Reflective & Doubt on Aristotle’s Ideal Education Model

            Oscar Wilde says, "I don't want to earn my living; I want to live."  Indeed, we do everything for a better life, same as the goal of education. The ideal education model from Aristotle including three aspects:  intelligent, physical and morality education. However, the whole statement is considered to be true and those three elements are based on a prior condition – well living condition. Thus, what kind of the education results fits the society? On my opinion, receiving a higher education does not necessary mean his/her can gain a bright future; therefore, education should aim at markets’ needs in nowadays. 

               It is true that without material support, education is “speaking war on the paper;” however, without education, nothing can be done. Some people say knowledge can not be taught by teachers, but it can be developed. Nevertheless, developing human-being’s potential also costs money.  It is a contradiction situation indeed. Anyways, Aristotle saw “happiness” as the end goal of education; also it is the way to build a productive society. Thus, maybe we need to believe that everybody is a potential genius, and all can be developed, so we all can have a “happy” ending.

An Ideal Teacher / A Bad Teacher

On Tuesday’s class, we discussed about the traits of an idea teacher, and characteristics of a bad teacher. However, on my opinion, there is no such bad or good teacher exists; also, people can not judge a teacher’s teaching ability via students’ learning ability.

Students and teachers are two roles can be exchanged. On one hand, as a student, he/she learns knowledge from teachers. On the other hand, as a teacher, he/she gives knowledge and information to students; at the same time, students provide the newest information and ideas to the instructors. Thus, a teacher is also a learner. That is why people always says, “if you are not a good learner, probably you will not be a good teacher.”

In fact, we can learn philosophy from all the objects exist in this universe. In other words, anything, and anybody can be our teacher. In Buddhism, the founder Siddhartha Gautama stated that the way to achieve Zen philosophy requires self practice and self-realization; which means learning is a journey, and only the participator can tastes its bitter and sweet. Thus, it is the other way to prove that students' learning ability does not depend on teachers and school, but students themselves.

On the way to the education, the instructor is more likely playing a role of “guider” instead of a “teacher”. We lead our students to find the key to open the door of supreme knowledge, help them to discover their inner courage and build self confidence, and be their friends when they need a company. As students, we should try to turn the challenges we meet into opportunities, and enjoy the journey of studying instead of focusing on achieving successes.