An Annotated Description of My Philosophy of Education

As an English teacher who has a particular fondness for stories, I was struck by Steve Farber’s parables in his slim management book called The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership. I especially enjoyed the gruff observations of the mentor character—who encourages the narrator to “Read the Signs” all around him as a way of making sense of the world. Inspired by this approach, I recently borrowed a biology textbook from a colleague and studied the chapter titled “Plant Structure and Function” to see if the images there could help me explain my educational vision. It would not be a radical leap to suggest that sometimes all the answers we really need are right there in the book.

Diagram #1: Potato Rot

The disease potato rot, which nearly wiped out Ireland’s food supply in the 1840s, was caused by the fungus-like organism called “late blight” (phytophthora infestans). In schools today, watch out for similar “diseases,” which have the potential to wipe out good instruction. One such blight is an over-reliance on summative assessments, such as the recent emphasis on high-stakes tests. Drill-and-kill teaching methods, including lock-step approaches to all kinds of literacy, are the enemies of all inquiry-based instruction. Beware the blight.

Diagram #2: The Shoot and Root Systems of a Flowering Plant

A plant’s root system anchors it in the soil, absorbs and transports water and minerals, and stores food. Everything that happens above ground—all those optimistic buds and flowers—is dependent on what is happening down below. Why, in education, do we spend so much time pruning the easy stuff instead of concentrating on developing a deep root structure?  Good teachers set goals for lessons that stimulate the optimal development of students along a vast number of interconnected strands.

Diagram #3: Tendrils Help Plants Climb Up Supports

In most plants, leaves are the primary sites of photosynthesis. Generally, a leaf consists of a flattened blade and a stalk, or a petiole, which joins the leaf to the stem. A modified leaf called a “tendril” can help plants climb up their supports to reach more optimal lighting conditions. Teachers are like tendrils. They can help kids reach for their optimal learning conditions. Teachers do this in many ways. One way is by allowing students to construct new meanings out of their own understandings, and by observing others, learning as they “scaffold up.”

Diagram #4: A Busy Bee

Flowering plants and land animals have had mutually beneficial relationships throughout their evolutionary history. A busy bee, for example, gets the reward of food (nectar), while some of the pollen picked up by the bee will find its way to the next flower it visits (pollination). Education, in the grand scheme of things, ought to be similar. It ought to be fun, creative, active, and exploratory. What sweet nectars will our students discover in school? Where will these discoveries lead them? To what other flowers or lands will students take their new knowledge, and what new flowers will bloom? For children, the process of asking questions, investigating phenomenon, gathering evidence, and solving problems is a process orchestrated by the teacher, who is a busy bee indeed.

Diagram #5: Giant Redwood Trees Reach Skyward

Redwood trees are the giant products of photosynthesis, the process by which a plant uses light energy to make sugars (and other organic food molecules) from carbon dioxide and water. Education is a life-long journey. The opportunity to learn and pursue knowledge should be open and equal to all—while the specific pursuit may be different and varied in practice over the course of a lifetime. All trees—even redwoods—start out as saplings. Take care of them.  Their journey begins in school.

Diagram #6: A Household Plant Grows Towards the Light

The directional growth of plant shoots in response to light is called phototropism. For instance, if you rotate a plant on a windowsill, it will re-orient itself until its stems and leaves once again grow towards the light. Without it plants would be floundering around,  shooting off in all directions. Phototropism is like formative assessment, which engages teachers and students early enough in the inquiry process so that adjustments can be made. How would students and teachers know where they’re going without light—or without a compass sensitive to light? They’d be like mushrooms down in someone’s basement.

One more . . .

Diagram #7: Hey You!

Praying mantises don’t pray. They evolve.