My Teaching Philosophy

“Once you have learned how to ask questions – relevant and appropriate and substantial questions – you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” - Neil Postman

We now live in a world that has information constantly forming, moving, and changing around us. For me, to be able to teach my students to not only think critically, but learn how to use available resources to research and analyze information is the greatest skill set that I can teach them – not just for college and other forms of post secondary education they may seek, but as adults for the rest of their lives.

Social studies encompasses a large range of concepts, including, but not limited to, economics, civics, current events, government, society, culture, history, and geography. All of those concepts each carry dozens of other concepts that branch out from them. In political science, there is a term called "big tent". While this term is traditionally used to signify a political party that seeks to attract people who have a variety of views, I see it in social studies as a term that means that we should not settle for just one method or way of thinking. Social studies appeals to so many diverse viewpoints and ideologies. For example, two people can look at Hegel's writings on civil society and walk away with completely different opinions on the topic.

"History is written by the victors." - Winston Churchill

In order for students get the most out of social studies, I do not believe in teaching out of the textbook alone. There are so many differing viewpoints on the same subjects that now exist in books and online texts that students more than ever have the opportunity to see the same topic from differing angles. All students, no matter their track of life or socioeconomic circumstance, need to be aware of past political and sociological events so that they can use that prior knowledge to be vigilantly aware in current, contemporary situations.

"Knowledge is power." - Francis Bacon 

"What you don't know can hurt you." - Dave Ramsey

Students need to be taught to not take everything they hear or read at face value. One of my goals has been to teach them to identify sources of information so that they can become informed citizens who can properly judge the value of leaders and policy based upon what they have learned about past societies.  Students also need to know that lack of knowledge can hurt them. If we are to continue as democratic society, investigating and learning about history and current events is an invaluable practice that we need to imbue in the decision-makers of tomorrow.

History is a dominant subject area, but I believe that other social sciences should be integrated into the curriculum and be used to supplement the lessons. For example, Economics can be used to explain the onset of the Great Depression, or Geography can be used to explain why the Allies landed at Normandy instead of Pays de Calais on D-Day. The point is that history can only explain to us what happened; we need to use the social sciences to understand why.

I believe that I can truly make a difference teaching social studies. Each day, I have gone to school with the mission of fostering my students' idealism - which will, ideally, encourage them to go out and improve the world. As a team, my students and I can make strides in the effort to not only solve the issues of the past, but to make the present better and the future a little brighter.