Reading about Philosophy of Teaching- Please Read Illiach.

Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

• Illich, I. (1970, July 2). Why we must abolish schooling. The New York Review of Books, 15(1), 9–15.

This was one of the more interesting articles I've ever read with regards to education. This review might be a little lengthier than the other ones because I found this article so fascinating. One of the first issues in our education system is that we've created a reliance on this system to support all members of our society. According to the author, our educational system is failing those that it is supposed to be helping the most and those that are most vulnerable. By simply adding more funds, in order to fix the educational system issues, is not working. One of the suggestions was actually getting rid of certain welfare programs because they open up space where a new class of support is needed and more people can rely on the system instead of relying on themselves. In the U.S., they tried to lower the gap between the poorer inner cities kids and their wealthy counterparts. What they found out was that the money that was supposed to be used for the poor children was actually used to the disadvantaged middle-class children. One of the things I find most disturbing was that even though the wealthy already have a lot of advantages, when it comes to education, especially the higher education, they have even more advantages. Private universities relied on donations and these donations supported the private universities. If one thinks about this, the only people who could support a private university in a substantial way would be those already from an advantaged class of individuals. In the writing of this article, it was estimated that it would take the U.S. 107 billion dollars per year to provide “equal treatment” to the students in high school. This is more than double the U.S. currently spends. Obligatory schooling increases a country's gross national product. One of the suggestions is to write laws to get rid of the monopolization of schools as well as laws that discriminate against people who do not have a certain level of education. Another one of the solutions was to provide an individual with tuition grants and these individuals can choose where to spend the tuition credits. Instead of forcing a certain type of curriculum for a student to learn, there would be options for the student (and family) to choose where the student will study. An example would be instead of a regular elementary school parents could send their kids to a career training school.

The four definitions (innovation, teaching, creativity and learning) after reading this article were up in the air as I came to the realization that the education system is fixed. This realization comes from the fact that everyone must learn from a curriculum that is decided by those powerful enough to influence policy. Once people make it to the higher level of education, the top performers are selected for the best positions. The worst performers rely on the government for support. Everyone in the middle is involved in the rat race. What the author is proposing is that we changed the way we do business because it was not financially feasible to ensure students are supported equally.

With regards to teaching, we currently teach that substance is more important than process. I have shift my view on teaching. My focus will be less on grades and more on development. I have always felt the pressure for obtaining marks and I believe I was more focused on grades than on development, which goes against my beliefs. I have always told my students that just because you obtained a good grade does not mean you're receiving an education.

Questions I would have for the author:

With so many powerful people that have influence over the education system, how do we go about making a systematic change?

Do you believe, if we were to remove the support given to those at risk, they would be able to live a reasonable life?

How do we “de-school” our society?

• Noddings, N. (2010). Moral education in an age of globalization. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 42(4), 390–396. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00487.x

The focus of this paper was on Care Theory and Care Ethics. Back in the day, communities were not as diverse as they are today. Communities could protect their children from bad influences from within the community. One of the major elements of care theory is that “human beings are born from and into relations”. The carer in this relationship puts aside their own beliefs and values in order to understand the needs of someone that needs to be cared for. There will be times where there's a clash between moral beliefs and a cared relationship may have to end or it can take a new form. A caring relationship needs at least two parties. The relationship looks like this; the carer supports the cared for and there is a payment in the relationship. The payment being that the carer needs the response from the cared for in order to continue to keep motivated and avoid burning out. All this care needs to be done at an individual and personal level as institutions cannot provide the same level of care. Institutions can create a climate for caring but they cannot do the caring for themselves. Caring is often viewed at the individual level where justice is used for a larger scale. One of the examples from the text is when a country does something another country does not agree with; the country that took offense, or the offended, tries to isolate the offender. Isolation happens when a country withdraws their citizens from the nation and applies sanctions. An alternative to this approach would be to invite more people from the two nations to intermingle. This would open up a space where both countries invite more citizens from the opposite nation to work and exchange cultural information. From an educational perspective, I need to train students to be caring about people who suffer at a distance and care for people they meet.

An example of this in the educational world is bullying. Often teachers discipline the bully and empathise with the victim. In a caring relationship, a teacher should show care for both the bully and the victim because both parties need help. Students must be given opportunities to watch and to complete caring acts, as demonstrated by example by their teachers. With regards to teaching and learning, I do not think my views have changed. I believe that teachers should truly care for their students because that is how positive rapport is developed. If people feel safe and supported, the level of innovation and creativity also increase naturally.

Questions I would have for the author:

How do we foster a care for and care about attitude when a lot of the educational system is focused on individual accomplishments (competition based)?

When our national leaders are so quick to ostracize other nations, how can you develop a caring mentality when everyone appears to be in search of justice?

As educators, how do we prepare students to be bold and caring and yet strong enough to not be taken advantage of?