Molly Toomey

EDUC F200
Spring 2014
Philosophy of Education
The purpose of education, in my opinion, is to enable an individual to
think for themselves in cognitive and advanced ways. There will be times
within our lives where we can fall victim to false ideas or negative ways of
life. Education should help steer us on the correct paths and help to guide us
through finding our way in life. Education should prepare the student to think
intensively and critically. That being said, education should also be a
personal journey. Not all individuals need the same type of education. It
should be varied from person to person to help each student with his or her
goals and needs. If a student wants to be a scientist, they should be allowed
to take many science courses. If a student wants to be a writer, they should
be given the chance to take many writing or English classes. Each of our
educational experiences should be different because we are all different
people will different goals in life. Every person who comes out of the school
system should be set as a life-long learner. Helping each student find a
passion for learning and education will set them up for higher goals.
Schools should hold an extremely high role in society. A school is there
as a learning hub for all of its students, as well as a safe place in society
where students should have no fear. It should be a place of open ideas and
opinions, as well as good intentions and moral ideas. A low budget or low
resources may make a school less efficient, but it is not the physical aspect
of the school that makes it great; it is the social and emotional value of
coming to a place where you have peers to interact with, a scheduled day to

rely on, and a teacher who has warmth and compassion. Schools should
strive to support and care for all the students, including in such things as
testing, extracurricular activities, functions, raising money, and events. It is
the spirit and livelihood of a school that makes it such an important pillar in
the role of education.
To assure that schools are able to educate all students, they need to
have the passionate people and the resources to do so. Each and every
student within a school system is important: the straight-A student, the
student who struggles, the student with special needs, or the student who
has a rough home life. To educate all different types of students, we need to
have the means of being able to teach them topics for which they are
passionate. Teachers need books and internet access and the means of doing
hands-on activities. These small steps will help students to become life-long
learners, which will help them to succeed and strive for goals all throughout
their life. For all students to become educated, the schools need to be
prepared with efficient and caring teachers and staff members. The body and
spirit of teaching comes down to the teacher and his or her students. Give
the students a teacher who cares for them and their education, and they will
walk away with lessons every single day.
The role of a student in his or her education is to dive right in.
Education is an open field filled with thousands upon thousands of different
topics and ideas. A student should jump into any and all fields of study that
they find interesting. Science. Math. English. Any of it. All of it. It is up to the
student, with the help of the teacher, to find his or her passion and chase
after it. It is also up to the student to change and grow over the years of
education, turning from a young nave child into a critically thinking,

compassionate adult. A student must take responsibility for his or her own
actions, taking hold of their education and doing all that they can to make
sure that they succeed within the system. Another role of the student is to
question everything. Share ideas and opinions. Solve problems. A student
must be active and interactive within his or her education. The school system
does not hand you a certificate of completion for showing up. You must work
hard to earn the diploma for which you are working. The seriousness of a
student within school quite often reflects how well they accomplish college or
above.
The simple term of teacher encompasses so much. The teacher plays
the multifaceted roles of educator, counselor, nurse, best friend, advocate,
mother/father, supporter, etc. The role of the teacher is not limited to
teaching lesson and going home at the end of the day. It is made up of so
much more than that. Teachers often put in several hours outside of the
school day to plan activities, gather materials, write lesson plans, shop for
items that the room needs, putting in extra time with students, talk with
parents, meet with other professionals, etc. It is the passion and drive of a
teacher that makes him or her an efficient and compassionate person within
the classroom. The teacher must connect to his or her students, showing
them a strong level of respect and understanding, as well as a clear message
of expected goals and provided support. A teacher must be a role model who
models positive behavior for their students, but also showing them that
weakness and unique differences are acceptable too. A teacher must help his
or her students embrace the different ideas and topics within the classroom,
guiding them not to what the teacher thinks is right, but what the students
think is right. A teacher guides the students to finding their own passions and

ideas, helping them to learn to think for themselves and developing the
morals, ideas, and lessons that will follow them in life.
Having a strong impact on his or her students, a teacher can advance
a societys desire to respect and value diversity in many ways. One of the
most evident ways is to include several different types of cultures and ideas
within a lesson. If a young child sees people who are varied and different,
they will be more willing to accept them as being unique and interesting
instead of weird or different from me. By opening up a childs mind to
other people and cultures, they will be less likely to judge others and bully
other students for physical or mental things that make them different. A
teacher needs to model positive behavior for his or her students when it
comes to accepting other types of people. It is up to the educator to include
lessons and ideas within units that cover different cultural aspects and ideas.
By exposing a child to different types of cultural ideas, he or she will be more
understanding of the differences that come together to create the rich
culture that makes up the people within our nation.
To maximize the learning of diverse students, I will need to create a
system of several different types of teaching styles and interaction
expectations when it comes to my students. By teaching them in several
ways, such as auditory, visual, hands-on, etc. I will be able to reach all types
of learning styles, allowing different types of students to grasp the ideas Im
trying to portray. I will include different types of learning styles around the
classroom as well, such as auditory learning center with headphones, a
hands-on activity center with something to work with their hands, a visual
center with flash cards or charts and graphs, etc. These will not only appeal
to different types of students and their learning styles, but will also help

students to see one topic in multiple ways, helping them to retain and
understand the information in many different ways. In a cultural and personal
sense, I will make it very clear to my students that we will respect all
different types of people and cultures within my classroom. It is important for
students to have an understanding of accepting and caring for other types of
people so that we as a whole can work on cutting down on bullying and
treating other disrespectfully.
To include the diversity of families within my classroom, I love the idea
of having my students research their different backgrounds and sharing
some information with the class. By having them look into their own pasts
and cultures, they will learn that they are different from others in many ways.
They will also see that others are very different from them as well. Even
though they will see differences, they will also know that each of them are
alike in several ways as well, including all being students within one
classroom. We will include different aspects of several types of cultures, such
as the arts, famous people, holidays, foods, traditions, etc. We will have
students who celebrate or practice these cultural aspects help us understand
them in a way that shows that we are respectful and understanding. By
teaching out students to respect and care for other cultures, we are helping
them to become tolerant and understanding adults who will be accepting of
many different types of people and cultures, adding to their morals.