Kessler’s Philosophy of Education :: Educational Educating Teaching Essays

Kessler’s Philosophy of Education The dictionary defines the word philosophy as the general principles or laws of a field of knowledge, activity, etc. I, myself define philosophy as my beliefs, values, and opinion on a subject. Specifically in this paper, the subject I will be speaking about is my philosophy of education. What is my philosophy of education you might be asking? I will answer this question as well as talk about many other aspects of education. These aspects include the nature of students, the nature of knowledge, the purpose of public education, method, and curriculum. The first aspect of education I am going to talk about is the nature of students. I agree with Rousseau that people are born innocent, neither good nor evil. I also agree with Rousseau in that a person’s environment determines whether they are good or evil. For example, if you grow up in a stable home with a family with good moral values and beliefs, then you are most likely to have those same morals and beliefs and be a good person. However, if you grow up in a family with no morals and no standards and grow up in a home of crime, then you are more likely to follow in your family’s footsteps and be an evil person. I also believe that not all people are born with the same intelligence. Everyone is different; no two people have the same intelligence. Different people can grasp certain things easier than others can. Some people are just born good at doing something while others have to work a little harder to achieve a certain goal. The nature of knowledge is either relative or absolute. I feel that the nature of knowledge is relative. I believe, as Rousseau does in that each person needs to construct his or her own knowledge rather than memorizing something. I think it is important to learn from experience, not just learn from memorizing a map, or memorizing science or geography. People need to create their own knowledge and they can do this by learning from experience. I myself always found it easier to learn from my own experiences rather than to sit and try to memorize something and then apply it.