Introduction To My Personal Philosophy and The Five Known Educational Philosophies

Since I was in middle school, my dream and chosen career path has been to be an educator and ultimately an administrator in our current educational system.  I strive to make changes in our current educational system to better the effectiveness and quality of the curriculum as well as make it applicable to real life for my future students and staff.   I believe that every educator should have a philosophy of education.  Educators should constantly ponder their own philosophy so they can ensure that they shape their classroom and school life of their students in a way that is practical and relevant.  The root for the word philosophy is made up of two Greek words: philo, meaning “love”, and sophos, meaning “wisdom”.  Educators must take a similar stance to those of the ancient philosophers and question themselves and the educational system so that they can determine what and how their students should be taught.  Every educator differs in the way in which they think, act and believe but we can all share one commonality and that is embodying our own teaching philosophy. 

There are five philosophies of education; essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, social reconstructionism and existentialism.  These five schools of thought do not exhaust the list of possible educational philosophies however they do present strong frameworks for one to constantly redefine their own educational philosophy.  The teacher-centered philosophies emphasize the importance of transferring knowledge, information, and skills from the older and presumably wiser generation to the younger generation.  The educator’s role in these philosophies is to instill respect for authority, perseverance, duty, consideration and practicality.  When students demonstrate through tests and writings that they are competent in academic subjects and traditional skills, and through their actions that they have disciplined minds and adhere to traditional morals and behavior, then both the school and the educator have been successful.