INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY ON TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

There is no branch of knowledge where philosophy is not made use of. A literary work has philosophic message. Literature can be defined as the expression of one’s ideas or feelings through the medium of prose, drama and poetry. The drama, prose, and poetry each has a method and a reason for its communication. The novel deals with invented stories in a prose, form, Drama deals with invented actions or series of actions while poetry deals with invented pictures or images to aid life and living. In literature, the literary appreciation of a work depends on the proper understanding of the figurative

expression, the symbolic, analogical and other level of meaning employed or used.

On the other hand, philosophy according to Dictionary is the study of fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence. It is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy naturally, both a speculative, critical, prescriptive, as well as analytical discipline.   

THE BELIEFS THAT BACK UP THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE AND HOW IT CAN INFLUENCE TEACHERS’ CHOICE OF METHOD

(1)   There is a belief that the development of an ability to write clearly and effectively goes hand-in-hand with the ability to think logically and creatively. Therefore, with the philosophy that guides the teaching of literature, the teacher will be force to use creative teaching methods. Through writing, discussing and analyzing literature, and participating, students can understand and reflect upon themselves and the world around them. It is the responsibility of the teacher to promote development and facilitate such opportunities while providing any scaffolding to support the student until they are prepared to pursue such task on their own.

(2)   Literature mirrors life. It expresses life realities. What is written down is exactly what had happened somewhere and noted by somebody. Therefore, there is a belief that teachers should foster critical thinking and questioning skills that will allow students to understand, analyze, critique, and change the world around them

(3)   There is a belief that all children can learn to read and write in a classroom that is inter-graded with differentiated instruction and has a safe and engaging learning environment. Which is rich with a variety of literature to light that spark in the Children to want to learn. Therefore, Teachers should make an effort to get to know his Children in order to be able to provide a classroom library with nonfiction books to inform the inquiring mind, picture books for the artistic mind and fiction books to entertain. All books will be chosen based on their curiosity, interest, personal connection, and learning profile, in order to attract and enhance the young reader into going back to book area again. Teacher is looking forward to having a curriculum based on literature because he believes that promoting a love of literature in a classroom is the key to the development of language skills in students. Even though there is no curriculum in place, the teacher will enrich his classroom activities with literature that would be based on the six languages art (reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing), to make the learning of concept more significant. Children need to be engaged in order to learn and see an example of how something works in order to understand. It is said that as a teacher, instead of explaining orally on how fun literature can be, you need to demonstrate the enjoyment of literature in physical movements and actions.