Educational Philosophy Statement What Do

Educational Philosophy Statement What do you think is real, true, good, beautiful and logical? The English poet John Keats wrote in his poem entitled "Ode to a Grecian Urn": "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." Keats meant that beauty was synonymous with the kind of logical perfection and truth evident in great art. Keats also meant for a work of art to be beautiful, it needed to be truthful and have some correspondence with reality.

For example, a pretty story that suggests good people are always rewarded and the wicked are always punished, does not meet Keats' standards of beauty and truth. Stories may be fictional and great works of art, but even fiction must contain some insight about the human condition to ensure that it constitutes great art. Great art teaches, just as teachers teach great art. Thus, I would add that beauty is not only truth, truth beauty: beauty is what is real, good, and logical as well.

All of these values are tied together Keats wrote these lines while gazing at a Grecian urn, while he observed painted people on the vase in constant pursuit, youthful and in love, but never realizing their passion. He said that the images on the Grecian urn were truthful because it captured a moment in time that many people experience when a relationship is just beginning and everything in life seems joyful. Youth and enthusiasm are beautiful, of course.

However, I believe if the urn were transformed into a story and suggested that love was always perfect, then the story would not be beautiful because it would not be fully truthful and have a logical structure to its tale. The urn is only about one moment in time, unlike a story. A story may not be factually truthful but it must at least contain truthful insights. It must reflect the reality that most of us experience.

Even the most sublime love story of all time, "Romeo and Juliet," shows not only the beauty of love but how even the most innocent and committed young people in love cannot avoid being injured by the ugly societal forces of family hate and adult manipulation. The synonymous nature of truth, realism, goodness, logic and beauty is why many individuals experience only a guilty pleasure when they watch bad, unrealistic television programs that merely tell them fantasy stories about the world, and have no basis in reality and truth.

These stories often contain scenes that are not logical with the real narrative structure and created world of the story, but are merely included because they are sensationalist -- or because they promote a sponsor's product. Of course, a great fictional story may edit out some aspects of mundane existence, but a good story creates a sense of 'yes, I agree,' and 'yes, I understand' in the hearts of a reader or viewer.

A beautifully painted picture or statue that is sublime fills the viewer's heart with gladness, but also a bit of sadness, as he or she understands, like Keats, that such beauty is not everlasting in real life. This kind of philosophical insight is also good in that it morally instructs the viewer and provokes a person to think. This is why true beauty is not only realistic; it is also 'good' in a higher moral sense. Experiencing what is beautiful and truthful makes us better individual and more reflective thinker.

Not only art is beautiful, of course. The solution to a mathematical problem that explains the world that has symmetry and a correspondence to reality can also be beautiful. Mathematics has its own internal logic and creates and obeys its own 'rules,' just as a beautiful picture obeys the rules of proportion (or deliberately violate but acknowledges the rules of form as seen in the artwork of Picasso). Great art or important science holds true to the logical rules of a discipline.

What is good in art and science holds true to valid principles of a correspondence to reality, and instructs people in the true nature of the world. The heart of both great art and science is philosophy, and the Greek philosopher Plato once said that the only thing someone needed to be a great philosopher was a "passion is to see the truth." Great artists, scientists, philosophers and great individuals who do goof things by inspiring others to good all have a passion for the truth.

This kind of passion for truth inspired Keats to write his great poem, even though it challenged conventional Victorian mores about desire. This passion for the truth inspired Galileo to tell the truth about his calculations regarding the earth's place in the solar system. And this passion for truth motivated Socrates to ask probing questions about reality, even when it made people uncomfortable -- so uncomfortable, Socrates was eventually contemned to death for his way of teaching.

It is the job of a teacher who wishes to be a great teacher, and to serve the purposes of what is good, to teach his or her students the truth -- and how to seek 'their own truth' through critical inquiry. A teacher must make a student understand that what is real, true, good, beautiful and logical are all synonymous, and try to uphold these standards in his or her own teaching.

Very often a teacher will hear a student complain that it is pointless to read Keats because it has nothing to do with 'real life.' It is the teacher's job to show the student that understanding the logic of a poem, and the thoughts of the poet, have a beauty that the student can benefit from understanding. Likewise, a student attempting to understand calculus might.