Progressivism from an Essentialist Core When I first started thinking about the idea of possibly choosing the career

path of a teacher, I had some general notions about what my teaching style might be like based on some memorable educators from my past but I didnt really know where my educational philosophy would fall. Upon learning about various teacher- and student-oriented philosophies of teaching, I still found myself somewhere up in the air about what side of the metaphorical coin would fit best for my ideology. Considering everything, I couldnt really place myself solely into one of the categories of essentialism, perennialism, progressivism, social-reconstructionism, or existentialism. On the contrary, I more or less came to the conclusion that I favor a blend of two drastically different philosophies, taking certain ideas from the teacher-focused school of essentialism and other aspects from the student-driven theories of progressivism. This may seem a little odd, or even contradictory, but I feel like a combination of these two styles could work effectively if implemented correctly. Initially, I sided more with the student-centered philosophy of progressivism because I like the idea of preparing students for a changing, modern world while taking special care to give them the specified attention and encouragement to make progress with their individual needs as they develop. That being stated, I also wholeheartedly maintain that the young minds within our educational system should have some sort of core knowledge and intellectual training in common with all students. There is most certainly value in the transferring of knowledge from one generation to the next and, on some level, I feel that an educator should serve as a moral and social example to his or her students in addition to being the primary source of academic knowledge, but I believe that this should

just be the beginning rather than the entire focus. My philosophy includes the stressing of traditional academics, but simply as a stripped-down core curriculum to give developing minds the basic understanding to grow and the intellectual tools to succeed in their own educational journey, and simultaneously layers on the importance of learning as an individual beyond the educational core, at ones own pace, through modern real-life applications, and through social interaction. The students are the most important part of any educational system. They are the purpose of the system, their growth is the goal, and they should be the primary focus of any teachers or institutions philosophy. My hybrid philosophy envisions students who share a core curriculum and who are enriched with the knowledge of traditional academia as a starting point. From this fundamental knowledge, educational growth builds up in a much more personal and intimate fashion with emphasis on electives chosen by the students, expansive curricular and extracurricular options, as well as connecting to the real-world via pragmatism to prepare students for the changing future landscape of our world. The goal of this teaching style is to ensure that every student has an understanding of the tried and true basics of mathematics, the sciences, reading comprehension, and effective writing, but then to go beyond that by creating an expanded learning experience with the students individual goals and personal curiosities at the center in order to foster within them a genuine desire to ponder the meaningful issues about living in this world as well as the drive to better society through their intellect and the higher-level reasoning behind answering these important questions. From my essentialist/progressivist vantage point, I see the role of the teacher as a multi-faceted one. In this philosophy, the teacher may serve a variety of different functions

at any grade level depending on his or her students. At younger ages, the teacher will guide students through a curriculum that instills a core academic knowledge but that refrains from stifling students by concurrently including non-traditional information regarding the world around us, the value of real-life experiences, and the importance of the acquisition of all kinds of knowledge. At higher grade levels, the emphasis on traditional academics will be lessened and more time and effort will be put into expanding students minds and encouraging them to start developing their own personal philosophies. Teachers will employ tactics of constructivism, building knowledge by gauging students understanding on an individual basis, carefully planning cues, creating thought-provoking questions, and implementing instructional activities designed to extend the students insight. This is where the students can really get behind the wheel of their own learning experience and are given the opportunity to develop according to their own desires and how they witness things working in the world around them. Overall, the teacher will always serve as a functioning authority figure that students can turn to if they need direction and that will be able to conduct the motions of the classroom if things get out of hand, but he or she will primarily exist as merely a facilitator of the learning processes of the individual students in the class. In addition to this, the teacher will continuously provide positive motivation to the students and will perpetually encourage them to pursue both their educational goals as well as personal passions. With this ideologys tendency towards progressivism in mind, it is important to note the inclusion of community and family into the curriculum. As students begin to flourish beyond the essentialist groundwork of this educational style, the ideas of pragmatism and discovering how book-knowledge coincides with the workings of the real

world will invariably include reference to the community around the school as well as our global society. I feel that exposing the younger generations to these issues are of paramount importance, as they will be the ones left to deal with the whole of society when the older minds in charge of the here-and-now are gone. If students are taught in a manner where their education grows side-by-side along with their personal philosophy, their understanding of the importance of family, cultural diversity, and their perception of the community concerns around them, they will become competent intellects who share a genuine care for their fellow human being and who will be able to thoughtfully usher in a better society for the future when they do inherit the world. After realizing the scope of the philosophy behind my educational ideology, I came to thinking about the issues of instructional strategies, what is included in the base curriculum, and class management, as the way these things are handled can have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of any classroom, regardless of what visions for the future of its students lie at its heart. As far as instructional techniques go, I would implement a pedagogical cycle of teacher-given structure, questioning, student response, and teacher reaction with feedback for putting down the groundwork of traditional academics, but, as this technique is first and foremost a teacher-driven cycle it would shift and take on a more open-ended, democratic discussion feel as more student-directed learning began to take place beyond the initial information given to the students from their textbooks. Additionally, educators following my philosophy will be skilled in using the tactics of constructivism with their students to keep the learning experience relevant and accessible on an individual level as well as in implementing deep, difficult to answer, higher-order questions into their teaching to develop students critical thinking skills and to familiarize

them with complex issues that might have more than one correct answer, similar to those they will face in the various real-world situations awaiting them in their adult lives. That being stated, there will be some standards and testing related to the core classes to gauge student comprehension in comparison to national and state test scores. However, teachers will be aware of the dynamic between the visible and invisible curriculum that their students are experiencing within the school and informal, personal evaluations will be done individually with students on a more regular basis to monitor their educational growth and comprehension of their self-guided electives. Finally, my philosophy adopts the classroom management ideas of overlapping and handling incidents of misbehavior using a principle of least intervention. These will be key to keeping the class in order as any amount of different activities may be going on at any given time; the teacher must master handling several different groups of students with varying needs at the same time while keeping everyone on track and must be able to discipline when necessary without disrupting other students and without drawing negative attention to the person who is misbehaving. A sample set of rules that I would implement into a middle-school level classroom, for example, might include that all students should treat each other as they would like to be treated, that everyone should be using inside voices while inside, that we should all always try our best, that all students are in class on time with assignments ready, and that we raise our hands to speak during discussion. Repetitive breaking of the rules will result in solitary study time after the second occurrence, a one-on-one, after-class discussion about the infraction with the student and teacher if things persist further, and, ultimately, parent contact if things continue to go awry with any sort of regularity beyond this point.

My educational philosophy was a little difficult for me to put my finger on when I first started thinking about it. I more or less found myself leaning toward the side of the student-focused philosophies, progressivism, social-reconstructionism, and existentialism, but some aspects of the teacher-oriented philosophies, essentialism and perennialism, greatly appealed to me and I felt should not be thrown away with entirely in favor of an entirely existential approach. Due to this conflict, I was forced to devise a sort of hybrid teaching ideology that fused elements of both essentialism and progressivism. What I came up with was a philosophy that places importance on a lightweight core curriculum of traditional academics to provide students with a common level of mental training while at the same time provides an environment where any student can flourish beyond this point at his or her own pace, through an education that includes plenty of modern, real-life applications as well as learning via social interaction. Schools should function as a tool to produce competent human beings who are self-aware, socially skilled, culturally active, motivated, and intelligent; I believe that my educational philosophy can achieve this goal if implemented correctly and can fill the future with the type of intellects that can and will change things for the better.