Philosophy of Education

Madison Starr

The philosophical view progressivism is a great view to base a classroom off of. The view

progressivism follows the ideas that teaching should be almost entirely student centered and

based on real world experiences. When lessons are based on real world experiences, students

have a better purpose for their learning. They dont question why they are learning certain

topics because they have a real-world reason right in front of them. Classrooms should be set

up in a circle or in groups of desks, with a curriculum mostly decided by the students, based on

their strengths and weaknesses, not a set curriculum that limits them. This allows students to

take control of their learning and not get bored learning topics that they have already

mastered. This allows them to continue to grow as a student and a learner. Organizing desks in

a circle or in groups allows collaboration which I believe is crucial to learning. This way students

can bounce ideas off of each other and learn from each other. Progressivism does not agree

with leveling. Progressivism states that students should learn from each other, so putting a high

student with a lower student can be used to teach the low student and strengthen the high

student because they are teaching what they know.

Flexibility in a classroom is important. A flexible classroom has a flexible schedule and

can change at any time to meet the students needs. If a topic was not fully understood one day

during a lesson, this classroom has the flexibility to move things around the next day so we can

revisit that topic. The class does not move on to new topics until the previous topic is mastered

and the students are comfortable in that topic.

 As explained in Educating for Humanity, Much of school curriculum requires children to

meet the demands of tasks that do not build on their understanding; the emphasis on right

answers begins early to separate children from themselves (Seymour 208). Classrooms should

not be focused on right or wrong answers, rather on learning from mistakes. If a mistake is

made, that is great. This is when the brain grows the most because those mistakes have been

fixed and in the process the correct answer has been learned. Classrooms should not be

focused on getting As and getting high scores on standardized test. Rather, focus on growing

academically and personally.

One last value a classroom should focus on is kindness and community. Classroom need

to be a community and respect each other and their beliefs. Classrooms should be managed by

each student being in charge of themselves and taking care of their community. This includes

students being respectful to themselves as well as to their peers and teachers. There should be

a no tolerance policy for being disrespectful to themselves, their peers, or their environment. If

this occurs, there must be consequences. Everyone in a classroom should feel safe and be in an

environment that encourages learning.