John Dewey versus Ben Brodinsky

John Dewey supports the idea of pragmatism. In his article ‘The Child and The Curriculum’ he emphasizes child centered education. The subjects at school should be according to the child’s interests. According to Dewey the education is the life itself. Education cannot be separated from life. Things that can be useful in social life should be taught in classes. The teacher should be a guide in class activities not a king. Progressivist philosophers think everything is in a process. John Dewey thinks, too.  He thinks the subjects in class should be organized according to the changes in society. They should cover the needs of epoch. The child should learn by doing or practicing something.  Dewey emphasizes another aspect of progressivism: a democratic class atmosphere.  In a democratic class, different types of student can be taught. There is no difference among them. By this way, there can be a high welfare society, according to John Dewey. John Dewey’s general thought is harmonizing with the changing society in education, not taking the classics into consideration. Education should not get stuck in the past. Contrary to progressivism, essentialism thinks the truth is within the past. Ben Brodinsky believes that classics are essential for the education.  But in addition, modern science is a source for educational progress, too.  Ben Brodinsky mentions about three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. The child should learn these basic skills. The things should be taught from a textbook not from an experience of a child.  In Ben Brodinsky’s thought, teacher is the authority in class.  The rule of the class is what the teacher says.  The child should listen to teacher and learn what he teaches. The child is there to learn what is taught.  Discipline is very important in Ben Brodinsky’s idea.  In learning activity, the child should put forth the effort to gain true knowledge. There are some difference between the thoughts of Ben Brodinsky and the thoughts of John Dewey.  While Ben Brodinsky supports the idea of trusting the past knowledge, John Dewey thinks everything is in a process. He thinks the knowledge should be developed according to the changing world. One different thing is the role of the student and the teacher in the class. According to John Dewey, the teacher is a guide for the student. The teacher helps the student find his way. But, to Ben Brodinsky the teacher is a specialist. He knows all knowledge. The student listens to the teacher carefully because of the fact that the knowledge comes from the past. But according to John Dewey, the student’s experience is important for education. A child centered education is needed. Actually there can be some similarities between these ideas of education. In essentialism the truth is in the classics and modern science. I think if someone talks about modern science, he admits the process in life. And this is a similarity because John Dewey thinks it is important to keep up with the process in life to create an adequate education system for new generation.

Philosophies- free Journal entry

I want to tell somthing the impact of philosophy on education. There are lots of philosophical thoughts on earth.  Some of them are idealism, realism, pragmatism, nihilism etc.  But actually their names change when they are put into effect. In education, the most known movements are perennialism, essentialism, progressivism and existentialism.  According to essentialism, education should be based on organized knowledge, skills and phenomenon (Alberty-Alberty, p.44).  In this movement, it is believed that education needs hardworking.  Discipline is the center of this idea. It should be taught before everything. It helps the child learn how to overcome the things that have seemed difficult in the beginning. Essentialism gives importance to the knowledge that occurs in the past.  The head of the class is the teacher. The student should listen and learn what is taught. Existentialism is not like essentialism. It is believed that each individual human being is free. Each of them has his own mind.  The child should know himself. Socrates says ‘Know Thyself.’ The basics of existentialism can be understood from the sentence. Individualism is the most important thing in this idea. Each person should make their own decisions. The child should learn how to take responsibilities.  When time comes to talk about perennialism, it can be said it is the strictest one. Perennialists think the true knowledge is the past knowledge.  They think the accumulated knowledge should be passed through generations. In this movement the teacher is the authority. The teacher should pass down the past knowledge.  The child should learn what is taught.  The child should be prepared for real life. Classics are the supply of this idea. The child should be taught with classics. It’s time to handle progressivism now.  This idea comes from pragmatism. Progressivist philosophers try to maintain the educative process. In this movement individual experience is important contrary to perennialism. Everything is in a changing circumstance.  Think about Heraclitus. "Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.” Everything is in a process. Nothing is the same as in the past.  In progressivism problem solving is an important matter.  The teacher should help the child develop problem solving skills. He should help the child find its own way.  Group working should be practiced to teach the child how to become a democratic individual.  In class the child is in the center. The teacher should be a source of knowledge for the child.  Contrary to perennialism, the child’s interest is very important.  The child learns what he wants.

Violence Coming with Guns

All around the world, there are little or big weapons: knifes, grenades, tanks etc. and the most important ones: guns. From the beginning of the human being to now there were wars and they are continuing today, too. In the beginning, there were small-scale wars, but in time weapons have changed. People started to use long range weapons instead of short range ones. Guns replaced swords. Guns became so commonly used that nearly all people have at least one gun at home. Guns have become such a kind of weapons that they started to take their power from the human being not from the bullets.

In today’s world, people die because of legal or illegal guns. For example in weddings, at school, parties and even at home by a little child. Having guns at home started to pull children into gun violence. Especially violence at school has increased in recent years. A reason for the increase in the violence among youngsters is violent video games. Video games lead youngsters to be violent at home or school, for example. For instance, in Colorado high school two students performed a shooting that causes 20 people’s death in 1999¹. According to the local authorities, the boys played video games such as ‘Wolfenstein’, ‘Mortal Combat’ and ‘Doom’ excessively. According to National Institute on Media and Family, as of 2001, approximately 79% of America’s youths play video games 7-8 hours per week. Another one of the murder related to this topic was performed by an 18^th year old boy. The boy killed three people and two of them were policemen. The boy firstly performed 3 shots and one of them on the head. Then he performed 5 more shots and again one of them on the head². According to the officials, the killer played ‘Grand Theft Auto’ game day and night for 40 days or more. This is a clear bad effect of video games on youths. However, video games are not the only thing for violence. After a young plays game excessively, there is no need to be afraid if he cannot find a gun for his aim. Because of these reasons, guns need controlling.

Besides video games’ violation, TVs have also the same effect on people. TV has a great effect on people all around the world. They watch TV every single day. They watch many great things, but they come across also violence. Violence spreads among people fast with the help of TV. According to a research by Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia University Psychiatric Institute, children who watch TV less than 1 hour a day 5.7% involve in aggressive acts, and the ones who watch more than three hours a day 28% involve in aggressive acts. The bad effects of TV on violation can be seen easily. World has people that are waiting to pull the trigger. If they find a gun, they will kill who they want. Because media is unstoppable, world needs cleaning from guns. If you cannot put out the fire, than do not put more wood to strengthen it.

There are people in the world who are against strict gun control. They think that having gun with them is a right to them. They just want more education but not sweeping all the guns from civil people. Although mankind is educable, there is no certainty that they will take the education. However, there is a choice for people: leave the guns alone. This is easier than being educated enough. Education is a long process. It cannot be done in a minute, but guns can be exterminated.

Although gun control needs certain decisions, it is still a controversial issue. Some think guns are their rights and some others think their beloved children. All have a different point of view. However, guns are getting stronger by sucking the humanity’s power. There is a need for safety. Guns need controlling.          

Championes Leage

Today, I want to tell something about the match to be played tomorrow(12.03.2013). It is a Champions League the last 16 match. The team winning this match will have the right to join the quarter finals, and then this match gains a great importance. What is the actual importance of this match? Popularity? Fans? Money? Or all of them? All of these reasons are true reasons. We can also add rivalry to these ones. But why the teams want these things? All football teams have footballers to play football between each other. We can say that they need to pay the footballers if they want to play because the footballers want to eat, wear something, date with girls etc. they are all human beings. If a team has to pay the salaries, it needs money. If it needs money, it needs fans. If it needs fans to make money, it needs to be popular. Here comes the question: how can they be popular? To be popular, they should win football matches. They do not only need to win national matches but also need to win world games like UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The match I want to tell about is a UEFA Champions League game, too. The game will be played between a German team ‘FC Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e.V’ and a Turkish team ‘GALATASARAY SK.’ The first game between two teams ended with a draw. But because the first match was in Turkey, Galatasaray is handicapped now. If the second match ends with a 0:0 draw, the German team will join the quarters. But if there is again 1:1 draw, the game will go on two 15 minutes. Now, let’s talk a little about chances of two teams. Firstly, the German team beated a very successful German team Ballspiel-Verein Borussia 1909 e. V. Dortmund, shortly BVB, last week as far as I remember. It seems that it gains its power again. On the other hand, the Turkish team lost a very important game in its league. But it has a trump card: Didier Yves Drogba Tébily and Wesley Sneijder. These two new transfers will be the wonderwall of Galatasaray SK, two important weapons of F. Terim. On the other hand, the German team has an injury on the center forward position: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. This injury is a handicap of the German team. But when thinking all of these things, we cannot know what will happen. As Fatih Terim said ‘It’s the football, that’s the football, everything is something happened.’

REVISED JOURNAL ENTRY: IDEAS ABOUT MY METU LIFE

                          IDEAS ABOUT MY METU LIFE

At METU, I have experienced some challenges so far. These things have affected my school life. First of all, I have met a new climate and environment. These things need a long time to get accustomed. Because I am from Black sea region, it is hard to cope with the dry air for me. While I was trying to get used to the climate and the environment, I could not focused on my studies. But, besides this, I want to touch on the campus. The campus of METU fascinates me very much.  It has a huge land and a huge forest. I need something like that because I grew up in a village. At least, the campus helps me get used to here. Another challenge for me is hardship of studying. We have always answered test questions in high school years. This working made us sleepy and we forgot how to study the real things. Here I cannot study enough for my academic career. The high school was not good for me actually. But, at least, I found something in high school: listening music is good for me to study. Music helps me in every aspect. While studying, I listen to music. It keeps me from the disturbance of others. It relaxed me. It helps me get used to everything. Music is my best friend.

REVISED JOURNAL ENTRY: THE REAL ONE

                                 THE REAL ONE

           A university should provide everything a student can need. There should not be any missing element. Student should be able to find what they need easily. In this way, the university can school perfect individuals. One of these things a student needs is social elements. Social elements help student make progress. If student focuses on academic career, he/she fails in time. If a car does not take its gas, it stop when gas run out. Student is like that, too. If he/she does not participate in some social activities regularly, he/she cannot go on his/her career, the road he/she needs to take. social elements can be divided into two part; sport activities and the activities with friends(dating, gathering somewhere, parties etc.). There should be sport halls in the campus. Student should be able to access these sorts of things easily. While some students want do sport, some others can want to promenade with friends. There should be places that student can wander or sit and talk or do something with friends. A university should provide these ones. Another group of needs is academic elements. Student needs to go on his/her academic education. A university should provide a perfect education for its students. The student should be educated for their career in a perfect manner, not just enough to find a job. Besides that, a university should give the student what he/she wants. Each student can want different career and university should be capable of that. It should be able to provide all career types for students. It can be said that METU has some of these elements. It has sport halls, cafes and a stadium to meet. But there could be a picnic site for students. METU also has a good education. It has better academicians than most of other universities have. It leads its students to an academic career. It can be said METU is good for us. 

SHAMMERS

On earth there are shammers with us. They do different things for each different person or do different things for same person. They have deceiving habits in their souls. They play with people from low-class. They try to make profit from these innocent people or do not take into consideration their problems. They think these people are there to serve to them. Shammers do not need them, as far as they think, it is not certain if it is true. But they cannot survive without innocent people. They need them. There is an injustice here. Innocent people are made a cat’s paw of shammers.  Even if the innocent people do good things for them, they still behave badly towards innocence. 

Here is a short film about this topic. Low-class people look bad to higher classes. The higher ones think they are criminals, they need punishing. Among these higher ones there are our shammers. They think the lower ones are criminal and they play with them crucially. The lowers cannot get higher and so they are always downside the world. Actually we can say they are in the hell.