My Educational Philosophy
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think”—Socrates. This line is the motto that I always hold when I decided to enter this profession—to become a teacher. My goal in this profession is to teach children how to think, not what to think. Probably the most important reason for taking education comes from my love of philosophy, which clearly realizes that Education is the most important factor in the evolution of both the individual and society. I believe that education is an individual, unique experience for every student who enters a classroom.
I believe that teachers must consider teaching to be a lifestyle, not a mere forty-hour-a-week job, because a teacher's goals for his/her students encompass much more than relaying out-of-context facts to passive students. As professionals entrusted with the education of young minds, teachers must facilitate learning and growth academically, personally, and ethically. By providing a quality education to each individual in one's classroom, a teacher equips children with the tools necessary for success in life. Personal growth is accomplished when a teacher adopts a mentoring role. For me displaying warmth and compassion shows students that teachers love them and are empathetic, feeling human beings. Certainly, every child has different learning styles and aptitudes, however, by having a personal relationship with every student, a teacher can give each an equal chance of success. By recognizing every student's potential and having separate, individual goals for each, a teacher can accommodate personal needs and abilities and encourage the pursuit of academic aspirations and in that way students will learn to appreciate and understand themselves as unique individuals and accept complete responsibilities in their own chosen preferred way.
I am a kind of a teacher who certainly do not believe in just sitting in a classroom – which is unnatural, unhealthy, and should be limited. It is obvious that we did not evolve learning by just sitting in the classrooms. I’d love my students to be active, out and about doing things, talking, watching and learning from other people and other objects around us and in that way learning takes place.
I particularly agree with Einstein, that education (and teaching students philosophy from a young age) has two central functions relating to the individual and their society; to educate the individual as a free individual which means to understand and use critical thinking skills for determining the truth for themselves and to educate the individual as a part of society, virtually all our knowledge, our clothes, our food is produced by others in our society, thus we owe society and have a responsibility to contribute back to society (that everyone must give as well as take).
In choosing to become a teacher, I have made the commitment to myself and my future students to be the best academic, personal, and ethical role model I can be. It is my goal to have a mutually enriching teaching career by keeping an open mind and continually communicating with my peers and students. I am prepared to rise to the challenges of teaching in the 21st century. I promise to try to provide an honest, well-rounded education to every student I encounter. Therefore I am a progressivist and existentialist teacher in the future.
