educational philosophy

Teaching is a weighty responsibility, but one that I cherish deeply. 

 

I commit to building a classroom community where students feel safe and supported, so that they will feel comfortable asking questions, taking risks, and being vulnerable when they don’t know something. I will foster relationships built upon a deep sense of mutual respect, caring, listening, and vulnerability on my part, because it is in my vulnerability as an educator that my students are freed to be vulnerable themselves. As Parker J. Palmer asserts in The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life, “the courage to teach is the courage to keep one’s heart open in those very moments when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able so that teacher and students and subject can be woven into the fabric of community that learning, and living, require.” 

 

As a teacher, I acknowledge the precious power I have to influence the lives of my students and my burden of responsibility to use it wisely. I hold firmly that education is a collaborative process, a dialogue that facilitates growth and understanding. I believe that I should always be learning from my students as much as they learn from me and from each other. I will seek to instill in my students and to show them by example that to teach is to listen. To listen is to learn. To learn is to understand. To understand is to grow. 

 

I resolve to hold my students to a high standard and to acknowledge, celebrate and care for the differences each one of them brings to the table while challenging them to achieve more than they believe is possible. I will make it abundantly clear that in my classroom, mistakes are not mocked, but welcomed and embraced as ways of improving. In my experience teaching theatre to children, most people dismiss them as incapable of tackling difficult source material or understanding complex themes and characters. But I have found time and time again that if I present them with challenging material along with the assertion that I know they can handle it, they are even more eager to learn and to try something new. Young people are so frequently underestimated, undervalued, and looked down upon, that when they are treated with the same respect as their elders, it is inspiring how they rise to the occasion.

 

I firmly believe that both my students and I are strong, resilient people, and I will always strive to help my students see themselves through that lens. Living through the coronavirus pandemic as a student and a teacher simultaneously has reinforced for me that in the profession of teaching, adaptability is key. Not only will I be an educator that is ready and willing to be flexible and adjust quickly as necessary, but I will teach my students to be adaptable as well. I believe that creating theatre is one of the most powerful ways to build that skill in my students, because as theatre-makers, we are constantly working together to find creative solutions to problems that arise. 

 

I defend the arts as crucial to education because students who create art think differently. They have a better, more open understanding of the world around them, and they know how to  think outside of the box in order to make something entirely new. I have witnessed firsthand the power of theatre to instill confidence in a child lacking in self-esteem, to allow a child to express their true self for the first time, to encourage work ethic in children who were previously unmotivated, and to cultivate an unparalleled spirit of collaboration and teamwork to create a meaningful piece of art. Theatre gave me the courage to be myself and to be unashamed of who I am, and it allowed me to believe that I had something valuable and important to share with the world. I assert that the arts are just as integral to the holistic education of a child as math, reading, science or history. 

 

I promise to be a creative, compassionate, dedicated, and patient educator, because the traits I exhibit are those that my students will learn. To educate a generation of passionate, curious, motivated artists, I must first be a passionate, curious, motivated artist myself.