My Autobiography and Philosophy of Education Examined

My Autobiography and Philosophy of Education Examined

Artifact One - Complete Essay

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My educational philosophy is definitely progressive, refined by a touch of realism. I realized that after taking Introduction to Elementary Education at CSULB. The course was taught by Erin Gruwell, the inspiration behind the film and book Freedom Writer’s Diary. It was chaotic and unstructured. Still, somehow it worked. Mrs. Gruwell had a talent for turning learning into a game as well as a knack for intuiting each student’s strengths and weaknesses. In the end, you passed with an “A” because it would be devastating to let her down.

I eventually took what I learned from her to a third-grade literacy class I was teaching. It worked wonderfully while I was teaching the class, yet it failed them miserably after I left.

Background

Early in life, my negative experiences in education were continuous. I moved from New York to Arizona at age six. After about a year I moved again. Whatever friends I made were always gone within a year. Because of this, and an unemotional family, I didn’t have a support system to discuss feeling out of place. Not surprisingly, I was bullied all the way up until middle school. Often the bullying happened in front of my teachers. Most did nothing to intervene.

According to Eric T. Moore, author of My Educational Philosophy, “The classroom climate must be safe, professional, and collaborative, allowing students to feel at ease to express their views, share experiences, and discuss differences of opinion (Moore, 2018).” In retrospect, my educational experiences were anything but safe. That had a profound effect on me. I rarely raised my hand. I never volunteered. And asking questions terrified me.

A turning point came in ninth grade as I enrolled in AFJROTC. At the time, my interest in science was replaced with an interest in creative writing. I started to devour papers on writing well; I also started to write for the school paper. By the time I graduated high school I was on the honor roll while maintaining almost a 3.5 average. After I enrolled at Arizona State University, I refined my major from liberal arts to journalism. But, without a great interest in writing about plane crashes, I eventually took my BA and became a substitute teacher.

Analysis

After four years at Washington Middle School as an on-site substitute, I’ve come to realize, I owe my students more than my own intuition about teaching. The realization came when I watched my principal, Meghan Traver, handle a class that I failed to control. She managed to connect that bland textbook to the students’ lives as required by TPE 1.3. (Ctc.ca.gov, 2018). Once that happened, the classroom management took care of itself.

Ironically, I have a similar educational philosophy as Mrs. Traver. Based on the survey by Sadker in Teachers, schools and society, I am primarily a Progressivist when it comes to education. “Progressivists believe that education should be student-centered, focused on active participation, questioning, and experimentation.” (Sadker, 1997, P. 405) I am not surprised I would align with Progressivism. I know from first-hand experience if the student isn’t engaged, it’s hard to teach anything.

Essentialism was the philosophy I aligned with the second most. Again, I am not surprised. While I believe in tailored learning, I believe there are some core educational concepts that cannot be ignored. For instance, teaching students Algebra when that student can’t pass a timed basic multiplication test usually ends badly. Some of those core concepts don’t lend themselves to individual tailoring.

Ethics

So how do you maintain a balance between tailoring curriculum to individual needs and an understanding that some core concepts don’t lend themselves to personal tailoring? That comes with an educator’s understanding of ethics. The Association of American Educators breaks down ethics into four core responsibilities: the educator’s responsibilities towards the students, the community, the educator and the educator’s colleagues (Association of American Educators, 2018). 

I found myself agreeing with most of the responsibilities to students while questioning the requirements for continuous growth in teaching methods. In my own experience, I think educators often throw out old ideas because they’re old, not necessarily because they are bad ideas. A good example with when all of LBUSD threw out Open Court, because the school district didn’t want to focus on phonics. LBUSD instead wanted to take a “wholistic” approach to reading and literature. However, based on my own experience, students who can’t break words into their parts, will never get the wholistic intent of any literature. That’s me temporarily abandoning Progressivism for Essentialism.

Conclusion

I do think all the ethics can be boiled down to one simple question: Is this approach good for the student I am teaching now?  Unfortunately, the realist in me also knows teaching is rarely a one on one occurrence.

Remember that third grade class? They loved learning turned into a game.

Unfortunately, the teachers that came after me didn’t all believe in that progressive theory of education. Some of those teachers clung to the old fashion notion learning should be its own reward. Some never tailored the lessons to the student’s own personal needs and background. So, when some of those students encountered a different teaching style, they couldn’t handle it. And students need to be able to handle every kind of teaching style they might encounter.

It seems to me, the code of ethics published by the American Association of Educators is a solid starting point for educational ethics in general. However, I also think it occasionally ignores that reality that one size never fits everything, including educational styles.