Educational Philosophy

Tom Whitby’s post struck a discordant note in my head. I teach at a comprehensive vocational-technical school that has all of the accoutrements to provide an excellent base for any child to get and maintain a job. But, as a staff, we know that these kids will hold many positions in their life for which we have not given the specific skill subsets. What that means is that we must provide these kids with the means to retool, learn, unlearn and relearn, and move forward in jobs that, may, for the most part, as of this moment in time, do not exist. It also means that we, as educators of the upcoming workforce, have an obligation and a responsibility to make these kids realize that in order to succeed and have a modicum of a lifestyle for maintaining a family and a community, they must be the chameleons of the “new” workforce. That means that they need to be the “life-long” learners that Dr. Whitby has identified in his most recent post. Chameleons change with their environment and so must our students.

I not only think that Dr. Whitby is right, I know that he is right. We are preparing kids for employment, and, yes, layered systems of employment defined by education, collar color and pay, but what about the other 16 hours in the day? What about a person’s soul. That can’t be fed by a job.

This has made me think about my Dad. He was a plumber – a very good plumber, and plumbing is not what he wanted his children to do! He read extensively and he was a voracious reader of everything. He was an eloquent speaker, philosopher, and debater. But that was because he had music in his ears, poetry in his heart, a love of all things unknown, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Everyday brought new questions. His question to us each day at the dinner table was “What did you learn today?” And we clambered and competed to answer that question so that we had bragging rights to who learned the best thing that day!

I don’t think that the education that we are giving the collective today reflects a philosophy of what is best for the soul but what is best for the wallet. That is not bad but it is sad to not have a legacy of the quest for knowledge or that which would render the soul fulfilled. Education for the soul. Would this kind of education keep kids in school? Give them a love for learning beyond the school room? Give them tastes of what could be?