Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. ~Mahatma Gandhi

As an MAT student I am still formulating my philosophy of education, perhaps it will take several years of teaching before I can articulate a definitive statement about education.  For now there are consistent themes that I hold to be true, while each new lesson or article I read shifts their importance in my mind.  I know that I believe:

This world is filled with inequity and it is the responsibility of all humans to work to change this fact. It is the responsibility of educators to do their part in eliminating inequity in education.  It is the responsibility of parents to give their children the best education they have access to. It is the responsibility of students to open their minds and attempt to discover where their passions lie.  It is the responsibility of the government to allocate money and resources to those educational communities that have less.

I believe that culture pervades all aspects of the human experience; there is no interaction between two people that isn’t founded on cultural beliefs and practices.  As educators we must not focus on trying to learn those particular beliefs, since they are far too numerous and liquid; rather, we must focus on our ability to recognize that the lens through which we see the world is just one lens – each culture and person within that culture has their own.  It is our job to do our best to not only look for the other lenses but to look through them. 

The following are quotes about teaching that I found particularly poignant and true to what I believe.

The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds it hard to answer ~Alice Wellington Rollins

A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard. ~Eliphas Levi

 The role of the teacher remains the highest calling of a free people. To the teacher, America entrusts her most precious resource, her children; and asks that they be prepared... to face the rigors of individual participation in a democratic society. ~Unknown

A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. ~Unknown

A good teacher is one whose ears get as much exercise as their mouth ~Anonymous

It's a very ancient saying, But a true and honest thought, that if you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught ~Oscar Hammerstein II

The teacher, like the artist and the philosopher, can perform his work adequately only if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority. ~Bertrand Russell

 I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. ~Lily Tomlin

 A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams

 A good teacher is a master of simplification and an enemy of simplism. ~Louis A. Berman

 No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value. ~Bertrand Russell

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself ~Chinese Proverb

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner. Elbert Hubbard

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots. ~Thurgood Marshall

Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure. ~Sidney Hook

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. ~Kahlil Gibran

I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized. ~Dr. Haim Ginott

Philosophy