Coming out of a large state university, I thought I would keep my progressive existentialist perspective forever. But, the second day of student teaching had been a meandering disaster. Since that rude awakening, my philosophy of education began its evolution to its current state, a progressive essentialism. There are skills and knowledge students need to know to be successful in their lives. What the College of Education taught me was true, students learn best when the subject matter is related to their lives. I differ from some essentialists, especially those in the ultra-conservative “culturally literate” camp. Every activity should have a point, but the point should never be absolute acceptance of whatever is being taught. Rather, the students should question and listen critically to everything they learn whether it be how to find a main idea or the reasons America fought itself in the Civil War. With that said, preparing students to be successful and able to have choices should be every teacher’s goal.
The purpose of education is to teach essential skills and knowledge that will allow that student to make choices when he or she moves to the next level. Students are not encouraged to receive knowledge and the perspective from which the teacher comes, but each student should be encouraged to question and decide for him or herself. These essential skills should lead to options like advancing to the next grade and be able to successfully matriculate in the next grade or, as the student grows older, being able to decide between employment, entrance into college or the armed forces, and being able to be critically aware of the world. Students should learn these skills by various interactions with the subjects that correlate with a wide variety of Gardner’s intelligences. To teach these skills, teachers must conclusively be able to relate each to their students’ lives.
The skills and knowledge taught must be a result of a collaboration of not only multicultural, diverse teachers, but college recruiters and professors, high school graduates who entered the work-force, those who chose to stay home and raise a family, and recruiters from local companies. A moderator from the school system would be necessary to center this group. Teachers, who interact with the students daily, should take the skills and knowledge the group can agree is necessary and make them the framework for their curriculum. Then, each individual instructor will choose the method of relaying these skills to the students that works best for him or her.
Different students learn better in different conditions. Each student must have at least some personal space and his or her physical needs met before that individual can learn as Maslow says in his Hierarchy of Needs. Once basic needs are met, teachers must facilitate the following to create a classroom where students are able to learn successfully: respect and trust in the teacher, a perspective that the curriculum relates to their lives, and a structured classroom. When those three cornerstones are laid, students can learn and the classroom has a chance to be effective. A “good” or more appropriately skilled teacher then, must be able to communicate and display reasons the students should respect and trust him or her, sell the perspective that the curriculum relates to their lives, and structure the classroom through mastery of student attention, momentum, space, time management, useful routines, fair and tough discipline, clear instruction, and realistic high expectations.
When each teacher is focused in the same direction, that person can use his or her own creativity and energy to make their classroom work. When every classroom has the same core curriculum and transmits knowledge effectively, the school or school system works. Students who graduate have a number of options because of the skills and knowledge they learned. They can also see how the knowledge and skills they attained are directly related to the life they from which they graduate and the life they are about to begin.
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