Education And Idealism In The Philosophy Of Education

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The most important job of an educator is to stimulate a child’s interest in learning. Often teachers are too harsh on a child which makes them close off their mind to the learning process. Too often a child becomes negative about their learning and if teachers can turn negatives into at least one positive then they can open the door for increased learning. Half of the battle of teaching is keeping the child open to learning so they can teach children who want to learn. Idealism in the philosophy of education reveals, “Teachers model an inquiring mind and an admirable character; promote development of student minds, character, values, and personal responsibility.” (Layman, White, 2003, pg. 25) An educator must have an open classroom where the child can be free to express their points of view without being criticized for possibly being wrong. ”In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society.” (Cohen, OSU, School of Education)
There is an old saying that my dad use to say, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink”. I know it was something his father said to him and he passed it on to his children. At the time I did not understand the meaning of it but now I do. A teacher can teach all day to no avail if the student is not will to learn. If the student has a willing mind then the teacher’s job is half way done. If you want to see this theory in practice, just watch children playing together. They are willing to learn new games when they are enjoying their company, but when a bossy bully comes into the mix, the learning and fun is over.

Worldview
I have heard the saying “He who has the most ...

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...the students present to them versus why the student is the person they are. If we can understand more about a student’s home life, social life, and learning abilities, a teacher we can then target the student with things that interest them when presenting a lesson. After learning what we can about our students, we will then have to use that information to create a learning environment conducive to learning. When making decisions on how to instruct, teachers will have to take all information learned about the students in consideration. After these two steps, a teacher will then need to make sure to create a classroom environment that promotes a safe learning environment. This type of environment will also lead the students to positive behavior - not misbehavior, and will also encourage the student to want to learn and be a productive student.

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