Clodt 1

Samantha Clodt

Jacqueline Sgobba

EDU 201 - 3001

10 December 2021

My Philosophy

All great things in life can begin at the heart of a cup of coffee. I have been a Starbucks

barista for a little over a year now and a big part of my job doesn’t just revolve around making

great coffee, but also connecting with my customers. As a full-time college student, I thrive in a

job that allows me to make my own availability and I look forward to coming to work every day.

My customers have gotten to know me, and even the ones who don’t eventually come around to

asking me what I’m studying in college; what I plan to do once I outgrow my lovely coffee shop

in order to move on to better things. I have received mixed responses from people when I tell

them I’m studying elementary education, anywhere from, “Oh how precious!” To “Change your

major IMMEDIATELY.” Neither response is necessarily favorable to me, because I can’t help

but think about what a child would feel if they heard those things. How I would feel as a child, to

realize how little society thought of me. Children, after all, are more honest and inquisitive than

we give them credit for. How extraordinary a place the world would be, if we all viewed the

world with the sense of hope children see in it, if we all viewed each other with the sense of

compassion and desire to know one another that children harbor innately.

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In terms of philosophical conversation, I align myself with the existentialist teacher. The

existentialist teacher seeks to inspire her students with a sense of individuality. The students of

the existentialist teacher govern themselves with a sense of unrelenting dignity and a thirst for

knowledge. When you call to mind the concept of the existentialist teacher, Socrates should be

the first person you think of. An ancient Greek philosopher, who’s teaching methods are

incorporated into the American school system today, known for the famous statement “know

thyself.” Socrates sought to impress upon his students the importance of unorthodox thinking, a

freedom we seldom use that his government condemned him for during his time. After all,

Socrates taught his students to think of their roles in society not as the pawns, but as the knights

and bishops, the kings and queens. In the end, Socrates was sentenced to death by his

government with the official charge of “corrupting the youth.” Though his physical body is dead

to the world forever, the brilliance of his mind lives on in the context of philosophical

educational understandings. Most of all, his ideas surrounding education have been passed down

century after century to the modern teachers of today.

When you impress upon students the importance of a liberated mindset, you are setting

them up to never fear failure. Failure, oftentimes, can be a hidden path to success. The children

of today are the adults of tomorrow; the same adults who will be fighting for their rights, gender

and race quality, diversity, and freedom. We raise a generation of successful adults by preparing

them as children to understand the power of their role and the immense importance of their

purpose in the world.

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In my classroom, I want no student to be afraid to ask questions. I want to hold

discussion after discussion, from philosophical to curricular. I want to tap into the logistical and

analytical parts of the child’s brain through mathematics. I want to engage the visionary and

innovative side of their imagination through reading and writing. I want to know their opinions

on everything and anything, no matter how small the issue may seem, just to provide them a

voice. I want that voice to grow into something powerful and earth-shattering, so that the

foundations of what we understand as “normal” disintegrate and new seeds begin to sprout from

the ash. I want the coming generations to open their eyes, to peel off centuries-old lenses that

have jaded our perspectives of each other. It is far easier to hate than it is to love, I have learned,

and because of that I choose to walk the hard road every day.

I have tasted failure and been forced to swallow it as it burned down into my core. In the

end, I chose to take that failure and brandish it as a new weapon, a weapon I wished to use only

against the hate I see every day in the world. I do not wish to join a losing side simply because it

would be easier to surrender than to struggle. I wish to pass the same gift to my students, to set

them on a path of motivation that blazes through the forces of hate, darkness, and failure that

encompass the world. I will hold no bias against race, gender, or ability, and embrace diversity

with a sense of accomplishment and willpower. I wish to pass the same agenda onto my students,

to only pay attention to what is within rather than what is without. It is not knowledge alone that

is powerful, it is what you do with it that makes all the difference.







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At this stage of my life now, I like to think I make a difference one cup of coffee at a

time. In the future, I yearn to make a difference in the world one student at a time.

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Works Cited

History.com Editors. “Socrates.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, https://

www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/

socrates#:~:text=His%20style%20of%20teaching%E2%80%94immortalized,arrived%20

at%20their%20own%20understanding.

Parkay, Forrest W. Becoming a Teacher. 11th ed., Pearson Education, Inc., 2020.