Voices

I started getting worried while reading this, I didn't connect fully with most of the contributors of education. I agreed with parts of philosophies from Socrates, Washington, Dewey, and Tyler. I was most interested in Piaget's philosophy.

I appreciated Socrate's method of discussion and his insistence on allowing students to figure out things for themselves with very little lead from teachers. Discussions are a major, although overlooked, part of classroom activities, and Socrate's philosophy highlights how teachers are only there to help students to learn by themselves.

Although Washington's section in our reading was small, I found myself agreeing with his motto, "hand, head, and heart." I think it represents a well-balanced curriculum and therefore a well-balanced student. It's a nice compromise between working for the student and working for society.

Dewey's "cooperative learning" contribution to education is impressive. I'm not sure how they even ran a class without group work before.

Tyler created teacher-workshops. That's cool. I agree with his thoughts about teacher evaluation. It's impossible to learn from your mistakes if you're not even aware of them or willing to reflect on your actions.

I think Piaget's philosophy represents my own philosophy the best. I believe that a class curriculum needs to reflect the social/emotional/intellectual development of students; this is particularly important in English because there are so many books read by middle school students that need to wait until they're in high school. I can't tell you have many books I read in high school that I didn't fully understand until I was in college. The issues becomes whether to tone down the curriculum to fit the students' abilities or to just wait until they're old enough; take Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, Shakespeare etc., we get watered-down versions when we're younger and the truth when we're older.
I also liked Piaget purpose for schooling—to think, to discover, and create. He's not caught up in society's idea of a perfect education or the nation's idea, he wants students to learn the best they can for their own purposes, and after that has been accomplished, the societal benefits will naturally follow.