Philosophy of Education Studying English involves both student and teacher in responsive conversations about the different texts we come across in our daily lives. My role as the teacher is two- fold. It is my job to equip my students with the ability not only to comprehend and construct different kinds of texts, but also to give them the capacity to analyze what they read and deconstruct how meaning is created by themselves and others. More importantly, it is my responsibility to prove that literature is “equipment for living” as stated by literary critic, Kenneth Burke, In other words, reading and understanding literature is a valuable tool we can use to make sense of the world around us. We read to explore the reoccurring, situations life presents to us and to study how different actions and attitudes affect those situations. Itis my hope that after a student leaves my classroom they understand the deeper purposes books gives its readers. For example, we read Night to learn that individuals can and will triumph in the face of unimaginable evils. Hamlet allows students to ponder the idea of vengeance and its poisonous effect on the mind. Even Plato's seemingly foreign Rhetoric gives students tools to navigate a world where they are constantly bombarded by commercials and ads that are designed to sway a naive outlook. ‘All too often English is seen as a subject area that has no real purpose, or not seen as important in day to day life. | wanted to become a teacher in order to reverse that line of thinking, My role as a teacher is to give them tools but my purpose is to encourage students to not see the study of language as simply a course they must complete, but as an important and valuable resource that they will utilize in order to become reflective, curious and insightful members of so ty.