Educational Philosophy

The purpose of this blog is to bring people "together across Seattle to fight for high quality public schools that educate all students to become passionate, lifelong learners."

For me, education is a social justice issue. In order to create more justice in the world, we need a more just and equitable education system. But I also believe we (in Seattle, in Washington and all over the world) have a moral imperative to help every student learn to their highest potential, pushing kids to grow, set goals, and grow some more. What students should learn includes academics, social skills, and how to live and work in our world.

This is my philosophy of education. My core beliefs about what education is and what it is for, shape all my other opinions about public education. The same is true for everyone else who publishes and post comments on this blog. And where our philosophies differ, our opinions are sure to clash.

I don't believe there are many absolutely "right" answers to most of the questions Seattle Public Schools is wrestling with. I do believe we can discuss these important issues with people who have different educational philosophies and different opinions, and learn new things that can alter our opinions and beliefs. And that is what this blog is for.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I don't see how anyone can deny that education "is a social justice issue," but how this obvious fact has anything to do with curricular content isn't clear. Health care is also a social justice issue, but I wouldn't want to see any doctor who saw social justice, rather than medical treatment, as the core of his or her mission. Unfortunately, many educators make this mistake, which is really a category error. Even a high school social studies teacher has the primary obligation to teach children how to think about social issues, not to indoctrinate them in the correct opinion.

And I say this as the father of a very socially-conscious middle-schooler, who nonetheless finds course work on "social justice issues" tedious and slightly creepy.

If social justice is your core value, fine, but then you are not primarily an educator, but an activist. And your students are likely to suffer as a result. Logic and imagination should be the two pillars of education, and I would rank even PE ahead of social justice in terms of curricular value.

Now, if you're speaking as an administrator, justice become more important. But on the ground--in the classroom--a commitment to social justice can become a positive hindrance to children's education.
5/6/07, 7:00 PM
Jessie said…
So often educational polices are attacked because of their failure at the level of educational practice. Thus, there is too often an ambiguity regarding whether a policy (e.g. NCLB) is bad, or has simply been implemented poorly.People who have money, often order their homework on services like https://www.amblesideprimary.com/assignment-writing-service. We should have argued elsewhere that the conflict between a concern for social justice and the post-modern turn is more apparent than real.
11/21/18, 6:14 AM
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