Children Education is Either Historical as well as Cultural - Essay Example

Diffеrеnt Philоsорhiсаl Viеws оf Сhildhооd аnd hоw Childrеn Lеаrn Name Institution Instructor Date Diffеrеnt Pilоsорhiсаl Viеws оf Сhildhооd аnd hоw Childrеn Lеаrn Introduction Philosophical views about children and how children learn has become an area of inquiry just like other subjects of philosophy. Philosophical views of childhood take up interesting questions that are concerned with childhood, the changing conceptions of how children learn in their early years, attitudes towards children, cognitive theories of development, moral development of a child, children and autonomy as well as the place of children in the society. The philosophy of childhood and how children learn has become a subject of academic research in universities and colleges and its literature is increasing both in terms of quality as well as quantity (Siegel, 2009, p.40). This essay is aimed at describing the various philosophical views of childhood and how children learn. How children learn is both historical as well as cultural. According to Kennedy (2006, p.123), the conception of how children learn has changed both historically and across cultures. Many philosophers came up with different views of childhood and how children learn. Aries argued that, in their early years, as infants, children learn through medieval art. Aries demonstrated children as having medieval thoughts that can be compared to little adults. However, Shulamith Shahar had a different view and provided evidence that childhood is seen to be divided into various stages and it is in these stages that children learn Shahar (1990, p.113). Piaget had a different view of childhood and how children learn. In his study of philosophy of childhood, Pieaget saw children thinking and learning as animistic (Piaget, 1929, p.128). However, there has been a radical discontinuity in the views of many philosophers of childhood and how children learn whereby, many of these views are no longer applicable in the modern models of childhood development and learning. According to Fineberg (1997, p.78), the modern conceptions and models of childhood development are based on the Aristotelian conception of childhood. Aristotle came up with different types of causality that describe childhood development and how children learn including; final causality and formal causality. The final cause is a function that makes an organism to perform in a particular manner when it reaches its maturity. Aristotle described the formal cause as the form that an organism has when it is in its maturity and makes the organism effectively perform its functions. Based on this view, Aristotle described childhood as a process of development whereby children develop in terms of structure, form, function. It is through these developments that a child learns throughout their development (Wellman 1990, p.65). Today, people view children development and learning based on Aristotle conception that, children learn depending on the environment they grow in. Therefore, there is a fundamental responsibility to provide children with supportive environment that enables them to learn and develop as dependable citizens in the society. According to Spock (1968, p.229), the most influential modifications of Aristotelian conception in relation to childhood and how children learn is the idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny whereby, the development of a person is a review of their history as well as the evolutionary development of the species. This conception was supported by Freud and Piaget who were explaining the phenomenon of structural change in relation to cognitive development. In this view, learning and development of a child is based on their historical background whereby parents are found to play a big role in a child’s development. Children are seen to learn from what their parents or close people teach them. The Aristotle conception was also modified to the idea that, children learn in different stages that are related to age. This is clearly identified as structural change which was supported by Stoics (Turner & Mathews 1998, p.49). Children are viewed as having the capability of learning in different stages as they grow. They learn from art or painting or pictures, language, instructions and asking questions (Mathews 2009, p.163). The cognitive theories of development describe childhood in terms of cognitive development. Rene Descartes argued that, the philosophy of childhood and how children learn is based on distinct knowledge that comes from resources or ideas that are innate to their mind (Descartes PW 1985, p.131). John Locke also contributed to the cognitive theory of childhood development and argued that the mind of a child begins as a white paper from birth and has no ideas (Locke 1959, p.121). As they grow, children learn from experience they gain from activities and engagement with their environment. Today, most of these doctrines of cognitive theories of childhood development are not acceptable. There has been rejection of the Platonic doctrine of cognitive development of childhood that describes learning in children occurs as a recollection of forms that were previously known. The philosophical doctrine of cognitive development that learning occurs as a result of innate ideas that are in children’s mind by Descartes has also been rejected in many modern philosophical theories of childhood development. In the modern ideals of childhood development and how children learn, only a few theorists of cognitive development find the extreme empiricism cognitive theory of Locke or even the strong innatism theory of Plato and Descartes entirely acceptable. The learning of language by children has been based on the cognitive theory of childhood development by Chomsky known as the theory of Universal Grammar (Chomsky 1959, p.27). This theory is seen to borrow a lot from the idea of innate language structures by Plato and Descartes. It describes the modern model of empiricist conception of cognitive development in childhood. The theory of Jean Piaget has become the most influential on how philosophers of today describe the cognitive development of children and how they learn. In his work of The Child’s Conception of the World (1929), Piaget identified stages with which children learn and understand their world. According to Piaget (1929, p.9), the concept of life in childhood development is acquired in four stages including; life is assimilated in activity in general, movement, spontaneous movement and restricted to animals and plants. In the modern models of learning of children, children are also viewed to learn by using examples that are prototypical as reference guides. Alison Gopnik viewed children as defective adults who attain perfection through instructions. They have powerful minds, consciousness and brains that are designed to different functions (Gopnik 2009, p.9). Alison viewed children as having brains that are highly connected with more neural pathways. Conclusion All in all, the philosophies of childhood and how children learn has been a subject of research by many philosophers in the modern society. Most of the philosophers of childhood today borrow a lot from the past philosophers of childhood development and how children learn. There is a high connection of the past and modern ideals of childhood that define learning of children as dynamic and determined by different factors. References Chomsky, N, 1959, Review of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, Language, Vol.35, pp.26–58. Descartes, R, [PW] 1985, The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (Volume 1), J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdich, trans., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Fineberg, J, 1997, The Innocent Eye: Children's Art and the Modern Artist, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Gopnik, Alison, 2009, The Philosophical Baby, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kennedy, D, 2006, The Well of Being: Childhood, Subjectivity, and Education, Albany: SUNY Press. Locke, J, [EHC] 1959, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Volume I), New York: Dover publications. Matthews, G, 2009, Philosophy and Developmental Psychology: Outgrowing the Deficit Conception of Childhood, in Siegel 2009, 162–176. Piaget, Jean, 1929, The Child's Conception of the World, London: Routledge. Shahar, S, 1990, Childhood in the Middle Ages, London: Routledge. Siegel, H, 2009, The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Education, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spock, B, 1968, Baby and Child Care, 3rd edition, New York: Hawthorn Books. Turner, S, & Matthews, G, eds., 1998, The Philosopher's Child, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. Wellman, H, 1990, The Child's Theory of Mind, Cambridge: MIT Press. Read More