Thoughts on Philosophy in Education

Philosophy of education is something that shouldn't be taken for granted. As educationalists, we should be in the middle between two opposing viewpoints and help our students think critically. We need to start promoting students to think about the whole instead of thinking in segments. There's been a heavy focus lately, on science-based thinking or different thinking styles that can produce quantifiable results. This is creating a space where the education system is producing similarly minded individuals. The issue comes, in the fact that we are suppressing innovation and creativity if we all are trained to think the exact same way. Socrates said, “a life that is not examined continuously is not worth living”. Educators need to promote philosophy. A philosophical debate should be seen as a fencing match, where every attack is followed by a defense. Another thing we need to start promoting in the education system is for educationalist to challenge everything in a constructive way. Students should question why they're learning what they are learning and how they are learning it. Students should not accept the answer “you should learn this because I told you so”.

In more recent years, there's been a less emphasis on the importance of thinking for the sake of thinking. One of the issues is that government and policy writers are determining what's important and are also defining what education is. It's in my opinion, that education should be defined by everyone who participates in the education system, namely the students. Students often aren't given time to think because there is such a focus on producing items that are quantifiable. Thoughts that don't produce a quantifiable product are seen as useless and wasteful. Even myself as an educator, I must challenge what I'm doing and think if I'm doing things effectively or ineffectively. I must contemplate if what I am doing is in the best interest of the state or the best interest of the individual. In my opinion, there needs to be a shift in education. We as educators need to stop focusing on grades as being the sole indicator how successful or unsuccessful our educational programs are. We need to look at the individual as a whole. We also need to stop blaming teachers when the proposed curriculum and marking systems are provided by a level that is far higher than the teachers. A simple one-size-fits-all approach to education is currently not working. This idea will be discussed in more detail in my next post.