Educational Philosophy

Since my educational journey will lead me to a school library rather than to a classroom, my philosophy focuses on reading. I believe that there is a reader in every child and to unlock that reader each child must be viewed as an individual so that their own unique passion for learning is ignited. I know that there has been a tremendous amount of research conducted that shows how reading can improve a child’s grades and test scores but reading is much more powerful than that. Reading alters you on a personal level so that you never view yourself or the world around you in the same way again. Possessing this ability to broaden children’s horizons is why I want to become a librarian and in order to be the kind of teacher and librarian who positively affects their students’ lives requires thoughtfulness and the ability to change on my part. This entails an honest and continual introspection of my biases and beliefs, matching my actions to my “talk” so that my library is inclusive and affirming of diversity, and maintaining a true desire to reach every child through literature.

The first step is to look honestly and objectively at myself because as Mrs. Fitzpatrick cautioned in her class, “…what you essentially are teaching your students is you.”, so it is important for me to truly know myself. Everything that has happened up to this point in my life has shaped me into the person that I am which directs the way in which I interact with others. This is particularly critical to me because I understand what an impact a teacher can have on their students, good and bad, and as I stated earlier I want to have a positive effect on my students. So, self-examination can aid in developing a better sense of self and a heightened awar...

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...ns and within the library so that same enthusiasm is evoked in my students. I will remember how much richer my life is because of reading and strive to provide that enrichment to others because I simply cannot imagine my life without books and libraries.

References

Allison, D. (1994). A question of class. In H.S. Shapiro, K. Latham & S.N. Ross (Eds.), The institute of education (5th ed., chap.12). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Nieters, L. (2011). Seeing and understanding class in schools. Class assignment, pg. 1-5.

Risner, Doug (n.d.). What Matthew Shepard would tell us: Gay and lesbian issues in education. In H.S. Shapiro, K. Latham & S.N. Ross (Eds.), The institute of education (5th ed., chap.12). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Woodward, Jeanette (2005). Creating the customer-driven library: Building on the bookstore model. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.