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"To educate is essentially to form."
-Paulo Freire
Education opens up a pathway to success. While this is not to say that schooling is required for one's success, learning in such an environment creates a more organized and cohesive comprehension of many subjects. While it’s unfortunate that so many jobs require higher degrees nowadays, skills acquired through academics help to prepare people for life down the line. Schooling helps to facilitate effective learning and the concepts learned in school help to broaden and shape an individual’s worldview so that they may understand how they want to interact with and impact the world around them. Education helps to ensure we have the same base knowledge to build off of, creates a sense of community through collaboration, and offers a diverse set of viewpoints, it helps to create a sense of self by allowing people to find and explore their passions. While teachers are the main supporters of education within a school environment, counselors are just as important, working with the students on a more personal level, one-to-one, and helping to facilitate understanding and a cohesive environment with the teachers, and sometimes with the parents too.
My values revolve around empathy, the safety and comfort of others, and self-expression. You never know what someone is going through, so keeping an open mind, treating them with kindness, offering a listening ear, and allowing them to act as their most authentic self makes all the difference to them, affecting the world around them. My beliefs manifest both in and outside of the school environment. I want the children I work with to feel safe enough to express themselves.
I want school to be fun for children. Schooling is such a pillar of our society and future, and so I want students to have fun while at school! Learning should be done eagerly- it should be intrinsically motivated. I want students to have one less “burden” on their shoulders– one less thing to worry about. If something at home happens, or something happens at school, I want them to come to me, not with dread or while feeling ashamed, but feeling a bit relieved at the fact they know they can tell me their stories and perspectives- that they know I genuinely want to help them feel understood, taken care of, and am eager to help them grow and connect with the world around them.
Teaching should not just be about meeting the required checkpoints. Teaching and learning from both educators and students should be done eagerly! If the teacher is not excited or passionate, then the students will catch onto that and absorb that negative mindset in turn. Sometimes, students need to be put into a position where they can fully focus on schooling.
Sometimes, students bring issues from home or even in their general social life into the classroom. This is something that can make them “act out” whether it be through learned aggression, meltdowns, shutting down, and the like. It is important for people with power in these environments to not assume the worst and to keep an open mind so that a student feels comfortable enough to receive help.
The things I most remember from school are when I had fun. Those fun lessons stick with you. Children have enough stressors in their lives. We may as well make school; a mandatory place they stay at for 1/3 of their day something to look forward to; somewhere they feel safe to be authentically themselves. Children learn best when they feel safe enough to make mistakes and learn from them.
My dream environment to work with children will hopefully look like this: an open space that’s inviting and doesn’t make one anxious with clutter, motivational posters or children’s work proudly displayed on the walls, a box of fidget toys, allergen-free candies readily available, diverse seating options so that the student can feel comfortable while we work together, and multiple ways of communicating via whiteboards, papers, and communication cards.
To appeal to students regardless of their learning styles when trying to teach them new coping mechanisms or helping them work through their feelings, resources will be presented in various formats. There can be informational videos, worksheets, and informative pamphlets. I’m willing to take the time to connect it to their interests and make the work we do more personal and fun for the student! I want the students to not feel discouraged or embarrassed when they go to see me– they should feel proud of themselves for making use of the resources available to them, and for taking care of themselves. Sometimes, going to see the school counselor is associated with “being in trouble” or a sense of shame, but that doesn’t need to be the case! I hope students who work with me see that they are being treated fairly and with respect.
The role of a counselor is to help a student recognize their potential to succeed and help reinforce their development of the whole self. Counselors have direct contact with students, and with this more one-on-one interaction, they have a chance to know students on a more personal level- especially as counselors do not need to switch from year to year unlike many teachers do. Counselors can help students to have better school and working lives, mainly by teaching them how to find their place in the world and skills to help balance themselves.
Nature vs. Nurture is an old argument about the influence genetics vs. the environment has on one’s disposition and development. Educators and counselors can positively nurture students: by teaching them to be kind to themselves and others, encouraging curiosity and unbiased truth-seeking, and allowing children to pursue their interests without judgment. People are not wholly created by their genetics alone; by helping students to understand that the world around them helps to shape them, they can hopefully curate an environment that best suits their needs and self-development.
Autonomy is the capacity and ability to act on one’s values and self-interests. Students should have a degree of autonomy in their school life. Though I will not be defined strictly as an educator, there is no doubt that when working with children, I will be teaching them certain concepts and coping mechanisms. Visiting a counselor- or any school official or adult can be daunting, so I would like students to feel free to express themselves healthily. I wish to respect their boundaries and offer them options regarding what they would like to share, talk about, and learn. I would allow them to choose how they wish our time together is spent, so long as we tackle whatever they came to see me for. I want students to feel understood and genuinely cared about
Paulo Frier’s dialogical model of education is something that sticks out to me. It teaches students to think for themselves and make informed decisions about the world around them, even outside of the classroom. Students will recognize challenges in the world around them and grow as individuals. The thing that caught my attention was the fact that students and teachers are equal; everyone learns from each other, and power is shared– it is not teachers vs. the students or students vs. each other– it is the people against the unfairness of the systems put into place. Education is a means to freedom. I want students to recognize this and for them to seek out knowledge and help unabashedly.
Overall, my teaching style focuses on the comfort of students and focuses on curating a safe environment for students to discuss their feelings and needs. Students need to feel safe to learn, and that comes from keeping an open mind, allowing them autonomy and freedom, encouraging their passions, and treating them with respect. I want students to feel happy and proud of themselves for seeking out aid by seeing me. Everyone deserves to feel loved and understood.
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