THE TEACHER AND THE COMMUNITY, B.

HERBERT SPENCER (1820-1903)

SCHOOL CULTURE AND Utilitarian Education
ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP • “Survival of the fittest” - He who is
fittest, survives. Individual competition
leads to social progress.
Chapter 1: PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS ON • Curriculum should emphasize the
EDUCATION practical, utilitarian and scientific
subjects that helped humankind master
ACTIVITY: of the environment.
In a Grade 3 Science class: • Science and other subjects that sustained
human life and prosperity should have
TEACHER: What is the function of the mouth? curricular priority since it aids in the
STUDENT: To break the food into smaller performance of life activities.
pieces. • NOTES:
• Specialized education of Spencer vs.
TEACHER: Very good! What about the General Education. The expert who
stomach? concentrates on a limited field is useful,
STUDENT: To digest the food. but if he loses sight of the
interdependence of things he becomes a
TEACHER: Very good! Perfect! And the small man who knows more and more about
intestines? less and less.
STUDENT: To absorb the food nutrients. • We must be warned of the deadly peril of
over specialism.
ANALYSIS: • Spencer’s “survival of the fittest”. He
who is fittest survives.
What classroom scenario is/are being depicted by
the dialogue/conversation/teacher-student question C. JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952) - Learning
and answer? Through Experience
ANALYSIS: • Education is a social process and so
school is intimately related to the society
Isolated Facts and the
that it serves.
Banking Method • The school is a social environment
established by members of the society
ABSTRACTION:
for the purpose of simplifying, purifying
What classroom scenario is/are being depicted by and integrating the social experience of
the dialogue/conversation/teacher-student question the group so that it can be understood
and answer? examined and used by its children.
• The sole purpose of education is to
ABSTRACTION: Video viewing
contribute to the personal and social
ABSTRACTION: Education Philosophers, growth of individuals.

Thoughts on Education • Steps of Scientific/reflective method

which are extremely important in
A. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704) - The Dewey’s educational theory are as
Empiricist Educator follows:
• Acquire knowledge of the world thru
senses • a. The learner has a genuine situation of
• Learning by doing; interaction with the experience involvement in an activity in
environment which he/she is interested;
• Simple ideas become more complex thru
• b. Within this experience. the learner has a
comparison, reflection and
“genuine problem” that stimulates thinking;
generalization - the inductive method
• People should be educated to govern • c. The learner possesses the information or
themselves intelligently and responsibly does research to acquire the information
(Oerstein, 1984) needed to solve the problem
NOTES: • d. The learner develops possible and
tentative solutions that may solve the
 Education is not the acquisition of
problem;
knowledge, it is learners interacting with
concrete experience. • e. The learner tests the solutions by applying
 The learner is an active, not passive agent of them to the problem.
his/her learning.
•
The School is Social, Scientific and Democratic. • Lag between material progress and ethical
values.
• The school introduces children to society
and their heritage. • Material progress of humankind is very
evident, but moral and ethical development
• The school as a miniature of society is a
seem to have lagged behind.
means of bringing children into social
participation. • Indeed with science and technology, we
have become very powerful and yet
The School is Social, Scientific and Democratic.
powerless. We have conquered number of
• The school is scientific in the sense that it is diseases and even postponed death for many,
a social laboratory in which children and but we have not conquered ourselves.
youth could test their ideas and values.
D. THEODORE BRAMELD (1904-1987) -
• In here, the learner acquires the disposition Social Reconstructionism
and procedures associated with scientific or  Social reconstructionism is a philosophy
reflective thinking and acting. that emphasizes the reformation of
society.
The School is Social, Scientific and Democratic.  The social reconstructionist asserts that
• The school is democratic because the learner schools should - examine present culture
is free to test all the ideas, beliefs and and resolve inconsistencies,
values. controversies and conflicts to build a
new society not just a change society.
• Schools should be used by all, it being a  The only legitimate goal of a truly
democratic institution. No barrier of custom human education is to create a world in
or prejudice segregate people. People work which people are in control of their own
together to solve common problems. destiny.
• Education is a social activity and the school  Technological era is an era of
is a social agency that helps shape human interdependence and so education must
character and behavior. be international in scopre for global
citizenship.
Notes:  Education is designed to awaken
• Schools are for the people and by the people. students’ consciousness about social
problems and to engage them actively in
• Schools are democratic institutions where problem solving (Ornstein, 1984)
everyone regardless of age, ethnicity, social  Technological era is an era of
status is welcome and is encouraged to interdependence and so education must
participate in the democratic process of be international in scopre for global
decision-making. citizenship.
• Learners and stakeholders practice and Notes:
experience democracy in schools.
• Education is designed to awaken students’
C. GEORGE COUNTS (1889-1974) - consciousness about social problems and to
Building a New Social Order engage them actively in problem solving
 Education is not based on eternal truths (Ornstein, 1984)
but is relative to a particular society
living at a given place and time. • Technological era is an era of
 Schools become an instrument for social interdependence and so education must be
improvement rather than an agency for international in scope for global citizenship.
preserving the status quo. E. PAULO FREIRE (1921-1997) - Critical
 Teachers should lead the society rather Pedagogy
than follow it. Teachers are agents of  Freire, a critical theorist, like social
change. reconstructionists, believed that systems
 Schools ought to provide an education must be changed to overcome oppresion
that afford quality learning opportunities and improve human conditions.
to all students (Ornstein A., 1984)  Education and literacy are the vehicle for
Notes: social change. in his view, humans must
learn to resist oppressions and not
• Teachers are called to make decisions. Not become its victim.
to make a decision is actually making a  Rather than “teaching as banking”, in
decision. which the educator deposits information
• Like Dewey, problem solving, should be the into students’ heads, Freire saw teaching
dominant method for instruction. and learning as a process of inquiry in
 which the child must invent and reinvent
the world.
 Teachers must not see themselves as the
sole possessors of knowledge and their
students as empty receptacles. He calls
this pedagogical approach as “banking
method” of education.
 A democratic relationship between the
teacher and the students is necessary in
order for the conscientization process to
take place.
 A central element of Freire’s pedagogy is
dialogue.
 Dialogue means the presence of equality,
mutual recognition, affirmation of
people, a sense of solidarity with people,
and remaining open to questions.