My Current Philosophy Of Education Essay

According to Gerard Slattery “philosophy begins in the self”. I understand that my personal philosophy of education does not come ready made. Paul Conway insisted that, “everything you have experienced up to now, has shaped you on how you think schools and education are managed”, and I believe that although what I have experienced up to now has influenced my opinions, these ideas are not rigid. I find as I continue to learn and experience, my ideas are developing further. For this reason I think that the essay should be titled ‘’My Current Philosophy of Education’’ , and this is what I plan to speak about. Each day I gain a greater insight into why people educate in the way that they do and I am prompted to think of alternative methods and

Instead of using traditional methods, where teachers were mere transmitters of knowledge from prescribed books, I think we must take an approach similar to Carl Rodgers. Rodgers suggested that there was “no point fixing /curing people, you must provide a way to help them grow and develop on their own”. It is clear that if a young person is spoon-fed knowledge, he/she will never be eager to investigate for themselves, or take initiative to learn. This means that outside of being ‘taught’ something directly, they will have no desire to learn and will begin to fall behind in social and educational settings as they get older and gain more freedom. I believe developing these characteristics is detrimental to a young individual’s personal development. For this reason I think that when asked a question a student should not be rushed to provide an answer, instead puzzlement should be encouraged to help the student to begin to think for themselves.

When I look back at my post primary days preparing for exams I always remember receiving mountains of notes for English and being orderd to, ‘’learn these by Friday’’. It is at that moment as a student preparing for exams the sense of feeling overwhelmed kicks in. Learning notes for a poem which I have never read by a poet who I knew nothing about. What an inspiring moment for a young student. I used to leave the classroom feeling slightly depressed as I knew how hard it was going to be learning off two pages of another person’s opinion. The worst part about it was I actually liked