Products of Progressivism

photo from disney.go.com

        My brother and I were just talking about our schedules the other day, and when I mentioned that we were already having our quarterly tests, he immediately reacted by saying “What? Bakit nagtetest yung mga bata? Kaya sila mapapagod mag-aral niyan eh!” I responded by telling him that my students actually look forward to taking tests. They even have homework everyday.  Most of them even have tutors! We study a lot and it really helps that they have constant follow up at home, because we see how their practice at home helps them understand the lessons more. He simply told me that maybe that effect tells us that we are not teaching enough, and that maybe the curriculum should be re-evaluated. Maybe there are subjects that need not be taught yet so that the kids will simply enjoy, and not be stressed with homework, tests, or worse, hire tutors. I could not answer anymore. He did have a point, and that conversation really made me reflect on how things would be if it were different in the place where I taught. I then remembered Monday class and progressivism. If the current style that the school I teach in probably makes the students grow up to be stressed, then how would things be different if it were a progressive school?

 

        I’ve heard a lot about progressivism, specially when it comes to teaching children, bit I haven’t had the chance to experience nor observe a school which follows the progressive approach. I’ve always imagined a progressive school centre to be very colourful, to have lots of manipulative toys, space, mats, and corners. If my students were in a progressive school, then they would be free to run around and just explore. That would be perfect in a child’s point of view. However, I still wonder about the kind of students that a progressive school produces. If a person is to stay in a progressive school all his life, then how would he develop the discipline of sitting for a long time, or keeping focused for a long time? I think that the skills of questioning and exploring will definitely be developed at a deep level, but how will a graduate of a progressive school be able to eventually work and keep up with society’s pace? Perhaps this is where group works and the teacher comes in. Projects are set in groups, which will allow the students to work together and help each other to achieve a certain goal. Progressivism also believes that the teachers serve as guides and collaborate with the students in their learning. Maybe a person will naturally develop such skills throughout his stay in a progressive school, and the teacher will help them imbibe it. I am greatly impressed with the way things work in progressivism. In fact, I feel like students who study in a progressive school (well, more of children really) are much like Dora the explorer or Phineas and Ferb, cartoon characters who go on journeys to learn about new things (Dora) and create things from their imagination (Phineas and Ferb). 

 

        Given a progressivist view, students then can be treated as beings meant to learn, grow, and discover things as they travel through life. Maybe this will lead to my temporary answer for now. To be a student is to be a person who continually goes through life, learns at his own pace, and creates wonderful things based on his learnings and experiences. 

 

        In the end, I am hoping that no matter what the -ism may be, students will not become too stressed to the point that studying will serve as a burden for them. There’s so much more to learn beyond the classrooms or centers anyway. 

 

 

  

  

 

 

    

One Brick at A Time (On Perennialism)

photo from: http://www.123rf.com/photo_9958163_man-poiting-to-the-crack-of-the-brick-wall.html

      Perennialism reminds me of a strong cemented brick wall. Brick walls exist because they are known to be strong and they intend to last forever. Walls are also built to protect, to keep a place safe, and because of this, walls also exist to preserve memories of historical events. Walls then are visited by people all over the world from time to time to witness a piece of history, to learn more, specially from the key events that are reflected in those walls. The Great Books in perennialism are somewhat like the walls. They both protect the truths and ideals of people and serve as an account of the knowledge that they would like to pass on and stand the test of time. Students then can serve as recipients of the knowledge, but at the same time gain the responsibility to use their knowledge to learn more.

      By teaching the classics, perennialism tries to lay down what it believes to be the bricks which need to be placed on top of each other in order to build a strong foundation of knowledge that will equip the students in order to harness their potentials. By knowing what they have to know and building the wall that they need so that they will be able to delve into various schools of thought with the basic skills that they have strongly mastered from learning the general content, students can then be able to fulfil their nature and learn to realize their potentials.

I think that perennialism is a very idealistic educational theory because it seeks to strengthen the student’s intellect and knowledge and at the same time develop the general skill set that they need which they get from the classics. It is also very religious. It speaks of lasting truths and being able to read great works in order to know what they have to know and be able to develop a certain kind of discipline in learning. I think that the current educational system that  followed by the Philippines somewhat reflected this as well. General knowledge was taught and given much emphasis as compared to specialised skills, but time is changing and the system of education is changing as well. The needs of the current generations are becoming different, and it seems like specialised education, vocational courses are being developed more because of the lack of resources. If this is happening today, then how perennial can we still call the schools of today?

If we require the students of today to still read the great books using their iPads, will that make them more interested in knowing about them? Will they still really read the books, or will they just search for the summaries online? I think that the challenge of applying the perennialist style to today is to be able to adapt to what the students are currently used to as well. Yes, there is much to learn from books like those in the list, but it is a great challenge for teachers to be able to integrate that to something that the students really care for, to something that makes so much sense to the students so that he/she will not feel like reading those will be useless. With this, I feel that perennialism is a really good educational theory, but it needs to also evolve without losing its touch to the today’s and tomorrow’s generations. Perhaps walls are still important, but they should not only block us from what we can learn and explore.

They should remind us of the strength that each brick possesses and allow us to learn from the bricks at the lowest part to those at the top so that we can know enough to be able to stand at the top and see both sides. Maybe that’s the ideal journey of a student– going through a wall one brick at a time in order to be able to see through its cracks and peep into wider horizons.

Guiding Experiences (Pragmatism)

The importance of experience in pragmatism reminded me of the basic concept of Singaporean Math. I’m not an expert on it, because I only learned about it last June, but I have been teaching it to my students. Time and time again I would remind myself of the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract style of Singaporean Math where the students have to first experience or manipulate something before dealing with numbers themselves. For the younger students, manipulatives like blocks, beads, chips or popsicle sticks may be needed for them to understand concepts like counting and grouping numbers in Math. This makes the concepts introduced and discussed to them less abstract. Pragmatism believes that the theory should be related to practice. This also reminds me of structured learning experiences where theories are explained through activities which were prepared for the students to experience what theories are all about. Through that style, the  concepts are then explained through the sharing of students about their experiences. Just like pragmatism, it allows students to answer their questions about their experiences and in turn come up with more questions which will allow them to look for definitions and gain new knowledge. These make me think that a pragmatic view on education may help students ask more, which in turn may lead them to learn more. This approach seems relevant to education today where we are slowly moving from the traditionalist to the more progressive approaches. However, the problem of pragmatism is that it can lead to many different truths and values. If people have different experiences, they they too will have different values. What will happen to our world if each person’s value system will depend solely on his experiences? Will students learn if they only believe what they experience?

The pragmatic approach to learning and teaching encourages educators to simply become facilitators and guides to the students’ true learning. Through this, maybe we should also think about our teaching styles. How much of our students’ experiences do we relate our lessons to? Maybe pragmatism is telling us that students are like seeds which need air, water and sunlight to experience their own kind of growth in their own time. As teachers, we may then be called to be like gardeners who simply try to maintain a good environment for our plants to grow, but at the same time let nature take its own course.

On Learning and Teaching (Idealism & Realism)

Our last session on idealism and realism made me reflect on my life as a student. Perhaps most of my entries will really make me look back on how I was as a student, how students were when I was still studying in my younger years and how students are now as I see them as a teacher. I suddenly realized from my last entry that the fear of facing difficult questions may come from a person, or more specifically, a student’s desire to succeed in school and eventually, in life. Growing up, I was a very grade conscious student. I would often ask about my classmates’ grades and be very mindful of my participation in class. I felt very pressured to get high grades, but I still did not reach my ideal marks. I tried so hard, but I failed a lot of times as well and I felt really bad about it. This made me persevere more in college, and despite being very mindful of my grades, I’m glad fell in love with learning and enjoyed what I studied.

I used to blame my alma matter for raising me and allowing me to become grade conscious, but I realized that it’s a mix of different factors. It’s a combination of how my parents told me to focus on school, how my friends treated their academics, how my teachers kept on telling us to strive harder to get better grades and more heavily how I pushed myself to meet the expectations of the people around me. That made me ask myself then, are students simply supposed to meet the expectations of the people around them? When in the course of schooling does the student actually gain interest and fall in love with learning in itself? Students learn at different paces, so how can we encourage and not force them? It is undesirable to fall in love with learning late in one’s life? Perhaps it isn’t, but as a teacher, maybe efforts should continually be exerted to promote this. The genuine and truly lasting love for learning may then be the ideal that the teachers try to reach.

I think that it is in our nature to try and do more, know more. It’s very difficult to be an extremely idealistic or realistic person. Moreover, I feel that it’s also difficult enough to be a student these days. Given the improvements on technology, we can say that knowledge is available to almost everyone, and it is easier to learn, whether in a formal or informal setting. It is good that these are available for students now, but I think that this also raises the bar for the field of education. The more resources are available, the more pressure will be present for students to be creative and mindful of the various ways in which they can learn. The more students should also be selective and process the information that they receive. I wonder how different being a student is now as compared to the time of my parents. It seemed like life was much harder then, but in this century, I feel like things have become more complicated. Students are now more restless, yet at the same time have the ability to multitask even at an early age. Their attention spans are becoming shorter, but growing up, they are able to do more. As a teacher who grew up in a different environment and educational system as compared to my Kinder students, what efforts should I take to get to know them and in turn more effectively teach them so that they will be able to learn and love to learn? Is the society today more idealistic or realistic? How much of idealism and realism should we teach in class?

Teaching in the 21st century requires a broader understanding of students, but I find it very exciting that I’m starting my teaching career during a time of changes in educational systems. This may be a good and strong start for me. There’s still so much to learn, but I think the everyday encounters with students will serve as the best learning experiences for a beginning teacher like me who would like to understand the students more. Perhaps this outlook will also help me find the balance of idealism and realism which I can share to my students through my teaching, and even lifestyle.

On Being Asked and Asking

As I left last Monday’s session on the Socratic Dialogue, I found myself asking a lot of questions and reflecting on my role as a teacher. While listening to my group’s discussion on being well-educated, I realised how interesting the process of Socratic questioning was. It was an avenue where a group of people can have an intellectual yet reflective discussion on different topics and actually learn from each other. Our group explored the different factors which contribute to the various definitions and perceptions of being well-educated and a few of us even shared personal experiences. I appreciated this process very much, because I realised that it did not simply allow people to talk, but it gave room for everyone to listen, process, and silently evaluate what he/she thinks about what the person talking is saying. I like this idea very much, and I feel that it is a very effective strategy not just to train the students how to think, but to also help them develop skills like listening, respecting what others say, and being able to evaluate their thoughts and judgements.

Though it was an uncomfortable situation at first, I feel that it provided all of us an avenue to freely entertain our questions, specially the kinds of questions that people do not usually dare to ask. I realized from this that questions, though necessary in the career of teaching, are not always welcomed. For example, a teacher who is focused on explaining a certain subject matter will not always welcome questions which may not be directly related to what is being discussed. A person delivering a report will not always feel comfortable entertaining questions, because of the discomfort it brings. Receiving questions may not always perceived to be pleasant experience, but maybe that is what the Socratic way of questioning was meant for.

As a student, I feel like I was trained to give a specific answer to every question that is thrown at me. I have never been confident in answering questions, and I think that I’ve become terrified of the “hard” questions which make me think, specially in the academic setting. If I am afraid of being asked the questions that make me think, then am I not asking questions that make my students think as well? I am afraid of questions that will challenge my beliefs, but does that not limit me as a person? Perhaps part of the process of my becoming a true teacher is to be able to overcome this fear, to be able to welcome questions that will question my beliefs and force me to reason out. Maybe that is something that I still need to develop, and hopefully be able to impart to my students.

I know that Socratic questioning cannot be done in Kindergarten, but I think that bringing out higher order thinking skill questions is very possible, no matter what grade level. Knowing this, I think that I will be more cautious with the questions I ask in class, and try to make my students think more, even at an early age. Who knows? The most meaningful questions could already be in them. Just like what my classmate in my other MA class shared, sometimes the good questions and reflections come from our students regardless of our prompting. Here’s a very recent story which I’d like to share. This made me appreciate my cute little students and the unplanned yet memorable experiences in the classroom more.

“While discussing how Jesus is always with us during our CLE class last Monday, I saw a priest pass by. I immediately excused myself from my class to call the priest and invite him to give a few words on Jesus being with us always, a meaningful yet abstract thought for my five-year-old students to grasp. He graciously accepted the offer and came inside the classroom to share about how Jesus can be seen in our family, in our friends, and the people who make us happy. While doing so, one of my students raised his hands and asked “if there is no cross, is Jesus still with us? The priest answered the question as he emphasized that Jesus is in the people we love like our parents and friends.”

Now there goes questioning, 5-year old style! I wonder what other questions this student will begin to ask in the next few weeks. With this, I continue my journey, and possible struggle of welcoming the different questions that will come my way.

In light of kids asking questions, here’s a video on the different tough questions that kids can ask. 

 

Because everything begins with a single question…

          photo taken from http://www.yoshida-ai.com

Most conversations begin with a simple “Hi!” or “Hello!”, but those which lead to deeper sharings and eventually form stronger bonds between people often begin with a simple question. I remember last Christmas when one of my closest friends openly shared that he had a life changing experience which began when he asked the question “How are you?”.  I will not go into great detail because I do not feel comfortable sharing my friend’s very personal experience, but I would like to focus on his realization that asking a question as simple as “How are you?” is not just something that we should take for granted. Asking such can lead to answers ranging from the simplest and most common “I’m okay” to a story about the happenings in one’s life. Therefore, a person must always be prepared for whatever answer may come when we ask that person a question. Who knows? A simple question like that may even lead to a conversation that will change someone’s life.

Questions can indicate the beginning of a person’s journey, for the possibility of answers to questions are limitless. At this point, I would like to begin my own journey of learning to swim deep in the waters of education with this question:

 What does it mean to be a student? 

As a teacher to the young children who are only in their first few years of schooling, how can I effectively teach them how to be students? At this stage of learning, the teachers are really given the task of “molding” the minds of students and helping them build the habits, learn the values which will guide them as they continue their pursuit for knowledge in the higher grade levels. That is a very challenging task, and I simply wonder how I would be able to most effectively achieve it. Doing so, I believe, entails an extensive understanding of their context. They are simply beginning to get used to going to school, and for my boys, kindergarten is their entry point to the “big school” environment. People often tell me that the student is the priority, and everything that should be done should be geared towards the development of the student, but what does that actually mean? Is there a general understanding of what a student is, or are there only implied definitions? It is merely a technical term, or does it pertain to something more? How do I effectively teach and train my students to study if I myself do not know how to be in their shoes, and what being in their shoes entails?

Perhaps this seemingly simple question of what it means to be a student will lead me to more profound understandings, or even more mind-boggling questions as I write my next entries. Who knows? This question might even lead me to life’s wonderful surprises. I’m excited to see where this new journey of exploration takes me.