My belief about teaching and learning

I am an English teacher, but I did not get into education because I had a passion to teach people how to read or write or think or appreciate great literature. And it certainly wasn’t because I had any idea about how to go about teaching those things. My reasons were more general than that and it wasn’t until I actually began to teach that I understood that teaching things like reading and writing and thinking were some of the means by which I might achieve my more general purposes.

I got into education because I believed, and still do, that it is the primary gateway for many people to realize their humanity and that for many more, especially for those living on the fringes of society, it is the only route to that realization and a life that makes being fully human possible.

I find it difficult to separate my beliefs about life in general from my beliefs about education; I find it even more difficult to publicize these beliefs. Suffice it to say, that when I was 24, I rejected most of the beliefs that had served as the foundation of my life for those 24 years—beliefs that most of my family and friends still hold. I shifted my thoughts and actions from a focus on what might happen to me after I die to a focus on who I wanted to be before I died, a focus on process rather than destination.

Without the clear sense of destination that had directed and informed my life and actions, I immediately began to flounder, trying not only to establish what I believed, but why I believed it and how I would therefore live. I am still floundering, more used to it than I was but still not at ease with it. There’s a lot to be said for being sure about things, there is great peace in knowing. But I have been unable or unwilling to swap the relative discomfort that haunts my unsteady search for my truth for the peace and security of unquestioned certitude. And so I flounder and will continue to flounder as long as I continue to truly live and question the reasons for living the way I do.

Much of the meaning of life for me revolves around the process of learning—learning why and how I and others believe and act as we do, learning why and how the world works as it does. The extent to which a person is able and willing to learn dictates the extent to which he can love, believe, hope, flounder, and act as an individual in a society of individuals. The necessary constants of learning are thought and action; each of our individual lives are the variables that render each of our equations ultimately similar and different. We can’t learn without thinking and we can’t think, or turn those thoughts into practical use, without effort. Being part, on a daily basis, of an enterprise primarily devoted to learning—this most human of all human acts—was part of the reason I became an educator. To practice and develop this skill among those whose only avenue to their full humanity is the public school system was the rest of the reason. Education allows, and on good days, encourages the expression of who I want to be, an expression that is at the core of being human and boils down to learning and making good use of that learning.

The primary role of a teacher, therefore, is not to teach, but to induce, incite, and inspire learning. The best teacher I have had, so far, was my dad. He did all of the things that a good teacher does—he built an unconditional relationship with me, he modeled what he believed, he hardly ever told me what I should believe, what I should do or how I should do it, and he was always supportive after my inevitable failures. He made me want to learn and it was only after I was married with children of my own that I realized how much learning he inspired in me.

By extension, teaching that attempts to induce, incite and inspire learning—thinking and effort—is perhaps the noblest act of humanity. To attempt to arm students with the tools they need (reading, writing, thinking, an appreciation of great literature) to do the mental, psychological, and physical work of making sense of their world and their place in it is the hardest, most rewarding work there is. To attempt to create an environment and experiences that allow them to understand that “there is no more encouraging fact than their unquestionable ability to elevate their lives by a conscious endeavor” (Thoreau) is the obligation and joy of teaching.

It is in these attempts, in creating and molding and smashing and recreating these processes of learning that teachers provide an indispensable service to society, to their students and, perhaps most importantly, to themselves.

I have been in education for twenty-four years, working in FWISD. The experience of working in an inner-city school district has reinforced my core values of hard work, honesty, character, equality and life-long learning.

I believe in the power of our youth they can accomplish anything when they put their mind to it. I want to be the administrator that can lead minds into the future with positive fulfilling relationships and education

I am honored and humbled to serve at Carter Riverside and look forward to working with and meeting all members of the Carter-Riverside community.