My Philosophy Of Education How We Must Educate Our Children

Philosophy of Education How we must educate our children in Arkansas, as well as in the United States, has changed over the past twenty years since I began a career in education. Educating our children has become a data-driven task, in which high-stakes testing is the driving force requiring our students to compete with children from countries around the globe. State testing assessments drive curricula and make students, teachers, and principals more accountable for what is happening in the classroom than ever before. Education is focused on the individual child, and there is a greater push for parent involvement. Despite what we see and read in the media, research indicates teacher job satisfaction is still high. Many educators are†¦show more content†¦This experience has changed my philosophy of education. I first strive to build relationships with my students; I do lose some instruction time due to this endeavor, but when my students know I care about and that I believe in them they start to believe in themselves. My philosophy of education begins and ends in the belief that all children can learn (Gunzenhauser, 2012). I believe the way we teach has changed, children come to us with needs that we struggle to understand. Students don’t always come to school ready to learn. Many children lack support systems and must overcome obstacles. They have struggles at ages they are not equipped to deal with. Therefore, we must change the way we approach education. We must take a hard look at our students’ needs and meet those needs before we can teach them. These students may need our help with food one out of every four children are living with food insecurity (Food insecurity | child trends, 2014). Some students need school appropriate clothes, supplies, social skills, more time or health care. These children may need counseling, or may need to be placed in a safer environment. They may need to be placed in a more challenging curriculum or need to be evaluat ed for special education or a 504. Regardless, we must focus on the needs of the whole child before we can ever hope to teach them what they need to learn to be contributing citizens for