Some people may think that teaching a classroom full of students is done in one style and one style only. When actually there are different philosophies of teaching. Four main philosophies are Perenialism, Essentialism, Romanticism, and Progressivism. These are all different style in which a school is ran and how the teachers teach with in that school.Progressivism is the most resent way of teaching today. The author Ryan Cooper states in the book Those Who Can, Teach that “Progressive educators believe that the place to being an education is with the student rather than with the subject matter. (Cooper pg 309) Basically not just cram the information of all the subjects in the student’s heads, and take in consideration who the student is as a person.
In the article Progressive Education Why It’s Hard to Beat, But Also Hard to Find
By Alfie Kohn found at the web address
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/progressive.htm he explains how a progressive educator attends to the whole child “Progressive educators are concerned with helping children become not only good learners but also good people.” (Kohn) That the educational system shouldn’t just focus on just academic but the growth of the child as a person too. Another way progressive educators teach is “Children learn with and from one another in a caring community, and that’s true of moral as well as academic learning.” They are saying that a student can’t just learn from himself or herself and from the teacher but by working with other students as well, and not only learning form them academically but also morally.
There is a lot more to be a teacher then teaching students the basic subject that need to be taught such as Math, English, Science and Social Studies. Teachers also play a big role in developing a student’s ethics. According to the author Ryan Cooper in the book Those Who Can, Teach “Teachers ethically influence students in three ways: by personal example, by the classroom climate they create and by the dialogue they establish.” (Cooper pg 245) An example of the first influence would be, how a teacher teats their students, by showing the students that they themselves are treating all the students with respect, teaches the student that everyone deserves to be treated with respect. An example of the second influence is creating a safe and trustworthy environment, where the student feel comfortable and not afraid, this will teach the student to be more cooperative because they feel safe with their surroundings. An example of the third influence is talking about the main core ethical values such as being responsible, kind to others and honesty are not only in the study of the main subjects such as History and English but in their everyday life. With that knowledge teachers have a huge amount of responsibility for the student’s learning process in all aspects of their life.
In the article, Ethics in the Classroom: What You Need To Know by Anna Weinstein found at the web address http://www.education.com/magazine/article/cheating-ethics/ it is discussed how ethics should be taught in schools ““But ethics must be taught and are being taught in school. It’s impossible not to teach ethics in a school.” (Dr. Bruce Weinstein) With out a human being having an ethics at all would simply not make them a human being or someone that will succeed in this world. Most criminals would be considered non-ethical, or druggies or drug dealers, but even then they possess some kind of ethics. Five basic principals that are found around the world according to Dr. Bruce Weinstein are Do no harm, Make things better, Respect others, Be fair and Be loving. (Dr. Bruce Weinstein) In different parts of the world these principles make not be worded exactly the same but have the same meaning. Having ethics being taught not only at home but in schools make for a better and safe environment for learning. And like anything that is taught, ethics have to be talked about over and over again and then practiced for the result to be successful. The successful result would be the students not only applying ethics to their household and school environment but to carry the ethics with them through out their whole entire life.
