Blog 23

Svitlana Chaykivska
10/25/2009
Course EMSE 2800-02


Essay: My Philosophy of Education
(was written for Soph.Field Experience)

" The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance" Socrates
My philosophy is that an educator is the most valuable resource
our country has. Of all the jobs or careers in this world none of them
would be possible without teachers. There are two main points to my
philosophy, : why teachers are important and who teachers are.
Hopefully reading my philosophy will give you a better understanding
of the importance of educators in this world.
Teachers are very important in our society, because we need them
to provide our youth with the knowledge and social experiences, they
will need to improve their future and the future of the entire planet.
Teachers are more than just people who relay information about a
certain subject. Classroom teachers especially in the early years are
the people that those students will see most throughout the course of
the day and will learn social skills and manners from. I feel that teachers
are role models whether they want to be or not ; it comes with the job.
As a teacher I hope and believe I will be able to influence many
lives and help students understand what education can do for them
and their future. I can recall one teacher from high school, who actually
talked about college and our degree. What we would need to do to be
better prepared for college. Mr.Shuper was my tenth grade
mathematics teacher. He had been a university professor at John
Franco State University in the Ukraine for nearly 30 years, before
he decided to teach at my school. He brought a college - like
atmosphere into our classroom, which helped us, prepare for the way
things would be in college. "We do not need a degree as more than
to be educated" he said. His example: like a red ribbon floating through
my life. This is just a small example of what teachers are to educate
students on more than just books or academics but on life.
The first and most important reason that I want to become an
educator is because of my love for children. I cherish the thought of
being involved in a child's learning process. I think that my classroom
will have a mixture of the philosophy of idealism and pragmatism. I
want to be very knowledgeable in my area of teaching, and I love the
idea of teaching what I know to my students. My students are going
to challenge themselves as learners. Any problems that arise in my
classroom will be handled by me and the student in an appropriate
manner. I also want to engage learning by using first-hand activities.
Reading , writing, and arithmetic will be emphasized greatly in my
classroom. I want the class to help establish the rules in a democratic
fashion, so they will better understand what is wrong because they
helped to decide the rules.
I have explained my philosophy and why I feel that teachers are
the most important people in our society and who teachers are.


Presentation was written for COMM 1402 Speech Communication class
Development of the Ukrainian Alphabet,as well as Slovenic.
For Ukrainians, their alphabet means and has always meant
much more than a system of written symbols. The Ukrainian alphabet
is a national treasure, a subject of national pride,and owes its origins to
two 9th century Saints, Cyril and Methodius, who were Christian
missionaries from Byzantium, Cyril and Methodius developed the
writing system for many Slavic nations. At present Slavic people are
found in the Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and, of course, Russia. Many
beautiful monuments dedicated to Sts. Cyril and Methodius can be
found in most Slavic countries. There is also a special state and
religious holiday, the Day of Slavic Writing and Culture, celebrated
on January 6 in Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and other
Slavic countries as well as in Russia on May 24.
The purpose of my presentation is to give a brief history of the
development of the Cyrillic alphabet from the initial period of its
existence to the present day, and to show how the orthography
changed from earlier times to the present.
The origin of the Cyrillic writing system goes back to the ninth
century. There were two centers of Christianity in those times: Western,
represented by the Roman Empire; and Eastern represented by the
Byzantine Empire, the center of Orthodoxy. Both empires sent their
representatives to spread the teachings of Christianity among the Slavic
peoples who still adhered to polytheistic religions. But those attempts
were not successful because the Slavic population did not understand
Latin (the sacred language of Western Christianity) or Greek (the
language of Eastern Christianity). The Ukrainians, the Poles, the
Russians, and other Slavic peoples spoke a basic Slavonic language
that was distinguished by different dialects but was understandable
to some extent by all Slavs. The Slavonic written language did not
appear until the ninth century. The first Slavonic alphabet was
developed deliberately by Cyril (thus the name Cyrillic) to translate
the Bible and other sacred and devotional works into the Slavonic
language. In about 863, Prince Rostislav, the ruler of Great Moravia
(an area including much of what is now the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and parts of Slovenia and Hungary), asked the Byzantine emperor
for missionaries who would teach his people in their own Slavonic
tongue. He had western priests, but they used only Latin. The
emperor of Byzantium,Michael III, and the Patriarch Photius sent
two brothers, Cyril (about 827-869) and Methodius (815-885),
to carry out this task. In anonymous biographer wrote that Cyril,
(more precisely Constantine, his given name, before he entered the
monastery) and his brother Methodius descended from a noble
family in Macedonia, in the Greek city of Thessalonica (in Slavonic,
Solun). The population of the area was predominantly Slavic.
Moreover, since their father was Greek and their mother was
Bulgarian, the brothers knew both the Greek and Slavonic
languages well. They both entered the priesthood. Cyril was
a talented poet and accomplished polyglot: he knew Slavonic,
Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. He became a professor
of philosophy at the imperial school in Constantinopole, the
capital of Byzantium, and librarian at the cathedral of of Saint
Sophia. Methodius became governor of a district that had been
settled by Slavs. Both brothers then retired to monastic life.
The Byzantine empire subsequently used them as missionary
priests. Because they embarked on religious missions to Khazaria,
Syria, the Crimea to preach the Christian faith. Cyril and
Methodius were the best candidates to fulfill the request of
the Moravian Prince Rostislav.
The great outcome of their Moravian Mission was the
invention of the Slavonic writing system known as the Cyrillic
Alphabet. The two brothers translated the Liturgy and much
of the scriptures into written Slavonic. After this, Christianity
in its eastern form began to spread rapidly among the Slavs.
As philosophers and religious leaders, Cyril and Methodius
protested against the trilingual dogma declared by the western
church which insisted on the use of only three languages -
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. They rejected this dogma with
strong arguments: " If God sends sunlight, air and rain to all
peoples, this is to testify that God loves all peoples in the same
way. Why do you think then that God wants to be praised
only in the languages of three peoples?"
Cyril and Methodius took the Greek alphabet and adapted
it to the sounds and expressions of the Slavonic language and
developed an alphabet for church purposes called glagolitic.
This became more refined in the 10th century among the
Slavs and is called Old Church Slavonic or Cyrillic. This
alphabet is used in liturgical books to this day in the Orthodox
Churches.
The civil alphabet, adopted in 1918 in Russia was based
on the Old Church Slavonic alphabet and is used today in
several slavonic languages. In the Ukrainian alphabet there
are 32 letters, among them 6 vowels and 26 consonants.
The simplification of the 1918 alphabet and spelling had
great importance for the spread of literacy and culture. The
Slavic nations appreciate the great importance of the
contributions of Cyril and Methodius to the development of
their written languages, cultures, and national identities.
After their death, the apostles to the Slavs were canonized
by the western and eastern churches. In 1981, Pope John
Paul II declared them joint patrons of Europe with Saint Benedict.