A Philosophy of Education IV (The Roles of Students and Teachers in the Classroom)

What is the place of students? What is the role of teachers? The questions are reciprocal in the sense that you must have students in order to be a teacher.

Students should be active participants in the learning process. I believe in cooperative learning, in a process where students learn together. And I believe in participatory learning. Education, especially in the early grades, is not about knowledge - facts and figures, dates and names. It is about skills. Students learn the three R's mostly through exercising, practicing particular skills. You don't tell someone how to read. You introduce them to the process and allow them to practice it in ways that build strength in it.

Teachers should be expert guides, not bosses or masters. The rigidity of the relationship and the formality of the two roles, student and teacher, will vary from subject area to subject area and from grade to grade. The idea that we can make generalizations about kindergarten classroom relationships that will still hold true in the tenth grade is probably a naive desire to oversimplify theory and philosophy.

If I must generalize about teaching situations in a subjunctive mode, I'd prefer a student-centered classroom where the teacher aids in the discovery process (not in construction of "reality," since reality is already here and is pretty real without the help of my students) and where the teacher acts as a coach in the development of skills. I'd prefer a classroom where the students felt as few restrictions as possible within the requirements of the learning process. And I'd prefer a classroom where learning, not teaching, was the central focus.

The higher the student-teacher ratio, the less like this a classroom becomes. And in my mind the single biggest factor in the quality of education and the success of the educational process is the most expensive factor - personnel. We can tinker with curriculum. We can alter pedagogy. We can think of new ways to measure success (and accountability). We can require that the one teacher we have (in a room where two are needed) be better trained. But the solution that is most likely to work is the solution that no one wants to pay for: more teachers per school.

A Philosophy of Education III (What and How Should We Teach?)

Three basic educational approaches competed in the second half of the 20th century to shape our views on WHAT we should teach and HOW we should teach it...

Those approaches were:

• Perennialism - a teacher-centered philosophy that focuses on "great books" with the hope of impart the culture's enduring themes to students through literature. The goal is to develop the ability for rational thought in students.
  

• Essentialism - a teacher-centered, back-to-basics approach to education that stresses the three R's and emphasizes the remembering of facts.
  

• Progressivism - a student-centered philosophy that attempts to interact with the real-world concerns and experiences of students. Classrooms are more democratic and learning is more participatory and experimental than in either Essentialism or Perennialism.

Most teachers tend to be eclectic - they draw from more than one of these approaches. And I fall into that same category; I'm an eclectic, I suppose.

Adjectives serve as better answers than do nouns in describing what the curriculum of education should be like. The content of the curriculum should be flexible, responsive to the changes of society. The content of the curriculum should be sympathetic to the values and limitations of the students and their families. My own experience leads me to believe that every life is richer if the individual has read Kafka and Steinbeck, Aeschylus and Blake, Camus and Hemmingway. But I view the Great Books approach to education today as more of a misguided effort to preserve a cultural timeframe than anything else - to halt (or at least slow) cultural change.

I believe that reading (and literacy) is essential; it is the medium of later instruction. To the extent that an emphasis on basic skills has become exclusive, to the extent that a concern with math and language skills has crowded out music and the arts, the emphasis on basic skills and standards based curriculums has become a destructive force. But kids who show up at school should learn to read. As much as I hate to agree with George W. Bush about anything, they should learn to read early. They should learn to do math and be exposed to all its various and joyful forms. They should be introduced to the various formal genres of language - to poetry and letter writing, the short story and the novel. When Piaget allows, they should be introduced to epistemology and taught to ask "but how do I know that." Of course, they should be given an understanding in social studies classes of how our society works (civics) and why (history). And there is science. But none of these core classes should be allowed to displace completely the arts. And an understanding of the importance of the role of creativity in fields like math and grammar needs to be maintained...

Abbey's Birthday

When Abbey was young she was inquisitive. We lived in Canberra, Australia, for almost four years; and because my epilepsy prevented me from getting a driver's license back then, we went many places on a bicycle together. I peddled while she sat in the kiddy seat and asked questions. Question after question after question...

Daddy, why is the sky blue?

I know there's some answer to that - something about how molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. That's a lot to say when you're peddling up hill with a forty pound passenger on your bike.

It's just that way, sweetie.

Well, why doesn't it rain more here?

Because most of Australia is desert and the air here is pretty dry...

I worked to suck more air in so that I could talk while I peddled.

Well then why doesn't it rain less?

I'm sure there had to be some good reason for that, too.

Well, uh...

Does powdered milk come from powdered cows?

I was still working on "rain less" in my head.

Not quite, I said. We’d had a lot of powdered milk when we'd lived in the Pacific and the girls used to wrinkle their noses up and ask if it was "real" milk. I'd tell them it certainly wasn't imaginary...

Is all grass the same color green?

I knew the answer to this one and I liked "yes" or "no" questions when I was the one peddling.

No, I said. Grass comes in lots of different shades of green.

She was quiet for a moment, like she was considering the implications of that botanical fact. I waited for a follow up question. At the age of four Abbey was a pretty sharp child, probably because she was so inquisitive...

Why can't I go to school yet?

Hmmm. No follow up.

Hannah goes to school. Why can't I go to school?

Your sister is older than you, I said. You get to go to school with her next year.

We arrived at our destination. The Youth With A Mission facility in Canberra, where I worked, had a large courtyard; there were other kids Abbey's age whose parents were there for short term training of some kind or other. I unbuckled her from the bicycle seat and she ran off with one of them to play...

---

It seems like such a long time ago. Abbey's not a little girl anymore. She still asks simple-but-hard questions and often doesn't like the answers she gets.

On May 20th this week Abbey turns 20. If you read this, Abbey, happy birthday. Cheryl and I love you...

Happy Birthday to Hannah

Happy birthday to Hannah. She's 22 today.

Hannah lives in the Asheville, NC area. I see her occasionally (not often enough) and talk to her on the phone every couple of weeks. I remember her fine, blond hair as a child (it's gotten slowly darker). She had a quiet disposition and developed a love for books at an early age.

Hannah was born in Saipan when I worked out there - a Pacific Islander with blond hair. She loved the ocean. I think she still does.

One day I expect Hannah to be a successful art person - perhaps a painter, perhaps a photographer. She painted the mascot in the front stairway for War Elementary School' annex building. I worked at the school at the time. The life sized Indian chief will be abandoned I suppose next year when that school is closed...

Hannah also painted a rooster for her step-mother, Cheryl. Cheryl loves roosters. We have it hanging in our kitchen.

If you read this, Hannah, happy birthday.