How have idealism and realism persisted in contemporary practices in Filipino

education?(Critical Essay)

There are two dominant educational philosophies that are still prevalent and
pervasive in the Philippine academe: idealism and realism . Though, the two schools
of thought are binary opposites or contradictory in nature but their influence and
practices persist in the contemporary Filipino experience.

In this paper, I will argue that these two dominant educational philosophies are
alive and well in the Philippine academia. Their presence in our educational system
has also spawned factions that espouse the “ life of the mind/ideas(idealism) ” and
the “ life of action/actual realities”(realism)-- fancy labels and terms that may sound
pretentious if not too academic.

Idealism as an educational philosophy is strongly felt in the Humanities

tradition of the university. The liberal arts courses in college includes all areas of the
Humanities such as : philosophy, the languages and communication arts, the fine arts,
history and literature. These same disciplines are also offered in the Senior high
school and in all liberal arts colleges and universities across the country . As an
educational philosophy, the idealist orientation springs from Plato’s belief that
human beings could be improved and fashioned from within, by correcting their
thoughts and discovering knowledge already there since birth. It underscores the
primacy of reasoning and how a person can bring knowledge up from inside of
himself. In this view, the world exists solely in the minds of people and that ultimate
truth relies on a consistency of ideas. The more perfect our ideas become, therefore,
the better we can serve the world. Likewise, a Filipino idealist, for instance,
functions as a facilitator, guiding students toward the truth. Students will be able to
seek truth independently, thinking freely with the careful guidance of the teacher. In
this tradition, the teacher- facilitator or the professor will not act as an absolute
authority but as a gentle guide for his/her students. Practitioners of this school of
thought believe that because the physical world is always changing, ideas are the
only reliable form of reality. Their focus is the use of conscious reasoning in the
mind. An idealist education aims to discover and develop each individual's abilities
and full moral excellence in order to better serve society. Its curriculum like those
in a liberal arts college puts emphasis on the subject matter of mind: literature,
history, philosophy, and religion as examples. Among its obvious manifestations in
the Philippine classroom is the predominance of the lecture, discussion, and Socratic
methods of teaching whose aim is to help students discover and clarify knowledge.
Furthermore, the idealist tradition put heavy emphasis on analysis and discussion of
ideas with students so that the latter can move to new levels of awareness so that they
can ultimately be transformed. The role of the teacher in this perspective is to bring
out what is already in the student’s mind. The Socratic and the lecture methods are
two popular teaching methods from the idealist tradition which are often employed in
Philippine schools starting from the basic education to the tertiary level.

On the other hand, realism as an educational philosophy is equally practiced

and performed by teachers and institutions of high learning in the Philippines. The
growing educational literature on the same has labeled it as : “progressive, student-
centered, inquiry-based, scientific, and practical” Such descriptions were spawned by
their practitioners’ belief that learners are the generators or producers of knowledge
and not mere passive receivers of the same. This educational philosophy subscribes to
the idea that the only reality is the material world hence, its focus is on the study of
the outer world as the only accurate and objective way to find truth. For the realist,
the world is an objective phenomenon that our minds must adhere to. Practitioners
of the same believe that knowledge is achieved through proper study of the world.
In realism, a person is liken to an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, which
can only come from outside of the self, through observation. This same philosophy
was the progenitor of the scientific method, a system of inquiry relying on objective
facts. Furthermore, realism looks into what a situation is in reality. It looks into the
actual view of a situation. More importantly. realism deals with the fact that reality
has an absolute existence independent from our thoughts, ideas and even
consciousness. To put it simply,the realist tradition in Philippine education is strongly
felt and practiced in the Biological and Physical Sciences, Mathematics and the Social
Sciences. For a Filipino teacher who subscribes to this perspective the goal of
education is to help individuals understand and apply the principles of science to help
solve the problems plaguing the modern world. Teachers should be steeped in the
basic academic disciplines devoid of being emotional and subjective which are two
qualities not found in the idealist orientation. In the field of basic education, the realist
tradition is seen by the teachers’ skill in creating learning experiences that allow their
students to observe, explore and experiment with the natural world. Meaning is drawn
not from the internal world of the learners but knowledge is generated and explicated
from their external environment through observation and experimentation. This
orientation allows the learner’s maximum freedom to discover knowledge and
meaning from their external world by themselves. Today, more than ever, Filipino
teachers have dramatically adapted and changed their teaching and learning
paradigms because of the current studies that debunked the old ways of doing things.
The realist orientation of teaching in the country has finally come of age.