"Voices" Reflection

These are the following quotes that I pulled from the "History and Philosophy of Education" packet:

Erasmus: "The purpose of education was to enlighten the youth and thus improve the civil state"

Pestalozzi: "He believed that children were made up of head, heart, hand, body, feelings, and intellect, thus introducing the concept of educating the "whole child" long before the twentieth-century."

Jefferson: "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty."

Dewey: "Education must be democratic, providing students with free and intelligent choice between alternatives and engaging them in meaningful interactions with their environment - the subject matter, the teachers, and peers."

I really found most of the student-centered philosophies really engaging to read. Historical perspectives are really fascinating to me, and was mainly the reason I included Thomas Jefferson's philosophy of education. I could imagine teaching this to my own students as a reflective practice to get them thinking about what their education means to them. Imagine, after learning about Jefferson, and Washington, students build some sort of respect for their moral and sense of self. The person that they are portrayed to be throughout historical texts, they really are personified as historical leaders and heros. Then imagine students understanding what education means to them, these noble leaders they have learned about not too long ago, that would be pretty powerful.

Mostly, when I was looking for quotes to incorporate into my education philosophy paper, I wanted to get quotes that embodied the perfectionist side of student-center learning, because that is my ideal model. If I am able to articulate that throughout my paper I will consider myself successful in determining my own philosophy and using other's to support my argument.