1. Who am I and what motivates me?
I am an individual that has the capability to progress constantly throughout my life and to help others. I understand that I am a Son of God and I have the inherent potential to be like Him. What motivates me is the potential that I understand in myself and in others. When I recognize that I have a certain potential that I need to live up to, then I know that I can reach it. I will do everything in my power to reach that potential because the feeling of achieving it is amazing, but then I can make new goals to progress further than that. I understand that I have a responsibility to help others and the only way that I can be motivated to do that is by seeing the grand potential that these people have.
2. How do I view those I teach?
Each one of the individuals that I teach has the potential to learn and grow and I have the opportunity to help them achieve their goals and to realize their potential. Each student is a child of God that God wants to see learn and progress through the trials in this life. Each student will have different trials and will require different teaching techniques.
3. What is my work as learner and teacher?
My job as a learner is to implement doctrines, principles, and tools simultaneously to be able to understand and increase my knowledge. I will have to find out for myself whether what I am taught is truth. I also need to act rather than be acted upon. When I am forced to act rather than acting for myself then my potential is limited, but if I act for myself then I can realize my own potential and not have someone else limiting it. My job as a teacher is to allow the students to find out for themselves whether what I am teaching is truth and assure myself that I allow them to act for themselves. If I implement the example of the Savior as a teacher then as I teach the correct doctrines and principles then the student will be able to have tools to apply those teachings.
4. What is worth teaching?
Inspiring students to become life-long learners. If I have a student that receives 100% on a test, but does not apply to their lives what they have learned, then it will do them no good. If I see that the students are developing into life-long learners and can feel a passion for learning then I will feel successful as a teacher and feel like I accomplished my purpose and have witnessed the worth of teaching.
5. How do I learn?
I learn from acting. If I listen and just take in facts then I am not truly learning. I am just able to spit out facts, but when I act on the data that I have received and try to learn for myself that it’s the correct teachings, then I will gain knowledge.
6. Upon what foundation are U.S. public schools built?
From my experience with public schools, I felt like the school systems try too hard to prepare us for “life” rather than preparing us to be learners. This I feel is their foundation that they build upon. All of the tools they give us are what they believe will help us to succeed in life and contribute to society.
7. What is the role of school in society?
The role of school in society should be to aid us in becoming true learners. To be able to take what we have learned and find out for ourselves whether it is true. This is the role that school should have, but I feel like that does not happen until we reach the post high school education stage. Schools focus is not turning us into learners, but rather turning us into well behaved citizens.