroom. Unfortunately, these are also two core areas of knowledge that have arguably

the strongest emphasis on exploration and permitting time to students to truly begin to

understand their own morals and beliefs.

Upon reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dr. Frankenstein was the truly

flawed character as he put aside all morals to be consumed by pure hatred and vengeance

for his own creation. Without morals to guide him, the story ends with the doctor dying in

the pursuit of destroying his own “monster”. This extreme lack of morals can be

representative of the individuals that we create in today’s society without any time or

effort put into developing the morals and ethics of students throughout their lives. As I

mentioned in my Discussion Board post in this course, it is crucial for educators to

challenge ethical and moral situations to ensure that people are not merely making rash
decisions based off of immediate emotion. We must learn to use a rational method of

thinking to look at the details of issues so that we can think through reasonable solutions

rather than simply jumping to conclusions and actions because the initial threat made us

feel a certain way. People tend to think with their emotions more than their minds when

searching for action in ethical and moral situations. Unfortunately, this can put our

children’s and society’s future at risk. Because I am a leader and an educator it is my

responsibility to ensure that today’s children do not have the same fate of Dr.

Frankenstein, with a complete lack of morals that eventually leads to their own

destruction. I must instead work to incorporate material in the class that allows students

to develop an understanding of their own morals. As we can see from Dr. Frankenstein, it

is also important to understand our feelings and emotions, and be able to control them. It

is crucial to ensure that my own classroom has a strong culture that allows for students to

express their own thoughts and emotions, as well as guidance from the teacher when it is

needed.

Based off of the works discovered throughout this course, I have gained a new

insight as to the importance of a classroom culture that allows for student expression. The

best classroom possible would use the ideals of each of these philosophers so as to

provide the most fulfilling, lasting education for my students. In learning from Dr.

Frankenstein’s unfortunate lesson, it becomes clear that the classroom should have a

focus on morals and ethics as children learn and explore. When seeking for their personal

beliefs and morals, the students can follow the lead of the German Romantics and seek to

discover themselves as individuals as they devise their own beliefs and own unique

thought processes. The education that is taught in my classroom can withstand many of
the viewpoints of the Romantics, including a search for individuality, a movement away

from sexual stereotypes in activities, and providing an education that could be considered

“useful” to the students as they prepare to enter society. My lessons in my classroom can

go beyond the expected facts and details that are required by the state to pass the

mandatory tests, and delve deeper into the material in a manner that allows the students to

truly explore and learn on their own. As suggested by Rousseau, the students could

perform experiments, research studies, and projects that allow them to learn through

experience instead of the typical textbooks or notes. In doing so, it allows the students to

work in groups and develop their own goals and ideas independent of what is “expected”

of them. The classroom can also include open-ended questions and lessons that guide the

students to begin to become “free thinkers”, as so desired in Plato’s Apology. The

children and adolescents that pass through my room will have the opportunity to devise

their own opinions on topics, and come to conclusions based off of their own

observations and inferences, not those that that are fed to them in a systematic fashion. I

want my students to have the ability to understand what is being discussed in class and

the material, as well as be able to draw connections between the contents of the lesson

and their own lives. In a sense, this ability to tie all information together and relate it to

our personal lives as well as the world around us also connects with the Native American

ideology of “circular thinking”, as explained by Fixico in “The American Indian Mind in

a Linear World”. I believe that we must begin to incorporate a circular process to our

classrooms and move away from the linear model. Too often we focus on simply trying

out a new technique, assessing it, and deciding whether or not we should continue using
it or throw it out the window. Instead, we should guide students in understanding that

everything can be connected in a broader sense.

As I move into leadership roles in the future, I hope to use the works of each of

these philosophers and writers to assist others in becoming superb educators based off of

many of these values. I can help others understand the importance of ethics, arts, and

sciences in the classroom, and model how it may be implemented in teaching. In an

educator role, I can still be seen as a leader due to the positive feedback that could be

received from the changes in the classroom due to the beliefs of these different authors

and philosophers. By including learning through experience, a search for individuality,

and emphasis on circular, free thought, I believe my classroom will grow to become one

that stands out when my students begin to become excelling members of society. To lead

others, I can introduce them to the ideals of individuals such as Rousseau and Plato, as

well as movements such as that of the German Romantics and the Native Americans, so

that other educators can benefit from the same views that I found so many new and

confirming ideas in. While I continue to grow as an educator and a leader, I plan to

continue learning from these great minds, as well as discover other authors that can assist

me in making a positive difference in the educational field. As stated by Fredrich

Schlegel, “the highest good, and the source of everything useful, is education” (Beiser, p.

131). My ultimate goal is to show the world how true this statement is for our students

and our society as a whole.

 References

Beiser, F. C. Romanticism. In (pp. 130-141).

Fixico, D. The American Indian mind in a linear world. In (pp.41-61).

Plato. Speech 1: Socrates' defense. Retrieved December 17, 2016.

Rousseau, J. J. Rousseau's Emile selections from book 2 (M. S. Russo, Ed.; B. Foxley,

Trans.).

Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein. Retrieved December 17, 2016, from

https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein/1818_contents