An Educational Philosophy
In recent months, I have been synthesizing my previous writings and thoughts on the purpose of education. While finishing the teaching term in New Zealand, I spent my free time reading books like Community by Peter Block, The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel, and The Hundred Languages of Children (outlining Reggio Emilia’s approach to developmental education). Aligned with my biased selection of readings, my educational principles remain unchanged, though my idealism is a bit worn down by the realities of teaching 80-student classes full of 10-14 year olds. The following is an excerpt from one of my previous writings to a professor at George Fox University; it remains true, despite having written it over 5 years ago. Though I am tempted to edit the work to protect my “grammatic pride,” I have chosen to leave it exactly as originally written, as I believe it still solidly expresses the purpose of education in my opinion.
My Philosophy
“Within my classroom, I strive for a community-centered learning environment. Towards that end, my classroom consists of small-group activities, think-pair-shares, and classroom discussions. By providing many avenues of learning (teacher’s voice, white board, peer conversation, and peer work time), I seek to include every individual within the classroom, giving each students a voice and a responsibility towards their classmates. Additionally, the multiple avenues of learning through connections to one another support my students’ socio-emotional development as well as social growth.
In order to successfully achieve a classroom that is community oriented, my students need to know they (and their personal perspectives and ideas) are safe and encouraged within the classroom. I highly value the mutual respect and dignity of all humans, particularly within the vulnerability of a learning space. I continuously encourage the development of respectful interactions with all those who are in the classroom. Each student is diverse and unique and has a story to tell, and I strive to develop an atmosphere of safety and kindness in which they are enable to share.
If I expect my students to treat other humans with respect, I also must exemplify the same. I am a firm believer in unconditional positive regard. No student (whether I like them or not) should feel as though they are not respected by me or that I do not value their contributions within my class. Students want to do well and they will do well if they can. My goal is to approach every individual with a trauma-informed, inherently dignified approach. We must never cease to believe that students will always do the best that they can. Behind every difficult child is a root of hurt, stress, and trauma that is our job—as well as mental health specialists’ job—to enable students to heal from.
After all, as educators, our purpose and goal is to teach our students how to become functioning adults. We must always remember that we are teaching humans to become better and better humans, not to become better and better academics. This does not mean that I do not intend to strive for excellence academically, in fact, it means the opposite. I intend to strive for excellence throughout every facet of my instruction, which includes the development of my students’ academic ability. My hope is that within my classroom, I can attend to the academic, social, emotional, and mental growth of my students, so that once they leave my class, they are one step closer to being integrated, well-adjusted, and productive humans throughout our society.”