Approach to Education

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The Nature of Life is to Grow A look at ourselves and at the world around us reveals that the nature of life is to grow and evolve. Growth and evolution happen best when allowed to take place in an orderly way. If we look to Nature, we see the order of the seasons, the cycles of rest and activity during the process of growth in all living things. There is intelligence and creativity in that process of evolution. These laws of Nature also support development and growth in all human beings. The quality of every child's natural evolution from childhood into adulthood is determined by many factors such as parenting, cultural background, and education. Ideal education supports a child's natural tendency to grow and evolve through the processes of teaching and learning in ways that develop his full potential. "Ideal education", and "developing the full potential" of every child are lofty goals. They are also attainable goals for teachers and students who approach and participate in the educational process with the belief that great outcomes are possible. Great results come about from educational approaches that work. So like other educators I have asked myself the questions, " How can I be most effective as a teacher?" and "What seems to work best for the student?". I have come to believe in an educational approach that teaches students to be self-referral in their learning and that presents knowledge in ways that students are able to see the relevance of different disciplines and the unity among all disciplines. Students have a self-referral experience when education creates a greater sense of wholeness for the student during learning than they had before because they have grown in consciousness and have come to own knowledge at a very deep level of awareness. Another important aspect of my approach is that the educational process build on students' strengths at the same time that it acknowledges and has the ability to transforms students' weaknesses. Enjoy and Accomplish More Effective teaching inspires, motivates, and guides students to learn. An educational approach that teaches students to be self referral describes a process where students learn that the basis of all disciplines is consciousness and as they grow in consciousness and go deeper into knowledge they come to understand it in terms of themselves and how it relates and connects to the world around them. In order to teach from this intention, first there needs to be a mutually respectful teacher and student relationship. A teacher who embodies what she teaches is modeling the process of self-referral for her students. She brings inspiration, motivation and guidance to her students by the holistic quality of her life as well as her profession. For example, if students see creativity, intelligence, happiness, professional expertise, balance, self awareness, artistic productivity and other such qualities in a teacher, they will take notice. They will naturally be receptive to this kind of teacher and to the possibility of developing these qualities in themselves. Receptivity is crucial because only when students are receptive, are they are open to learning. They are also intrinsically motivated to learn instead of being extrinsically motivated solely by grades or peer pressure to learn or not. A receptive student enjoys learning. A student who enjoys learning will go after that enjoyable experience again and again and in their enjoyment and receptivity accomplish and master the material. Deeper understanding of knowledge along with practical application creates new possibilities for students. They experience a sense of accomplishment and success. Successful students enjoy and accomplish more. Another component of my educational approach is creating student awareness of the value of knowledge. Every teacher has been asked, "Why do we have to learn this?". It is a valid and intelligent question. During student teaching, I was asked this question by students who didn't see the value of Art or what relevance it had to their lives. I also understood that their inability to see its value stemmed from seeing Art as separate from other disciplines. In "Personal Summary " I describe Consciousness Based Education(CBE) as an educational approach that emphasizes teaching the different parts of knowledge in relation to the field of total knowledge, pure consciousness. CBE also emphasizes the interrelatedness among disciplines and how one discipline may enhance another. Chemistry, history, language skills, computer science, anatomy, and critical thinking contribute to the making. of art. Making art enlivens and develops creativity in ways that may be applied in all other disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach teaches students to value and respond to knowledge because it is relevant to themselves and to their lives.   Developing the Full Potential of Every Student A third component of my approach to education is effective methods for learning or the process of knowing. It is important to incorporate teaching methods and assignments that acknowledge what the student already knows and that challenge him towards greater learning and developing his full potential. I believe that education should develops wholeness in the life of the learner . This means always teaching parts of knowledge with reference to the wholeness of knowledge. In the classroom this is easily carried out by beginning each lesson with an overview of the complete lesson. At the end of the lesson, teacher and students express wholeness again by speaking and writing out the main points of the lesson. Wall charts that give themes and overviews for the week, the semester and the year are very effective in presenting, the wholeness - parts -wholeness concept and for keeping the wholeness value of knowledge lively in students' consciousness. I take a holistic approach to curriculum design with the intention of creating a rich variety of lesson plans that meet the requirements of local, state, and national standards. Detailed lesson plans I have created may be viewed on the "Curriculum Design" page. A valuable curriculum for students in secondary eduction includes a schedule of lesson plans based on constructivist approaches to learning such as problem based learning and cooperative learning strategies. It would also be flexible in consideration of the range of learning abilities, acknowledge the multiple intelligence approach to learning, and celebrate the cultural diversity of students. This approach to education has the goal of creating enlightened students by developing the full potential of every student, Teaching accomplishes this goal of enlightening the student when the student has grown in heart and mind from learning new knowledge. A student truly owns knowledge when he is able to experience knowledge in terms of himself, and to express it in ways that are of value to himself and to others. When others appreciate his expression, then a student feels fulfilled because he has enriched the quality of life for himself and his society.