Progressive Teaching Style

Katherine Watson is a very interesting character in the movie Mona Lisa Smile and she perfectly embodies the Progressive teaching style. She is very confident that her students' opinions are important and require them to voice how they feel in class often. She has no intention on telling the girls to conform to society's viewpoint of them, but rather to have independent thought. This allows many of the girls to find themselves and what they truly desire. The factual teaching style, on the other hand, leaves little to no room for independent thought. This teaching style only allows for absolute fact and nothing else. It practically weeds out every form of opinion on any type of subject because in this teaching style, opinions don't account for anything. To this teacher, facts are the only thing that will get you anywhere in life, when in reality, compassionate and independent thought are two very important aspects to success. The factual teaching style is the complete opposite of the progressive style, as it despises independent thought and forces the human mind to conform to whatever image the teacher chooses. While the progressive teaching style allows for every student to develop his or her own method of learning and personality, the factual style destroys any form of originality and attempts to make every student like-minded. This can be very unhealthy, as every person is different and needs ample time to discover themselves. Overall, the progressive teaching style is better for the students and the teacher as it allows for emotional bonding and unique learning experiences for each student.