Educational Philosophy: From Essentialism to Existentialism - Personal Statement Example

Educational Philosophy One of the world’s greatest teachers Socrates has said that “there is only one good, knowledge and one evil, ignorance” (Socrates, n.d.). Knowledge helps human being to understand the essence of life. Knowledge can be called useful to human being only when it helps him to become happy, content and completely satisfied. By ‘knowledge’ what Socrates meant was wisdom and truth of life. He was definitely not talking about getting good grades in classroom or becoming a champion in a ‘spelling’ competition. The ‘knowledge’ that does not help human being in achieving happiness is as good as ‘ignorance’. However, sadly, the knowledge and the education that is being imparted in schools today is nothing but ‘ignorance’, because rather than making the students wise and happy, it is making them into robots who are hungry for ‘achievement’, ‘success’ and ‘power’. In today’s fast paced life and in hurry to reach the top, teachers have forgotten the real essence of education. Life is not about ‘power’ or ‘achievement’ but is about finding the unique purpose in life and in being happy and content. In psychologist Abraham Maslow’s words, life is about being a ‘self-actualized’ human being, i.e. achieving the highest potential that one is capable of achieving (Malsow, 1971, p.169). Today’s education system thinks that its job is complete by making students ‘qualified’ and ‘intellectuals’. However, the fact is that although educational qualification does help in achieving professional success, it is not enough to attain the complete potential in life. Hence, in my opinion, the purpose of education should be to mold the children into being wise, mature and intelligent human beings, rather than just making them ‘intellectual’ and ‘qualified’ human beings. From Essentialism To Existentialism The purpose of life has been a matter of interest for experts from different fields like psychology, philosophy, religion and spirituality. Different philosophical theories and ideas came into existence with the aim of making this world a better place to live and to help human beings attain happiness and bliss. However, as human being is not just an individual but is a part of the society, the attainment of satisfaction and happiness has become difficult for him. His actions and his behavior depend on people around him. Before taking any action, he spends a lot of time thinking about what others will say if he does it. Hence, human beings have lost touch with spontaneity and natural behavior. In an attempt to gain social acceptance, they have become robotic and artificial. The question is, can human being protect and enjoy his individualism despite of being a part of a crowd? How should a person be treated, as an individual or as a part of the group? Philosophy has tried to answer this question through different theories. ‘Essentialism’ and ‘existentialism’ are two such theories that look into the depths of human nature to understand how an ‘individual’ can live happily and harmoniously despite of being a part of the society which is made up of people speaking different language, following different culture and believing in different religions. Both the theories are complete in their own way but the one that allows the individual to be ‘himself’ is the theory of ‘existentialism’. ‘Essence’ Is Not Everything Human being always aims at becoming ‘someone’ in order to make his identity in the society. Hence, he tries to find his ‘identity’ through his ethnic background, job, gender, country, education etc. These aspects of his life are defined as essence. ‘Essentialism’ is a a philosophical idea that takes these aspects of human being into consideration when trying to define his nature and his existence. Essentialism can be defined as follows: Essentialism “is a view that categories have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe directly but that gives an object its identity. In other words, according to essentialism, categories (such as “boy”, “girl” or “intelligence”) are real, in several senses: they are discovered (rather than invented), they are natural (rather than artificial), they predict other properties, and they point to natural discontinuities in the world” (Gelman, 2005, p.3). In simple words, what ‘essentialism’ believe is that people usually have a tendency to behave according to the categories of different aspects of life they belong to. For example, people belonging to Hispanic ethnic background behave in a certain way, people having an IQ above average score certain percentile, people belonging to certain gender have certain behavior pattern etc. Looking at these views of essentialism, one can see that even though this view helps in making life easier by understanding the behavior patterns of a person, it also has a danger to limit the performance or the ability of a person by making him a victim of prejudice or discrimination. Essentialism narrows the attitude of a person and limits the possibility. It is the joy of being an ‘individual’ that gives strength and motivation to a human being. The only essence of life that needs to be cherished is the essence of being unique and being individual. If one does not have something unique to contribute to the world and the society, one does not find satisfaction in life. Hence, essentialism, which judges human being on the basis of the ‘category’, is a philosophy that kills the spirit of individualism. Hence, according to me, what one needs is a theory that encourages the ‘individual’ in the human being. ‘Existentialism’ is the theory that fulfills this need. Freedom Of Being An ‘Individual’ Existentialism is the philosophy which believes that absolute truth is not a universal phenomenon but is an achievement of an individual. In other words, it believes that an individual is a centre of the universe and not the other way round (Earnshaw, 2006, p.1). Hence, it succeeds in encouraging the individual to flower according to his ‘being’ rather than making him just another part of the crowd. Existentialism does not believe in forming general ideas about people or in ‘universal’ truths. Existentialism knows that every human being is different and hence, he should do his best to find his own truth, potential, life goal or happiness. For example, if one person gets immense pleasure in painting, then it does not mean that others should also get pleasure in painting. People have their own individual likings, emotions, thoughts and potential and hence, existentialism says that there is nothing ‘universal’. French philosopher Merleau-Ponty has expressed the central theme of ‘existentialism’ very correctly when he declared that “I am the absolute source” (Earnshaw, 2006, p.1). Hence, existentialism is the philosophy that I believe in and intend to follow in life. However, even after knowing that following your own heart brings the greatest happiness in life, why do people follow the society and become miserable? Why is existentialism difficult to practice? The answer lies in the responsibility that existentialism brings with it and also in the way people are trained to think and behave. People are influenced by their environmental conditions. Parents, teachers, friends and family pay a major role in the development of the thinking pattern of a person. When a child is born, he depends on his mother for food, love, security, warmth and safety. Later, as he grows up, he gets to know the family members, their language, their culture, their beliefs and their values. He starts adopting everything that his parents follow without resisting or thinking if it is right or wrong. His life as if becomes a struggle to do as he is expected to do and think as he is expected to think. If he does not behave or think in a certain way, he faces rejection and anger from the family. This makes him a puppet in hands of other people. In this way, rather than developing his own individual self, he starts ‘becoming’ someone who is not his self to get approval and acceptance from others. This makes him to lose his individuality. Hence, bringing existentialism into practice becomes difficult. However, as I am an optimist, I still believe that bringing existentialism into practice is not a difficult thing. What is needed is courage to change the way we think, feel, behave and live. The change is possible only when people are taught to think in different way. What people need is to broaden their outlook towards life. However, family cannot be much of a help because a family usually follows the old and repetitive patterns from ages. Hence, the only thing that can help people to broaden their outlook towards life is education. It is the education that exposes a child to different ideas, subjects, arts, cultures, traditions, countries and religions in world. Hence, school is a place where a child gets an opportunity to develop into an individual that he longs to become and lead a satisfied life. However, sadly, as education system has become boring and mechanical, the children are missing the opportunity of learning how to be an individual. If teachers take little effort and make it their sole aim in life, then the learning experience can be turned into the greatest experience in life and can create individuals rather than creating robots out of the children that go to school. To achieve this aim, what is needed is a genuine approach to teaching. In other words, an approach that is person centered, as described by psychologist Carl Rogers. How To Teach So That The Students Learn To Learn According to Carl Rogers, “the only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn... and change” (Inspirational and motivational.., n.d.). Learning is not an easy thing. The process of learning takes place when person has a desire to learn. Without desire and drive, a person does not learn no matter how hard you try. The lack of desire to learn is one of the main reasons that make the process of education difficult. At the same time, it is important to mention that if a teacher makes the process of learning interesting, then even those children, who have no burning desire to learn, get interested in the topic and concentrate on what is being taught. However, the lack of involvement and genuine desire to change student’s life make teachers to do their job half heartedly. This is where Carl Rogers’s person-centered theory helps a lot. Unconditional Positive Regard Carl Rogers has emphasized that if people who teach do it with genuine interest and hold no preconceived notions or expectations from the students, then the process of learning takes place smoothly and effectively (Rogers, 1995, p.284). What Rogers meant was that the process of learning is possible only when a relationship between the teacher and the students is build on the foundations of unconditional love, support, encouragement and acceptance. According to Rogers, a relationship that is based on the conditions does not generate any positive result or bonding (Rogers, 1995, p.283). However, it is sad to say that these days most of the teacher-student relationships in the schools depend on some condition or other. No matter how modern we think we are, the effect of the prejudiced thinking still influences our minds. Students who score well get the most attention from the teachers. Children coming from families with low income get neglected by teachers. In short, teachers give up easily on students who need help. This kind of behavior from teachers affects the learning process and the performance of a child. It has been observed that children perform according to the teachers expectations (Rosenthal & Rosnow, 2009, p.201). So, if a teacher is not expecting a child to perform well, the child will not get motivated to perform well. In short, the child doesn’t even try to make an effort to improve his performance. He thinks that there is no point in working hard as no one is expecting him to do well. This shows how important it is to show a caring and loving attitude to every child in the school. But for a teacher to show a genuine interest in a student and to make the student believe that the teacher really cares, it is important for a person who teaches to have a personality that is ‘whole’ and ‘congruent’ (Rogers, 1995, p.287). After all, a person who is disintegrated and disturbed cannot teach others to be an individual and learn with a open heart. Hence, it is very necessary for a teacher to know himself first. The best way to become congruent is to remember your own childhood days and try to remember what it was that made you happy about going to school and what it was that you hated about school. This kind of thinking helps the teachers to develop an authentic empathy towards the students. It helps not only in understanding the student’s point of view but also makes one realize that every child is different and hence, have different learning patterns. Hence, adopting a teaching style that facilitates the process of learning is very important. To improve the learning, it is important to implement the theories of learning that helps every child to grow. Implementing The Learning Theory When I look back at my experience of learning, I remember that I use to learn better when I was taught with the aids of visual tools. For example, when I learned or studied a topic with the help of visual aids like demonstrations, charts, drawings etc., I understood the subject matter easily and also was able to recall it easily. At the same time, if I was made to learn things only through lecture or verbal explanation, I found it difficult to understand what was being taught. This was because I had a particular style of learning and that was ‘visual’ learning style. This means that if a student is taught in a learning style which is not his learning style, then he finds it difficult to learn. Hence, it is very important to teach the students according to their learning style. However, it is not an easy task as there are three different styles of learning. The three different learning styles are visual, auditory and kinesthetic. It means that people who learn better through listening are auditory learners, people who learn better through physical involvement and physical actions are kinesthetic learners and people who learn better by ‘seeing’ are visual learners (Hartman & Stewart, 2010, p.37). Hence, while teaching, the teachers need to use all these three styles to make the learning process effective. But the question is, how to do that? Teaching In The Language The Students Understand The best way to learn how to teach in different learning style is to understand the way the media and the entertainment industry works. I have always wondered about the amazing ability of the musicians to make millions and millions of people sway to their music for hours and hours together. Whether it is watching a movie in a theatre or watching a concert in a stadium, people remain glued to their seats as if they are hypnotized. It made me wonder if it possible to adopt some of the secrets of these performers and implement it in a classroom so that the students don’t get bored and remain glued to their seats till the time the teaching goes on. Not just that, but they should look forward to the next class. The answer is ‘yes’, it is possible. The musicians and the movies are able to hold the attention of viewers for a long time because they use all the three learning styles in their acts. There is sound, there is an ‘act’ on the screen or on the stage and people are physically involved as they dance and actually ‘feel’ the act that is being staged. Hence, my effort will be to teach in such a way that different students having different learning styles should be catered to. Math can be taught with visual aids, physics can be taught with the help of a play, science can be taught through demonstrations and literature can be taught with the aid of play etc. Saying that science or math is a dry subject and cannot be taught with the visual or kinesthetic aid is a wrong thing to do. If a person wants to, he can create thousands of different ideas to make teaching interesting and achieve the goal of creating interest in every student attending the class. The only requirement is the genuine effort from the bottom of the heart. Conclusion Rather than criticizing children for their new lifestyle and new trends, I am of an opinion that the teachers should adapt to the new lifestyle and trends and merge it with the education system. It will not only keep the students enthusiastic about learning but will also create a relationship of trust and emotional bonding between teachers and students. I am in favor of teaching people in the way they like to learn. This not only will help the students achieve academic success but will also motivate them to grow into self actualized human beings. When the students feel that they are being understood by their teachers, they will become open learning much more than just the educational subjects. They will learn how to grow into a happy and content human being. It is only when the teachers learn to teach the students according to their needs and trends that the purpose of education to mold the children into wise, mature and intelligent human beings will be achieved. This is how I will teach. References Earnshaw, S. (2006). Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. Flynn, T (2006). Existentialism. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Gelman, S.A. (2005). The Essential Child: Origins of Essentialism in everyday Thought. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. Hartman, K. & Stewart, T. (2010). Investing in your College Education: Learning Strategies with Reading. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Maslow, A. (1971). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. New York, NY: Penguin Rogers, C. (n.d.) Inspirational and Motivational Quotes about Education. Retrieved from http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Knowledge2.htm Rogers, C.R. (1995). On becoming a Person:A Therapist’s view of Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Houghton Mufflin. Rosenthal, R. & Rosnow, R.L.(2009). Artifacts in behavioral Research: Robert Rosenthal and Ralph L. Rosnow’s Classic Books. New York, NY: Oxford UP. Socrates (n.d.). Quotation Details. Retrieved from http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24174.html Read More