Chloe Price EDU 280 Professional Statement/ Philosophy School is mandatory.

Every day Monday through Friday, we as a society expect our kids to go to school and learn. Kids, however, feel differently, our students tolerate having to go to school because they can be social with the other students and not be bored at home; unfortunately, when it comes to the learning that they are supposed to be taking part in, most just rather not. I hope that as a teacher I realize these things, but also as a teacher not take this to heart; that I am simply there to babysit the, hormones in sneakers. Instead I want to teach adolescents. I want to teach these young future adults who are going through changes and/or confusion and provide a positive outlet. I want to give them my knowledge of English and impart the importance and relevance of it. I want them to formulate questions and ask, Why?. But I also want the students to have the tools they need to make their own possibilities and conclusions for their questions. I feel that as a teacher, one is molding and helping to shape the future of our community, society. To just talk at the student is not going to create a thinking productive citizen. English is not everybodys forte nor does it have to be. But the ability to connect thoughts and ideas, formulate opinions with working supporting details and express critical thinking skills are important in all aspects of life. Taking these things and putting them into working sentences and paragraphs are only one way that I, as a teacher, can have the students practice these concepts and enforce the importance. If one can connect his/her thoughts on paper they can also articulate their positions, opinions, and thoughts verbally in conversation and

methodically in other classes. English is everywhere and all though not everyone is going to be in love with the literary aspect of reading and critiquing books or the writing and revising of essays, the knowledge that one gains by doing these things are relevant. As a public facilitator it is not my place to tell a student who they are and what they are going to do for their life. Nor am I there to vie against their family traditions and customs. I am there to give them what they need to be successful, to instill universal values of self worth, tolerance and respect. These values foster learning by working with one another to create an open mind to learning and to others. Part of being in this world is communicating and interacting with others, there are no universal opinions and outlooks on how things in this world are. If there were, there would be world peace and no need for government anywhere. Instead students should be taught at schools the values of tolerance, respect and self worth. If they can more easily express these values then their interactions with others may be more beneficial for all involved. A person who has self worth of their individual ideas and selves are more likely to be able to appreciate the worth of others. If they appreciate the worth of others and feel respected they will more easily give respect. When a person feels respected it comes easier to tolerate, and to tolerate opens an opportunity to listen patiently and hear what the other has to say. Through listening and respecting instead of snap judgments and hate, students can be brought into whole new perspectives and understandings. They can continue learning and bettering themselves. Public schools are for making educated people who have a sense of self worth, that have a knowledge that they can use to think for themselves and make educated opinions and theories of which they can support. Public schools are for learning basic fundamental values to

help them interact with others through tolerance, courtesy and respect. By introducing and enforcing these values on the students that attend our schools, we are creating citizens of our town or country, who individually have a sense of self worth and hopefully wont be found living on the streets. These citizens then as a whole create a society that give back to the community by being educated, opinionated and working people who in turn better the world they live in. Public education is not for the teachers to give personal sermons and opinion lectures on, Why I wont drink coffee instead of the course material. Critics of public education find a growing audience when they suggest that the ideal of public schooling itself is nothing more than a call to publicly subsidize the private agendas of bureaucrats, education school professors, union officials, and leftist activists(Hess, 1). I, as a teacher, am not there to create my own private army on a cause that is irrelevant to learning. I want to foster the individuality of my students and teach them the importance of learning and how youre never done. I want them to know the relevance and importance of English in everything that they do. I know that through positivity and enthusiasm in teaching I can shape thinkers who apply their knowledge. Im going to be that teacher to students who pops up in memory after realizing that they just used something they never even realized that they learned in my class.