Abstract
The successful education of students is the foundation of a productive and informed
society. The need to develop curriculum, stimulating classroom environments and groups that
are beneficial to the students is the goal of an educator, not to make teaching easier for
themselves. Removing barriers to learning, maintaining a stable classroom, and developing
activities that reinforce the lessons students are learning must be a part of the thought process
that goes into planning for any educator. The same way a student is growing, adapting and
learning, a teacher must be able to continually adapt to the needs of their students and
continually be developing their own skills. Education can broaden a students perspective on life,
the opportunities a student has access to and can enrich their understanding of the world they live
in. The educator must commit to the profession they've chosen in a time when the evidence
suggest that students well being is taking a back seat to the needs of the institutions and
educators themselves. It should go without saying that education is not for the benefit of the
educator but for the students themselves, with that in mind educators will be the ones who pay
the long term consequences for their failure to do their jobs properly.
Children develop in many types of home environments, some can be positive, negative,
neglectful, caring, distant and even abusive. The environment the students develop in comes to
the classroom as soon as students start attending school. Beyond environmental factors there are
the natural classifications of the students such as late bloomers, fast learners, auditory, tactile and
visual learners each with own set of problems and solutions an educator must be able to asses.
Educators are tasked with overcoming these variables to give a student the tools, concepts and
materials to muster their ability to learn new things and take in new experiences. Assessing
students, designing lessons, creating a positive environment, adjusting to the students learning
ability and type are the first things an educator must do to properly format the
classroom(Ornstein, 2019). Understanding there is no one true methodology and strategy for the
way an educator should approach teaching in the classroom is not a new idea but in today's
public institutions we see the evidence that teacher are not rising to the occasion. Educators are
tasked with arming themselves with the tools, experience and contextual understanding to
become the best they can at educating the next generations of society.
Philosophy of Schools and Learning
The idea of educating the people in a society is a relatively new concept in the context of
history. The changes brought on during the industrial age required a worker with new skills and
requirements to educate all those people became a necessity to work within those new fields of
industry. There was a need for people to be able to read, write and do math to function in this
new industrial age. Historically education was reserved for the wealthy, those in the ruling class
and the religious scholars in order to control information. This concept of limited knowledge
could no longer be allowed to survive going into the late 19th and 20th centuries because of the
needs of skilled workers to continue to develop the industrial machine of civilizations advance.
Specifically in the western civilization, education was seen as a way to elevate ones civil and
social standing, along with bringing a benefit to the community or job you a person may exist in.
Values were once taught in school to ensure that a sense of morality remained ingrained
in students and most learning institutions were religious based when they began in the early
United States(Buehrer,2019). Over time the educational system was developed for the public but
there were class differences in the quality of the institutions based on race as well as class. Over
time the educational system was nationalized to bring a standardized format so that employees
and colleges knew what kind of student or worker they were going to get of the education
system. Currently the education system has become an institution of social engineering rather
than a place of critical thinking and students are taught how to pass test not how to figure or
reason out the answers to a question put before them. Secular values are replacing critical
thinking and teaching a what to think rather than how to think has become the norm in most
public schools and colleges. My goal as an educator would be to give my students the tools to
critically think and the information to make informed choices in all aspects of their educational
journey and become individuals who can become independent thinkers.
Instructional Practice
The primary focus in my class would to group learners in complementary groups so they
could be exposed to multiple types of learners and people they will experience going forward in
school or in life. The next part would be to design a classroom environment that stimulates all
learning types rather they are visual learners, audio learners, or they type of personalities they
may have. Assessing the interactions and the success or failure of a lesson plan or methodology
will be used to continually evolve the curriculum based on the feedback received from the
assessments. The groups assigned on the first day of class should never be the same as the last
day or there truly has been no reflections on how the student are advancing or struggling within
the social learning groups. Constant revision may be necessary and if you never have to move
any one then you may not be properly assessing the students.
Teacher Learner Relationships
Teachers are more than simply an educator, in some cases they may be a replacement for
a parent, they may be a mentor and at the minimal they are the guardians of the minds of their
students. Teachers need to be positive and supportive because some of their students may have
been brought up in environments deprived of stability, love, encouragement and many other
aspects of a positive home environment we have had in our own lives. There will be situations
with learners who have behavioral or social difficulties and the educator needs to be able to
recognize the needs of their students to get whatever help may be needed. The student is
responsible for their own success and when they have problems with a task or concept it is their
responsibility to ask for help. The students participation and feedback are necessary for them to
be properly helped and the teach must create an environment where this is encouraged. If the
teacher or student is disinterested in the jobs they are doing then there should be no expectation
of a successful interaction. Setting expectation on the educators and student are part of the
process by which the institution strengthens its value to the community as well as the student that
sit in the classrooms.
Diversity
Diversity can be a benefit in a class or detriment to any classroom, group or even society
if there is not balance based on the needs of the environment. Ideally diversity should bring
positive attributes to the classroom by expanding a students understanding of the society and
community in which they live. There are differences in culture, linguistics, social groupings,
intellect, race and a myriad of other aspects that can contribute to or put barriers in front of the
educator in the classroom but I believe it should not come at the detriment of students. I feel that
diversity for diversity sake can become an impediment if there are barriers that are too hard to
overcome or if students have to be restricted to the slowest in their classes. There are times when
students with learning disabilities can cause a classrooms pace to be disrupted or overtaxes the
educator in finding a balance in methodology. This is when we must take a serious look at the
cost of inclusion or not properly grouping students in classes that can be more tailored to their
needs. Language can be a barrier but there are cases where teachers have to pace themselves to
these learners, rather those learners be put in classes that address their needs specifically, but this
would be considered insensitive to those who have the issue without concern for the rest of the
class. As long as there is value to all students in the diverse nature of their class, diversity has
value, but to make an entire class slow progression for a couple students is not a logical solution.
Secularism, Government and the Classroom
We live in a secular society that actively undermines parental rights, religious institutions,
traditional western values and the culture in which we live. Educators should not push one belief
system over the other without contextualizing it's place in modern society, so that students
understands that not subjective topic discussed in class have a right or wrong answer. No atheist
can prove there is no God and Christians and Muslims shouldn't attempt to proselytize to the
students in their classes. We need to teach children how to critically think, not what to think, or
what to believe. This is a fundamental concept I feel is being lost on all sides. Parents are
responsible for educating their children on religion, not the school, and the academic community
should be objective in the presentation of information to their institutions.
Conclusion
Education is vital to society, as well as the individual, and we have a responsibility to the
future to give our students the best tools for success(Carneiro, Looney, & Vincent‐Lancrin,2015).
Without understanding that simple idea educators will fail in their obligation to students and
society. Being an educator means never taking the easy way out when it comes to the education
of our children and young adults. Be prepared to adjust and evolve based on the class makeup
and when an educator encounters a problem they need to equipment themselves with the
information to correct it. There are many incidents where students are leaving K-12 and are not
successful in college because they are missing fundamental skills to learning. We spend more per
student than almost any other country in the world but continue to fall behind because it honestly
feels like the public education system isn't interested in teaching children but rather molding
them into group-think robots. Classrooms are being used for social experiments and students are
being deprived their rightful educations for the sake of secular values.
Without a return to the fundamentals of education and the morals of traditional western
society the school is becoming an overpriced daycare more concerned with teaching children
what to think rather a place of learning( Marshall, Caldwell, Foster, 2011). We must continue to
raise the bar of education and correct the institutional dereliction of duty related to education.
Reference:
Buehrer, E. Faith, freedom, and public schools online module (Current ed.). Lake Forest, CA:
Gateways to Better Education. SKU: 1543774.
Carneiro, R., Looney, J., & Vincent‐Lancrin, S. (2015). Learning from the Past, Looking to the
: issues and agendas in education. European Journal of Education., 50(4), 524–535.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12158
Marshall Jon C., Caldwell Sarah D. & Foster Jeanne (2011) Moral education the C
HARACTERplus Way®, Journal of Moral Education, 40:1, 51-72, DOI:
Ornstein, A. C., et al. Foundations of Education (13th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Inc.,
2017. ISBN: 9781305639584.
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