Running Head: EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY 1

Educational Philosophy

Christa Moskal

Sheridan Community College

Educational Psychology EDFD 2100

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“The purpose of education is not to fill a vessel but to kindle a flame.”

— Alfred North Whitehead.

Receiving an education should not be a tedious task of filling one’s mind with unrelated

facts and abstract concepts only to have them disposed of into a dusty closet within the mind

when no longer needed. Rather an education should be a gateway to one’s most deeply held

interests and passions. Ideally, educators should strive to build up a sturdy foundation of

knowledge and understanding within their students. This is not to say that students can be

reduced to little more than glorified informational receptacles; rather this goal should serve to

remind educators that without these vital skills, even the most invested student may needlessly

struggle without the structure and stability that multi-layered and intentional educational support

provides.

The school setting gives children an environment in which to learn and discover the

world around them and themselves as well; it should never be a herding chamber or a means

with which to create mass compliancy to authority. An education should prepare children for a

lifetime of learning, questioning, and communicating with the world around them. Standards

should serve as a benchmark and a guide to learning; they should not act as a restrictive dam and

slow or prematurely halt the process. Educators must use these standards as a collective

advantage and allow them to be what they are meant to be, a measurement of growth in ability,

and not a definition of success or failure.

The methodology of an educator often informs the overall learning outcome moreso than

many other factors; as such, it is paramount that educators make a considerable effort not only

planning what they will teach but how they will do so. What one permits, one ultimately

promotes, and so educator led behavioral modeling is crucial to the classroom culture. Similarly,
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students will have much more difficulty leaning to think critically if they are not given examples

of such cognition, early and often in interdisciplinary subjects.

Multiple forms of assessments are useful in evaluating the collective understanding of

students, as multi-formatted assessments can measure not only the ability to recall information,

but also whether the student can apply their knowledge in a more abstract compacity. An

emphasis on project-based grading can help avoid the “memorize and dump” mentality that

repetitive test taking can create. Additionally, for students who are prone to test anxiety, tests

may not accurately demonstrate their understanding of a topic or unit of study. Conversely,

students who can easily memorize material may not achieve any deeper understanding of the

course work than what is needed to score well on a test; focusing more on projects that force

students to think critically about the coursework can help them better retain the material. When

applicable, non-graded, formative assessments should be built into daily lesson plans to ensure

that lessons are effectively conveying the requisite information.

Cultivating an inclusive learning environment is rarely an accidental accomplishment; it

takes deliberate planning and discussion from students and educators alike. Inclusivity starts

somewhat paradoxically within everyone making a conscious choice to value each other’s

differences over safer similarities. This type of environment is not achieved overnight, but

modeling and guiding this type of acceptance of diversity is vital for not only students from

different cultural backgrounds, but for all students. Building students’ individual needs into an

inclusive lesson plan is paramount to the overall success of the classroom; by taking their needs

into consideration, the classroom environment and the lessons can be fully taken advantage of by

students who have additional needs and those who do not.

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Children living within the United States are fortunate to receive a free public education;

however, without diligent and passionate educators, this privilege can be reduced to an empty

promise. Teaching elementary school students how to adapt to new challenges requires educators

to be flexible while still maintaining a sense of structure. Teaching should never be confused for

the process of instructing young mind to think as their instructor does, but rather that teaching in

its purest form is an opportunity to give students the tools with which to shape and discover the

world around them and come to their own conclusions.