Educational Philosophy

Since I was home schooled, my mom was my primary teacher all the way from kindergarten through high school. It is difficult for me to look back and analyze my mom’s teaching style. Since she was trained as a nurse and not as a teacher, she probably was not consciously aware of any one philosophy that influenced her teaching. I suppose that she would best fit into the perinnialist school of thought. As a devout Christian, one of my mom’s primary educational goals for us was our moral development as well a our intellectual training. The curriculum that she used was quite varied, but it emphasized the enduring ideals and morals of Christianity, and focused on basics such as reading, writing, math, science, and literature. Her teaching methods were to first work with each of us directly, one-on-one, and then assign us tasks to complete independently. However, not all of her ideals fall under the perinnialist view. For assessment, she simply monitored our learning and occasionally gave us informal quizzes rather than formal tests, falling much closer to the progressivist view in this area. Also, our learning environment was very relaxed and informal, also much closer to the progressivist view. As for the implications that this will have for me as a teacher, I am not sure yet how much this will affect me, but one thing is clear: because of my mom’s influence, I will always believe that the educational philosophies will work much better in unison than they do apart. By incorporating the best elements from each, we as teachers can become more competent, affective, and adaptable.