When you go to "teachin' school, " you have to write this little paper known as "The Philosophy of Teaching." I'm pretty sure that mine said things like "I believe every child can learn. " (and I do IF they want to). And, probably it said, "Fair does not mean equal," (and it doesn't. If you didn't know, it means everyone gets what they need to be successful...it's an individual thing). But, honestly, I don't know how any of us can truly have a real philosophy of teaching until we've actually been in the classroom. Also, no one has ever actually asked me about my philosophy of teaching, but today, I started thinking about it. I had a long, serious "sit down" with my kids, and I looked up to see two of them seriously engrossed in what I had to say. One nodded along and even had little tears and the other openly said that he wants to do better than what he's been doing. I was completely floored by their responses. We talked about that you don't have to be right all the time, you just have to try to do what's right. You don't have to be better than the kid next to you or down the hall, you just have to be better than you were the day before. Learning to read and write and do math and what not is so important, but it doesn't amount to a whole lot if you don't do everything you can every day to be a better person than you were before. That's when I realized whatever I wrote 3-4ish years ago wasn't exactly it. No one will probably ever ask, but if they did, I think I'd tell them that my philosophy of teaching is to help children become better people than they were yesterday and to endeavor to do what they know is right every day, even when it's difficult. I am so incredibly moved and proud of my two kids who opened up and worked hard today to make the right choices. It took a lot of chocolate, but it was actually a pretty good Monday. :)
