Philosophy

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For most of high school I had my heart set on becoming a doctor, but I came to realize that I was primarily attracted to the money and the prestige and that I had little interest in actually being a doctor.  I decided that I wanted to do something to make a difference in the lives of individuals.  I decided to become a teacher when I realized that the people who have made the greatest impact on my life have been my teachers.  As I have learned more and more about the Teaching Profession, I have only become increasingly eager to become a teacher.  Strangely, many of the things I’ve learned have shown me how difficult teaching will be, but I’m not deterred.  I take this as a sign that teaching is something I have a real passion for.

When I become a teacher, I hope that my teaching philosophy will make a profound change in the lives of my future students so that they can have a more positive impact on the world around them.  I believe that education starts with the family.  Trying to teach a child who has not been brought up with a sense of importance placed on his or her education makes the job difficult.  I believe that this can (and should) start before the child enters school.  I believe that having parents who read to their children and help teach their children to read and reason lays down a firm foundation and infrastructure for the rest of that child’s education.  If that foundation has not been laid by the parents, it then becomes the teacher’s job to both work on that foundation as well as to teach the class material.  I believe that it is the teacher’s job to make sure all of the assigned material is taught, not simply to prepare the students for a standardized test.  The teacher also has the burden of designing the lessons so that they are both valuable and interesting to the students.  I plan to do my best to work with the students and their families (with the help of administrators) to make sure that each student gets the best education possible.  My ultimate goal is to make an impact on the student and his or her family so that more people will realize the importance of family in education.

email comments to jobe@usc.edu