Ef 103 - Idealism

Various schools of philosophical thought have achieved a great stride in trying to add meaning to the field of education. Schools of thought such as Realism, Pragmatism, Naturalism, Idealism among many others have contributed greatly to the field of education as we know it today. This paper seeks to assess the relevance of a secondary school teachers’ knowledge of philosophical idealism into teaching and learning.

According to Louis Antz in Akinpelu (1995:132) “Idealism is a name that has come to be used for all philosophical theories which give priority to the mind”, therefore our working definition for idealism in this assignment, is that philosophical theory which puts emphasis on the importance of the mind. Idealism as a school of thought has been credited to great philosophers such as Plato, George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant. Scholars such as Maheswari, (2017) expresses idealism as a philosophical thought that has its central tenet that ideas are the only true reality, the only thing worth knowing, he maintains that the main tenant of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. Furthermore, Idealism is any philosophy which maintains that the only things knowable are consciousness or the contents of the consciousness and not anything in the outside world.

Philosophers such as Plato believed that the external or real world is inseparable from the mind, consciousness or perception.  Ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. The most important part of the person is the mind. Idealism is the doctrine that argues that ideas or thoughts make up either the whole or indispensable aspect of any full reality. Ideas represent reality ideas are more important and take precedence over experiences.

Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the Secondary school teacher acquaints him/herself with idealism because he/she will understand that the ultimate purpose of true education is to develop the mind of the learners. Noddings, (2007) notes that the teacher is responsible for creating a very conducive environment such that the mind of the learner can be nourished and developed to its maximum. This therefore suggests that the teacher’s sole responsibility is to help learners to use their mental strengths and to develop them so that they are able to appreciate the world around them. True education only happens when learners are able to develop their minds and think critically and logically.

The teacher as an educator should emphasise such attributes as moral judgements, aesthetic judgements, Proponents of Idealism argue that the role of the teacher is to understand that, the purpose of education is to contribute to the development of the mind and self of the learner. The education-imparting institute should emphasize intellectual activities, moral judgments, aesthetic judgments, self-realization, individual freedom, individual responsibility, and self-control. In an idealistic education system emphasis should be placed on developing personal discipline, and character development. A person should be literate and of good moral character, as such all the activities of the teacher should be able to contribute to these attributes in the development of the learner.

 Therefore, the teacher should strive to help the learner to come as close to Absolute Truth as possible. All of the aims of the idealist as educator find their ground in the conception of Ultimate Reality and the students’ relation to this Reality. More specifically, the school can take a leading role in defining and refining our knowledge of Truth and the Absolute. The teacher has therefore a responsibility to find and to train future leaders. In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual’s abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society The school, as one of the social institutions concerned with the Absolute must make judgments as to what is right and what is wrong; thus, one of the aim of education would be to develop morality. (Walcott, 1996)