Philosophy of Education

My philosophy of education focuses on postmodern ideals of existentialism popularized by Jean-Paul Satre. These ideas can be summed up as philosophies of progressivism, critical theory, and most important of all humanism. These ideals appeal to me due to them being more modern interpretations of ancient teaching techniques focusing on the self, personal interpretation, and creating meaning in a nietzschean way.

 

A fundamental truth in my life has been that meaning is created and without that creation of meaning, life is pointless. A person is born lost in the neverending stream of consciousness that is life, drowning. In order for one to stay afloat one must create meaning to stand on. Much in the same way a student must find meaning in the content, or that student will be lost. For instance, Catcher In The Rye. Read on the surface level that most students read it on, it is a book about a kid leaving his boarding school and walking around having random conversations with different people. This book means nothing. However when a student is encouraged to give those conversations meaning, the story becomes a story of great emotional turbulence. A story of a lost kid trying to find meaning in his life, drowning, unable to find a place to stay, just like the birds in Central Park.

 

Of course this is subjective. It relies on the student taking that action to move towards meaning. That decision is grounded in freedom and it is a hard one. Many students aren’t willing to take that leap of faith and get involved in their reading, or to be thinking about their own interpretations of life, the universe, and everything quite like that. My goal as an educator would be to prepare them for that leap and to give them the reassurance they need to feel comfortable taking that leap.

 

This is my philosophy of teaching. Teaching students to find meaning in material, to find beauty in what they ignore or underestimate. To take students who underestimate literature, language, and linguistics and teach them the critical theory it takes to draw meaning from nothing. To give them the knowledge it takes to know and appreciate a masterpiece.