Urban SEALS Doctoral Student

As educators, I think it is critical that personal beliefs about education be explored, and be one of an ongoing process as one acquires additional pedagogical knowledge and experience. As a special educator, my philosophy has been rooted in one that is student centered and of humanistic nature. I believe in focusing on the individual needs of each of my students and involving students in the process of learning.  It is my belief that individual differences need to be recognized, respected, and even celebrated.  As educators, we need to look at the whole child.  Like the hidden part of an iceberg underwater, children’s interior is often unseen and requires scaffolding. As Dewey once said, “Mountain peaks do not float unsupported; they do not even rest upon the earth. They are the earth in one of its manifest operations.”  Children are truly a work of art, a masterpiece in the making; an iceberg slowly forming with so much hidden underwater to go unnoticed and I believe it is our responsibility and obligation to ensure that they are cultivated to their greatest potential