What is an education and learning to me?

At first when I was reading ‘Thocmetony’ I started to wonder how her story related the book it came from How Lincoln Learned How to Read.  As I saw in class the other day, a person’s an education comes in many different forms.  Before this discussion I had not thought of many different forms that an education can come in, but considered them experiences that influenced how people lived.

What is an education for me?  To me education is not just sitting around in a classroom and being taught, it is exploring and understanding the world in which you live in.  As I went through college and graduate school, part of my education was learning and practicing how to be a more social creature.  Growing up I was teased a lot by other students and I took it really hard, so though most of my schooling (elementary through high school) I kept to myself and didn’t feel the need to go to social events at school.  When I went to college and especially graduate school I made a huge effort to hang around other students and enter into different conversations that were going on around me. Another part of my education comes from traveling around the United States and other part of the world, attending Japanese language school, going to art museums.  One experience that can define my education is six week trip my family took across the United States.  The trip expanded my understanding of the history and vast landscape of the United States.  This trip lead to the path I have taken in my life by being involved with history.  My parents exposed me to many types of art and the exposure has lead to an appreciation of the different types of art that is out there. 

Some of ideas on my Philosophy of Education … Beginning Thoughts

I found this week’s class’s subject about the starts of our (the United State’s) educational system to be very interesting because Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann wrestled with similar to the issues that we encounter today.  To see the prospective of Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann helps gives an understanding how our education system started more at the local level and moved later the national level.  Their prospective helps us realize many of the issues that we face today are not new and we need to strive to move past these issues to better our educational system.  Reading about their philosophy of education makes me think about my own philosophy of education.

I have to be honest.  My philosophy of education for the last few years has been focused on how I can be an educator in museums.  Part of my philosophy of museum education centers on museums programs being aligned to state curriculum standards and benchmarks to make the museum for accessible to teachers.  I really wanted to work in history museums because I was to share my love of history with the public.  So the question posed in this class “What is your philosophy of education?” made me really think about the question and what my answer would be. 

Here are some of my thoughts ….
-    Being able to make connections between the past and present in a historical context, understand of what was happen in one part of the United States and connect it to the national picture
-    To be critical thinkers
-    To teach them life skills
-    Share my understanding that we all at times have struggles with different subjects and that I am there and supportive in helping them improve those skills
-    Creating a foundation that they can build on for the rest of their lives.

Me and my thoughts on the last class

Hi, if we have not met yet, I’m Mariko Ehrhart.  I am planning on receiving licensure in Elementary Education with content areas of Middle History and Math.  I studied history during my undergraduate and graduate studies.   I studied mainly American History and ethnic history (Asian American and Native America).  You will hear me use examples or reference different museums that I have worked in because I was planning on going into museum education.  I feel that museums have a great deal to offer teachers and their students.  Museums offer a form of interactive learning that may not occur in the classroom setting.  I feel that museums can be a resource to teachers if the educational programs for students are aligned to state curriculum standards. 

I found the last exercise in class where we were asked to create our own school was an interesting and entertaining activity.  When I first looked at the assignment, my first reaction was “huh, how am I going to answer these questions by myself?” and was relieved to find out that we were working in groups.  My group started slow with the discussion and by end of the activity time, the discussion was really hopping and we wanted to continue talking.  The statements that I found to be most interesting and stimulated the most conversation were ““A clearly stated set of aims that inform what your school hopes to accomplish,” “A description of the curriculum,” and “A description of the student body it would serve (demographic, age, etc.)”’  These questions really made our group think about what should be the aims and focus of our school.  As we worked thought the exercise our group throughout a wide variety of ideas and found it hard to compromise on the aims our school.  I found these questions allowed you to really think about the ideals that you would want and the type of the school that you would want to work in.

Our high school aimed to reach a diverse population in the sense of race and socioeconomic status.  One aim that I expressed was being able to make connections between the past and the present.  I feel that this concept is important because without understanding the past it is hard to understand the present.  Our student’s did not necessary have to go to graduate and go to college, but to come out our school with life skills.  Life skills are important because they help give a person a starting point when they get out into the real world.  That is as far as my group got with this discussion.