Philosophy of Education

Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Best of all, go fishing with the man from the time he is young. Talk to him about the rivers, streams and lakes, the forest, and life away from fishing. He will not only eat his fill for a lifetime: he will enjoy fishing, appreciate his surroundings, and be eager to pass his knowledge on to the next generation.

The most important part of education is the person to person contact. Teaching provides an opportunity to pass on the important aspects of the culture that must be maintained over generations. Parents are often too busy to model being a good human to their children. Television, movies, and the rest of pop culture are more than willing to fill the void, but they don’t do a good job of providing decent role models. Attempting to give a student all of the information she will need in life is as futile as giving her a really big fish in the hopes that it will be enough food for her. The ability to learn is infinitely more useful in her life than an encyclopedia of knowledge. Grade by grade, subject by subject, it is imperative to model the learning process. Finally, it is important to give students the knowledge. They must be taught in varied, richly textured ways, so that they truly learn. Facts that are memorized and regurgitated are as useless the next day to the mind as fish going through that process would be to the body.

No matter what future a student pursues he will be a member of the human race, he will need to learn, and he may have some use for the subject matter. As such, it is imperative that he be taught to be a good person, respectful of his environment and those in it. Secondarily, he needs to know how to learn; how to discover the good fishing holes, how to study patterns. Finally, he needs to learn the facts specific to the various curricula; he must be able to bait a hook, reel in the fish, and gut it. If taught well in these areas, he himself will want to teach. Part of the thrill is the tug on the line, but what really keeps them coming back is the company.