Throughout my life i have had the privilege of having many great teachers but with regards to educational philosophy there are two that really stick in my mind after having learned about the different philosophies.
The first would have to be Mr. Princilus who taught 8th grade science at my middle school and was a great example of progressivism in education. He believed that his role in the classroom was not to teach but to facilitate and he made this known from day one. He would say that we were responsible for our learning and that we needed ask questions of ourselves to find the right answers. To do this effectively we would almost always work in groups and have frequent class discussions to go over our labs and to discuss the topics we were currently learning about. He would also go always make sure to tell us the significance of the things we were learning relating them to the real world and helping us to understand the impact of our growing knowledge base. In these ways he exemplified the ideals of progressivism.
The second teacher would be my 11th grade english teacher Ms. Weiner and she was the embodiment of a Perennialist educator. We would read the classics in her class focusing on the great poets and playwrights of old. This was the first class where I was exposed to Shakespeare and Keats and others. She believed that if we were going to learn about poetry we should first look at the examples of it from the past to learn how the same principles that governed them still had an effect on the art today. This approach to teaching embodies perennialism and in fact was a great way to learn about the classics.
Alex, you have had an opportunity to be taught by teachers who exemplify 2 very different philosophies. I wonder which one you will identify with more for your own teaching. NOTE: I wish I had your science teacher - I may have leaned more toward science if I had.
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