“Education introduces us to worlds we might otherwise never encounter, thereby reshaping our vision of the world we think we know.”
-Ken Osborne[1]
The Basis of Education
I believe the basis of education is relation: one’s relation to others, others’ relation to oneself, the individual’s relation to an object, to an original thought, or a communicated concept. Further that these relationships provide the framework for abstract thought and both the actions of relating oneself to a force without oneself, but also the abstraction necessary within to understand the function and cause of the relationship. Making relationships with things in the world (and the things that things in the world produce), and eventually the world as an intangible whole is the fundamental objective of education. I believe that as the individual progresses so too does their understanding of the mechanics of those outside forces, but also their understanding of self, and so after crashing into the world enough times they may learn to steer it.
The Image of the School
I believe the school is an arena with all the observers acting also as participants. It is a social place, yes, but also a place of intense personal experience and isolation. The school as an institution refines our natural impulses towards relating abstractly, but should not dictate the nature of the relationship. In school the learners collide ideas, but never may share a single, uniform, or identical iteration of one, no matter how similar. In this, it is both a social place and a place of intense individuality.
I believe school is a garage to which we bring our vehicle not for maintenance, but for after-market upgrades; we do not pay in cash here though, the currency here is curiosity and inquiry, and our acquisitions let us not only go faster, but farther too. The school is a vehicle in and of itself as well track, interspersed with maintenance technicians and garages.[2] While it communicates a great variety of product information it has only certain brands in stock and services available. It cannot possibly provide all of the means and products it possesses; the technicians do not understand the components of every make and model and but does not have them all. It can however provide you with a map to other services, garages, roads, and tracks at which more variety may be found.
I believe the school is as much a place of observation as it is action. I believe it is a place of triumph and failure, happiness and fear, acceptance and ridicule, judgment and validation. I believe that the school, as an institution of assessment, may only assess performance and competence in the shallowest way, and as such that function must be relied on to only identify challenge, not to measure it. Lack of engagement too does not imply a lack of understanding; it only detects a failure to adapt content in a relatable way. Because intent cannot be measured, success is relative to the objective of the individual at the outset. I believe that the school can offer a place to exercise one’s proficiency, but cannot measure it accurately, as the true measure comes from those the action is in collaboration with, not for who the action is for.
The Nature of the Subject Material
I believe that the subjects of our faculties of abstraction, relating, and the relationships there from are inter-related and irreducibly connected. I believe that for all things there is a history, and likewise varying representative formulae. I believe that for every theoretical maneuver that yields an understanding, relationship, or challenge, there is also a kinetic one. I believe these relationships between subject materials are more than just theoretical and intangible, but necessarily exist tangibly within one another. I believe no one subject material can exist in its entirety without the others; and so the more varied and contrasting the available subject material the more one may benefit. I believe that material cannot be truly engaged with until it is observed. I believe that learners must fuse their variants through discussion and relation to more fully conceptualize the material. I believe that learners must discuss through all mediums, and because of the nature of education as relationships with ideas and individuals, social reflection on those relationships is integral to the purpose of the school.
Methods
I believe that relation to content can only be fostered where it grows naturally; that is to say that honest individual interest is the most effective catalyst for learning. I believe that individual interest can be found in anything because of the universal interdisciplinary nature of all things. I believe that inviting learners to observe parallels helps to cultivate interest, but the parallels they identify themselves guarantees it. I believe in the communication of information in a way that highlights interconnectedness. I believe that the difficulties learners sometimes face in approaching new interests are not calls to push harder, but invitations to explore other routes. I believe that inquiry and curiosity are fulfilling in and of themselves and should be encouraged almost absolutely. I believe that the richer the variety, the deeper understanding becomes. I believe that educators must continuously strive to seek out new content through which to engage, encourage, and introduce new students to an ever changing and new world. I believe that difficulty and challenge are as important as curiosity and allow for self-exploration as much as they do educational exploration.
Social Progress
I believe that the fundamental force within social justice, reform, and subsequently progress is the ability to relate. I believe that all education is recognizable as some form of relating between one’s self and something else. I believe then, that social developments are derivative of education and that all things learned move the world in some way. I believe that the engines of society are the minds, mouths, hands, and feet of learners. I believe the world becomes a better place when it is more relatable, and it becomes relatable as we explore relationships within it. I believe social progress isn’t a movement, but is instead the state of the world’s participants. I believe that the action of educating, of relating, is so called social progress. I believe that this social progress begets new understandings, insights, and inspirations about people and their place amongst one another and the larger world. I believe to maintain that relationship between learners and the ever-growing world, the sphere of education as a practice, and learning as an action, must be constantly supplemented with new understandings and perspective that previous (especially recent) progress has begotten.
Personal Perspective[3]
I believe a reified perspective, as an educator, should be one of empathy; that is to say, personally being able to relate one’s own experience to students, their parents/guardians, and colleagues in addition to curriculum requirements. I believe that this facilitates clear communication, and thus clear objectives, makes an amicable and approachable relationship possible, and thus creates opportunities for co-operation, intersectionality, and maximizes the functionality of the relationship. I believe the growth of the professional and personal aspects of an individual are indivisible. I believe that the co-operative and empathetic approach organically produces continued development and growth as a professional educator, academic, and human being.
Reflective Section
The Basis of Education:
The belief contained in this section is at the crux of my philosophy of education and – small adaptations notwithstanding – has been the base of my theoretical approach to the practice and purpose for some time. Honestly I hope it remains that way (despite how unfortunate a prayer for stagnation may be) because I think it’s a hopeful perspective. I mean that inasmuch that it is an approach that in and of itself strives for adaptation and growth and attempts to avoid assumptions. The last sentence about crashing into the world to learn is something that has always been a particular aspect of my learning process. I’ve always learned most effectively by trial and error, and it’s rare that I pick something up quickly. I have always worked better by unceremoniously banging my head against every wall of the structure before trying to go through the front door.
The Image of School:
I actually found this section to be the most difficult. I remembered school as a place of intense duality, and in many ways still see it that way. In truth though my recent visits to Tupper have made me realize that some of the more subtle nuances of those inner working are lost to me. The gears of the youth social system, which is one part of the essential fabric of “school”, are becoming more invisble to me. I don’t think its something that I can or even should strive to see once more though. I don’t of course mean the knowledge that there is an existent social structure, but more so the actual components and construction of it, that is to say the positions and who holds them ought not be of as imminent importance to me now as such information would have been during my time as a high school student. I do think of school as both a garage and arena though. It is a place where one can gain knowledge of one’s own “machine” and add performance parts to it and learn how it works if they are so inclined. It is alternatively true though that one can to some extent get by knowing very little of their own vehicle and rely on the resident mechanic(s) to simply tell them the problem, identify the part and do the installation for them – which is unfortunate, but a reality. I still too think of school as an arena, the coliseum really: its visceral and alive, ideas or opinions are swung like weapons and hits that connect leave marks; its busy and fast, and louder still; theirs a hierarchy even amongst the observers who sit, observe, judge, and ultimately hold the power to determine the fate of the gladiators.
The Nature of the Subject Material:
This section I think is pretty straight forward but also something that I have observed, stood by, and made decisions based on for some time. It is the content extension of my personal theory. The first and third sections assume the same things about the supposed intersectionality of all information, and by extension, relationships. This is not to say that I believe that nothing should be studied independently and with a refined focus/foci, but I do truly believe that should one need or want to, there are very real relationships that are tangible and observable between almost any two things in our lives no matter how seemingly separate they are.
Methods:
This is to me perhaps the single most challenging thing to deploy in real life. Cultivating interest and legitimate inquiry is fine to say your going to do in theory, but for 100% successful deployment (30/30 students into it and engaged) means being able to somehow present information that is organized and relatable that hits an individual note with every student. Its not impossible, nor is it something too difficult to hope for that 100% effectiveness, it seems to be a craft more than anything else though, and fine craftsmanship is a skill that takes years of practice. I admit though it would be super to wake up one morning with the ability.
Social Progress:
I saw this section as something that results from good instruction, critical inquiry, and engagement. Social Progress is the necessary byproduct I think, of both a critical education, and an education on criticality. The nature of social progress is just that: progress, and so I don’t believe it manifests in any sort of paradigmatic shape, objective or belief, but is the exact opposite. It, like almost everything, is innately tied to almost everything else, and so whether identified directly or not can be examined with recourse to almost any topic. As such I don’t believe social progress ought to be relegated literally or theoretically to a social studies classroom for instance, but should be encouraged and reflected upon by either the student or the teacher (in a perfect world both) on almost every available circumstance. This brings up the challenge of teaching students/learners to identify, define, and critique social progress as an idea, which again in something I believe we ought not be limited to doing in the social studies classroom alone.
Personal Perspective:
This is a section I added into my final draft of the creed after some personal reflections during and after my short practicum. I did so because I realized that while I had prepared and understood the importance and challenge of empathy in the classroom and school from the instructor towards the students, I had given it little time or consideration outside of that narrow interplay. The school, and larger educational sphere and environment has so many moving parts, and so many individuals at the helm of those operations. To ignore the reality of the vast and variable body of experience, interpretation, intent, interaction, and motivation was in hindsight quite inadequate. I had never operated on the assumption that everyone was on exactly the same page, but at the same time I had seen an environment and had unconsciously thought that only two species lived within it. I recognize now (albeit it only narrowly and as someone who is new to a realization may), the unequivocal importance of empathy in regards to colleagues as well. It is inevitable that many will differ and deviate from one’s personal practice or purpose. What is important here I think though, is not simply identifying difference, but engaging with and relating to it, incorporating it and giving it legitimacy by doing so. In doing this I feel that I can expound my creed in the physical and tangible world by challenging myself to continue learning in the same way I intend to challenge my students to.
Works referenced:
Dewey, J. (1897). My Pedagogic Creed (Vol. 54, School Journal).
Osborne, K. (2008). Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education : Why Do We Educate? : Renewing the Conversation (Vol. 107) (D. L. Coulter, J. R. Wiens, & G. D. Fenfstermacher, Eds.). Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
[1] Throughout the drafts this quote has come to mean different things to me, and this may be characterized best through this final draft in the final section (pre-reflection)
[2] Second draft additions are denoted by bolded text, and redactions by strikethrough.
[3] Third draft additions are denoted by Bolded and Italicized print.
