The Theoretical Sandwich

I am a food person, and a well made sandwich can blow any meal out of the water, but you have to have quality ingredients for it to be fantastic. One must start off with Dewey brand bread. This bread is what keeps everything inside, and is one of the more important aspects. Dewey ideas on educating children lie closest to how I feel on educational theory. I like his real life approach, and thoughts on what a teacher should be doing for the students. In between the Dewey bread lies some Vygotsky brand turkey. Vygotsky's idea of the Zone of Proximal Development is something I believe is important to getting a child to succeed and learn. On the meat lies the tomato, lettuce and avocado (Montessori, Piaget and Erickson). These three theorists all bring smaller aspects to my idea of theory. I really like how Erickson and Montessori have ideas of how to have children be independent by either placing objects at heights where they can reach on their own, or just allowing students to do things by them self. Piaget brings the idea of open-ended activities and questions, I like this because it prompts the child to think, but not necessarily come to a concrete answer, which we are so programmed to do in education. Sitting next to the sandwich on the plate is the pickle spear (Kohlberg) that many people will take one bite of but leave most of it. I feel that Kohlberg has some good ideas, but for the most part, in some areas his ideas of morality and how humans interact is spot on, but I also don't see eye to eye with him on some things, so the other half of the pickle stays on the plate. The students are the frilled toothpick that holds this whole sandwich together. They are snazzy and interesting, but most of all, since this sandwich is so big, it is what keeps it together, and keeps the ideas going.