My Educational Philosophy

Educational Philosophy

     Education is the notion that each student is a unique individual and must be treated with respect.  The student must be taught how to learn and how to think.  Therefore, education is really little more than a process in which the student learns how to learn.  Such a process is set in motion if the instructor treats the student as an extension of himself.  In this way, the improvement of the student is necessarily the improvement of the instructor. This explains why I teach since I too am a student in search of self-improvement.

     The ultimate purpose of education is to produce individuals who strive for excellence for themselves, their peers, and their community.  The well-rounded individual, the total individual, is one in whom the higher ideals of life have been instilled.  In this way, students enter the rest of their lives with the valuable lesson that they can make a difference.

     Today's young people are tomorrow's future.  More than 30 years ago I was tomorrow's future, and in a way I still am.  By choosing to be an educator, I have had and will continue to have a large impact on future generations.  Being able to have an effect on students is one of the main reasons for choosing to become a teacher.  My teaching career began when I made the decision that I wanted to be like them (teachers).  I wanted to be able to share the knowledge that they have given me to those students I would eventually teach and I still do now.  The student infused with the higher ideals of life will take those ideas into the larger community whereby the improvement of self is translated into the improvement of all.  One thing that I have learned throughout my life is that teaching and learning is life-long and by instilling those values on kids is a way of doing my part to make sure that our future looks bright.