Philosophy of Education 1

Philosophy of Education

Kalley D. Mallot

Metropolitan Community College

My philosophy
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I have an essentialist philosophy of education. An essentialist philosophy is a “back to

basics” approach to education. It is a teacher centered philosophy that states students in school

should be taught traditional core courses. Through an essentialist teacher a student would learn to

develop good character, train their mind and improve their reasoning skills (Sadker, D. M., &

Zittleman, K). The the traditional courses that I believe are important to teach children are

english, math, social studies and science. I believe that every student will benefit from attaining

knowledge from these traditional courses.

Purpose of School

The purpose of school is to teach students a variety skills in traditional core courses.

These traditional core courses offer many benefits for students. They will learn many things that

will help them in the real world. Students ages 7-16 are at the prime time in their life for gaining

knowledge. They are at the point in their life where they are learning information that will help

them in their future. We want to educate these students so they will be successful and well

educated citizens. In the United States we really want out citizens to be well educated because

they are the leaders of tomorrow.

Topics that must be mastered

The topics that I believe should be mastered in school are english, math, science and

social studies. There are many things to be learned and mastered from these subjects. English

helps promote better reading skills, lessons from literature and helps improve students

communication skills. Mathematics offers many benefits as well. There will always be a need for

our students to understand and manipulate numbers in the real world. Science offers a huge

amount of information on many subjects such as how the body works, weather patterns, atoms

and many more subjects. Social studies informs our students of the things that have happened in
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this world. It also teaches them how the government works which is very important because they

will one day run this country. There are many other things that could be learned in each of these

core courses. The main point is that students should be gaining knowledge in traditional core

courses.

How education should be in schools

School should be teacher centered. The teacher is well versed in the subjects they are

teaching so the students should be educated by them. I do not believe in student centered

education. There would be so many opportunities for the students to gain less and less

information that is essential. If the classroom is student centered I feel as if there would be a lack

of respect for the teacher in the classroom. A teacher centered classroom would teacher the

students respect and would teach them routine which is very important especially in younger

students.

Lesson

A lesson that I would do with my students would be a reading assignment that is followed

by a set of questions. Every student would read the same excerpt and would answer the same

questions. This is an essentialist lesson because the teacher chose the reading and the questions

the students would answer. This is a teacher centered lesson. If this was more student centered

the teacher might have the students pick a reading excerpt and answer a few questions. I think

this allows for some students to pick less complex reading assignments to make their job easier. I

think it would be more beneficial for the students to read the same material and same questions.

Classroom Management

For my classroom i plan on having a set of rules that are placed where every student can

see them. I will make it clear that these are the rules and these are the consequences. I think it is
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very important to have rules in a classroom because it instills respect for the teacher. The

students should not be running the classroom. I would like to use the safe seat, buddy room,

recovery room method as well. The school that I went to used this system and I think it works

really well when managing the classroom.

Finding the right school

I think if I were to find the perfect school for myself it would be very organized and

traditional. If I walk through the doors and there are students learning from the teacher in the

classroom and not alot of craziness going on I think it would be the right school for me. What i

mean by “craziness” is unorganization. I would like to work somewhere that takes pride in the

way their halls look. I would like to work somewhere that seems to care about educating their

students based on traditional courses. I would not mind working somewhere that differs from my

educational philosophy, However, in a school that differs from my philosophy, I would like

some say in how I manage and teach my students.

I believe in an essentialist philosophy of education. Therefore, I strongly believe in

teaching our students traditional courses. There are many benefits from these traditional courses.

I think and essentialist philosophy creates students that have gained knowledge in many different

subjects and disciplines. These subjects and disciplines will be used in everyday life. We are

creating the leaders of tomorrow so we should do them a favor and educate them well.

References

Sadker, D. M., & Zittleman, K. (2018). Teachers, Schools and Society: A Brief

Introduction to Education (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education