DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Running head: MY PHILOSOPHY ON EDUCATION                                                                          Abstract

This paper explains my views on education, teaching, and learning. As an aspiring teacher, it is important that I consider things such as being well rounded, culturally responsive, and being able to teach children how to take the knowledge they have and use it with what they will learn. The way a person learns determines how they will obtain the knowledge and share it. It is the teacher’s responsibility to teach their students how to do that. Education is a major part of every person’s life, and teachers play a major part of a person’s education. My personal educational experiences are shaping the way I view education, teaching and learning and make me want to give children what I was able to experience and more.



           Education is such an important part of one’s life.  The knowledge that a person acquires, or doesn’t, will effect them.  To be a part of society, people have to be educated and aware of who they are as well as others.  Teaching is such an important job because teachers are the base of a person’s life.  Without properly being taught, it may be hard for a person to cope in the world.  Becoming a teacher is important to me because I want to educate children so they can be a part of their society and others comfortably.        

          According to Dictionary.com, education is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.  Receiving a good education means that one is able to make judgment and decipher what knowledge is useful or not.  I want my students to have a well rounded education as I did because I believe that education is the key to life.  A person will have a hard time getting along in the real world without a good education.  When I was in elementary school I was taught by different kinds of teachers who gave me different views on things.  The first experiences a child has with a teacher are crucial because the way they remember their first teacher is how they may perceive the rest.  I decided to become a childhood teacher for that reason.  I want to give children the same experiences of learning that I had in elementary school, which were pleasant and very educational.  I want to be one of the first teachers to children because I know I will teach them how to perceive knowledge, reason and judge.

            Teachers are so important to their students and should teach their students the way they would want to be taught.  “… the overriding role of the teacher is to help students build bridges between their prior knowledge and experiences and the new ideas to be learned” (Villegas 2002).  Teachers have the responsibility of making sure their students take the knowledge they already have and make it useful with the knowledge they will be taught.  Being an early childhood teacher will give me the opportunity to provide children with this kind of skill so they will be able to better themselves.  Being a culturally responsive teacher is the key to making this happen.  I was given the opportunity as a child to have teachers who understood me, understood where I came from, and because of that were able to give me a proper education.  They also taught me things other than my own culture which made me ready for the world.  “… Negroes are taught to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin, and the Teuton and to despise the African” (Woodson 1933).  I want my students to know there is a whole other world beyond what they are used to.  I am going to “Educate to Liberate”, which to me means that with a proper education a person can be set free with the opportunities to go wherever they want and be whoever they want to be.  I want my students to be liberated of any bias’s they may have of unknown things by teaching them about diverse subjects.  Liberation is what students need because then they are open to learning any and everything.

            The way a person learns determines how they will use the information and share it with others.  Learning should be desired.  A person should want to learn as much as possible.  Martin Haberman (1995) said “For star teachers, the ultimate value to be preserved is learning” (p. 29).  It is crucial for a teacher to know how important learning is because if a child isn’t learning correctly, all of the teachers work is in vain.  As a teacher I am going to make learning a fun and relatable experience for my students by incorporating their lives in lessons and challenging them to find information to bring back to the class to share.  If they are taught this as children they will become inquiring adults who will always seek information and want to go beyond what they were taught in the classroom.  I enjoyed going to the library to look up information and bring it to school to share with my teacher and classmates.  I want my students to be the same way.

            Becoming a teacher is so important to me.  When I was in public school, I had the experiences of good and bad teachers.  I look back on those experiences and they guide me toward being the teacher I want to be.  I want to be a teacher and a role model to my students, just as a lot of my teachers were to me.  The experiences I had are helping to shape the way I will teach children and guide them in becoming smart and liberated adults.  Education, teaching, and learning are all parts of each other and it is important that teachers understand that.  Teachers are remembered for many things and I want to be remembered by my students as the one who helped them mature and become educated adults. 



                                              References

Dictionary.com

Haberman, Martin.  (1995).  Chapter 3: Star Teachers of Children in Poverty, 29.

Villegas, A & Lucas, T.  (2002).  Chapter 3: Fostering Culturally Responsive Teaching Part 1.

Woodson, Carter Godwin.  (1933).  The Mis- Education of The Negro: The Seat of The Trouble.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.