My Essentialist ( with a little progressivism) point of view of Education
I believe that children in today’s world are at both an advantage and disadvantage. The world is becoming more and more technology advanced. The problem is that the average individual entering the job world does not have the understanding needed to work with this type of technology. Lets face it, this technology is not going away, and those children entering the workforce in the future are going to need a good background in technology and its usefulness. I believe my job as a teacher will be to keep in touch with what is useful for them to know and ground it into them so that they fully understand this area to the best of their ability. Most of the computer and technology courses I have been involved in do not follow this concept. They only teach what I view as wasteful techniques like changing the background, putting on a screen saver, and maybe how to find a file. I feel that there are more essential items one should learn about computers. Vital items such as what to do when the system crashes, logging onto the network, e-mail, etc. What the school system should do is take another look at curriculum guidelines in the technology department and create a "back to the basics" approach to it, just like they might have done for mathematics or science. I don’t believe it is important on how to play solitaire or learn how to change the background texture to make your desktop look better. Computers are productive tools and the basics of how to use them are there, if someone would teach it to them. I believe they would have a better understanding of these systems if that were done. One item I would agree to be progressivism in my philosophy would be that every once in a while, the student should be allowed to be creative with technology. Maybe I might ask them to try to come up with some ideas as to how technology could be used in a business office, hospital, or even a military situation. The student might have a better understanding of the usefulness of computers and technology. As far as the learning environment itself, I would place that under progressivism to. With this type of subject matter a teacher needs to use three different methods to teach with. One is talk about what they are learning Next, show them how it works, and thirdly, allow hands on experimentation to achieve the full learning experience. The class time should have more hands on time than the other two. Repetition is a good way to learn the fundamentals of technology. I hope that in the near future, school administration personnel will view technology the same way they view reading, writing, and mathematics. It is essential for today’s students and tomorrow’s workers to know technology fundamentals and be able to add to what they already have instilled in them. That is really why I believe it is important to stick to the essentials of learning computers and other technologies. It will only become more advanced, you can bet on it.
