I feel that the ideal profile of a teacher today includes someone who is loving, caring, patient, understanding, perceptive, even-tempered, and willing to accept change.  The ideal teacher is someone who wants to continue his or her own growth in the same way that he or she is trying to show growth in their own students.  A great teacher is more interested in the progress of the student than they are in the negatives that go along with teaching.  A great teacher will forget the negatives as soon as they go home and start the next day fresh with only his or her students learning in mind.

The purpose of school is to better prepare the student for the world when they graduate, so that they can enjoy success in life and relationships.  School is there to help the student become a productive member of society.  It gives the student the tools that are necessary to make sure they succeed in whatever they decide to do.  School should generate a love and appreciation of learning that will continue throughout a lifetime for each and every student.

The major goal for educating our children is to make sure that they are prepared for the world after school.  The goal of education is to make sure that each student can succeed in whatever they choose and in whatever direction they decide to go.  The major goal of education is to create a better future the student.  Schools are best organized to meet the needs of learners if they focus on the learner first and let all other things come afterwards. 

The role of bureaucracy in schools (i.e. school boards, state departments of education, the federal government) is to provide necessary guidance and structure to maintain a continuity of ideas, goals, and achievement throughout an entire system.  This unifying force is necessary so that all children will receive the core ingredients of an education, thus allowing the basics to be consistent among a large group of learners.  It is also necessary to provide a source and method for doling out funding and a standardized system for measurement of achievement as a means of rating the equivalency of students in different schools/districts/counties/states.  I feel that the federal government sometimes tries to get too involved in the school the wrong way.  Sometimes they make decisions without going into the school to see how the decision they made affects the students.  Sometimes it puts too much pressure on schools when it comes to testing, but I feel that the teacher can take what he or she has been given and rise to the challenge and use that to better his/her students.

The ideal curriculum for a school is one that best provides a balance between the skills that have been determined necessary to exist within society and yet allow for the exploration into the specialized skills and talents that may exist within the individual.  A school has to have writing and arithmetic, but it still needs to leave enough time for music and the arts. 

I feel that assessments should be made frequently in order to establish where the student is in their learning.  Based on each assessment, the teacher can determine what type of instruction they need going forward.  Instruction needs to differ for each student to best meet their needs.  In order to continue student growth, so they are not held in place or moving backwards, they need to be challenged just enough, so they continue to move forward.  This is one of the most important jobs of a teacher.