My Philosophy of Education

I believe that the primary purpose of education is to teach children to learn and love learning, rather than teaching them how to take tests and recite facts. I believe this because of my experiences at Westlane middle school. I watched a class that was specifically geared to get kids to strive to go to college. They learned how to cherish themselves and the knowledge they had the ability to gain. These students could not only recite facts, but they could appreciate them and find uses for them.
I believe that teaching should be tailored to each and every child whenever possible, and that no child should be allowed to struggle because they learn differently. At School 60, the children learned by the Reggio effect, which means they could explore the subject in a way that made most sense to them. No student felt stupid or incapable of learning the subject matter because each student could learn it in his own way. I understand that as children get older this notion gets harder and harder. The high school students at Shortridge could not be given this same opportunity because the content is more difficult and requires a certain kind of teaching. I feel however that high school students who had been learning in the Reggio style from the beginning could use these skills to achieve in a regular high school setting.
I believe that diversity should be respected and appreciated. I believe that children should know that their backgrounds are accepted by their fellow peers. I believe that children can greatly benefit from being around a diverse group of people at a young age because it eliminates any inkling of cultural ignorance at a very young age. At Westlane Middle School, they made a big deal about diversity and cherishing each individual for his unique background. I think this does a lot for a students self-esteem and I think that it is an important thing for educators to monitor.
While I believe that I as a teacher have a responsibility to meet state standards of education, I believe that the content of my class should be able to change based on the interests of the students. At Westlane middle school, the teacher could see that her students were very interested in sharing anecdotes about themselves so she rearranged her lesson so that more students could share. I think that it is important to dwell on the subjects that students deem interesting, because the point is to get them to enjoy learning. If you strike a chord with a student, it could change their life forever.
I believe that we as teachers are responsible for finding each child’s “chord” and helping them to tune it themselves. We cannot coddle them and spoon-feed them answers. We cannot teach according to the final or the standardized test. We are responsible for these students attitudes toward learning, and perhaps more importantly life. A person is not regarded as intelligent because he can shout facts at you, but because he can articulate his thoughts, find an answer by himself, and truly be interested in finding that answer and articulating those thoughts.