Bianca Seger

Professor Shkorupa

Education 202

31 October 2021

A Philosophical Portrait of Myself

It has not been long since I graduated high school and so there has actually been very

little that I have learned in this course. I grew up when the education system was slowly

integrating technology more and more into the classroom and so there was never a ‘huge’ change

for me. Clunky projectors turned smaller and more efficient, while laptops became an

expectation to have in high school as it seemed like a ‘big kid’ tool to use in a classroom. Essays

could be done with plain ol’ pen and paper but there was also the option of just typing it

up--much like I am now--and turning it in, no problem.

I was born in the early 2000s. I saw the shift in technology and culture and grew up with

the ‘early’ game consoles at home and the clunky computers at school. My philosophy on school

was that the education system never really changed, we just switched from handwriting things to

typing essays. Schools have become like every other institution that vy for money. Genuinely

learning is rare and teaching is focused more on memorization and getting students to pass

standardized tests. I became aware of this around my sophomore year of highschool and quickly

became disillusioned with the education system; it resulted in me never turning anything in or

really ever putting effort into my schoolwork. The realization that if I passed big things like tests,

projects, or essays while never doing anything else for a class, yet passing led to me losing a
passion for learning. I felt betrayed by both the system and my educators. There was no

enrichment in what I was learning. There wasn’t anything really fascinating and it seemed like

many of the teachers themselves were disillusioned with it all. They, like us students, were just

going through the motions of trying to get through the day and go home.

As a future teacher, I never want a student to feel that way. I had a passion for learning

and it was reawakened by my junior year history teacher. He taught the way that the district

expected him to, but he also added in tidbits and fun little things on the side that made coming to

his class worthwhile. He told stories and taught extra in a way that captivated the whole class and

made everyone want to be a historian, just for that hour. It helped that he brought in genuine

artifacts and medals, but it did not take away from the fact that he reached that dying light in all

of our apathetic teenage minds and relit it with ease. He went above and beyond and made it

seamless.

Teaching does not always need to be about getting students to adapt or memorize.

Teaching is about you, the educator, learning how to adapt and share that passion in you with

students. It is about realizing that you have the power to mold someone’s mind and leave an

imprint that can change the whole trajectory of their life. I was a nursing student before I decided

I wanted to be a teacher. I passed everything and was waiting to hear if I got in the program or

not before realizing that I didn’t have passion or interest in what I was really doing. I kept

thinking about my junior year history class and how I wanted to have more memories like that,

how I wanted to make more memories like that for others, adn how I loved sharing my passion

for history with friends and studying past civilizations and cultures as a hobby. I want my

teaching to be a reflection of that. I want my teaching to share with students that not everything

is black and white and not everything has to be endlessly boring. I remember how hard
everything seemed as a teenager--I’m only twenty afterall--and how badly I wanted just someone

to really empathize and understand that students had lives beyond school.

Teaching, in my philosophy, is beyond standardization. It is about leaving a mark and

making enough of a ripple that perhaps one day a student could look back fondly at my class and

turning to the generation ahead of them to inspire.