Education Philosophy Assignment

            Quoting another professor of an English methods course, “All teachers choose their profession because they are control freaks”. Although this has some truth to it, I also have several other reasons that have brought me to my career decision. Teachers shape the world around them and have the opportunity to touch and change lives.

            As a descendant from a line of educators, I was originally determined that I would choose another career besides teaching. My original career goal was to become an attorney; however, I will always remember my high school Economics teacher/mother telling me to obtain my teacher’s certificate while in college as a back up plan. Then I was a high school student, and I thought I knew everything, so I continued with plans towards law. My younger brother on the other hand listened to my mother’s advice and followed her footsteps and became a high school Social Studies teacher. I fought as hard as I could, but I always found myself being fulfilled in educating children. Volunteering and tutoring youth was a regular practice throughout my undergraduate years, and after graduating from college, I finally decided that my passion was maybe in law, but I was attracted more and more into education.

            The power of teachers on students’ lives is significant. I can remember my most influential teacher and I can also remember my worst teacher. Even though I never thought about teachers impact into after I was well into my undergraduate years, it became clear that teachers do mold a student to be academically strong. But the greatest trick that still amazes me is that students don’t realize how they are learning. School was always a fun and exciting place to go and play with my friends. I never considered that I was also mastering core academic subjects such as Math and English.

As I reflect on my academic career, learning has always been and should be fun for students. In my opinion students learn best by repetition. They are by nature thinking individuals curious about everything that is put in front of them. For example, I was substitute teaching a 6^th grade class one afternoon, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them. So I made up a math challenge for them. I put up random algebra problems on the board and challenged them to figure them out. They had not had lessons on the material, nor was it in their books.  Surprisingly, they were not only able to figure out the answers, but they turned it into a game. They raced each other to see who could finish the problems the fastest. Now all subjects can’t be taught in a competitive way, but I believe that children learn best when teachers can make their work fun.

            After my twenty plus years in school, I have realized that the point of education is not to learn physics, algebra, or grammar. The whole purpose of school in my opinion is to challenge the mind. School should make you analyze and think about things that you hadn’t done before. If all educators understood that educational position, I think the entire learning process could drastically improve.

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