Elementary School Teacher

As a future elementary school teacher, I would like to teach my students how to respect and understand people who come from different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, and people with special needs. Children need to be made aware of differences in people that way they can become more tolerant and understanding. Over the past semester we have learned about a lot of different philosophers that all have different ideas relating to teaching children and people in general. Matthew Lipman is the founder of Philosophy for Children, a program many teachers have implemented into their classrooms that teaches children critical thinking and reasoning skills.

Critical thinking and reasoning skills are important tools that children must learn. “It involves using knowledge to bring about reasonable change” (Lipman, p427). Children need to learn how to understand the information that they are learning on a deeper level than just memorizing facts to pass an exam. They must know how to apply the knowledge that they have been taught. This can be difficult when teachers are being told to teach to the test with the new Common Core standards. Teaching to the test only allows students to understand the information being taught on a basic level, enough to pass a test. When using Matthew Lipman’s idea, students will be able to understand the material on a much deeper level. Critical thinking can be used to teach children of all different educational levels. Children of all levels can learn to point out errors in their own thinking as well as their peer’s thinking.

Matthew Lipman’s ideas can be seen in the video, “Philosophy for Children”. The video shows Lipman’s ideas on philosophy in action in classrooms that have children of all ages. One of th...

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...ent people. Teachers also need to be supported in a classroom with special needs children. Some teachers do not know the proper methods of educating these children and therefore do not feel comfortable. When the teacher feels comfortable and knows the proper strategies for teaching all students, the students will then be more comfortable in their classroom. While other teachers do not feel that there is any different in teaching students with or without special needs. In order to be successful and get through to all their students, teachers need to teach their lessons for all types of learners.

Works Cited

Lipman, Matthew. "Education for Critical Thinking." Philosophy of Education. N.p.: Blackwell, 2007. 427-34. Print.

Sproketcampeon. “Philosophy for Children, by Matthew Lipman.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 17 Nov. 2013.