Blog Beginning

I have had the feeling that, instead of just carping, I should write down my thoughts on teaching in the hopes that it may help other teachers combat what I see as confusing and incorrect philosophies taught to teachers in colleges of education and inservice classes. I hope these expressions are helpful, and that you are charitable toward me for them! Perhaps my first thought would be that many times people preach and push the opposite in philosophy from what they really are and really do. The art teacher proclaims freedom and imagination in expression and then criticizes any who do differently in their expression of art than he does. The teacher preparation professor, who proclaims forcefully the need for teachers to be caring and nurturing, is subjective and arbitrary in her grading. In my own teaching I have been outspoken in my proclamations for firmness and discipline, yet a principal remarked that certain students were put in my class, because he knew I would be lenient with them. In reading anyone's philosophies, that principle needs to be kept in mind, namely that we do not always internally believe what we verily do think and say we believe. This may be because we are unconsciously pulling against our own perceptions of our own actions when we speak. Perhaps I say this as a disclaimer at the outset! Much of what I have put forward for discussion is coming from an elementary setting, but is also valuable for consideration in the secondary setting as well.