My role as an educator is threefold.  I am to translate information into interesting, applicable, and understandable media enabling students to employ knowledge for themselves in the pursuit of goals.  I am to exemplify strong moral character and urge students toward this ideal.  I am to discipline when necessary in order to provide structure, discipline, and stability in students’ lives.

"Knowing how" instead of "knowing that":
All too often teachers only regurgitate information.  This method of teaching does not inspire students, and knowledge is the ultimate goal.  The aim of teaching should be educating students so that they can learn on their own.  “Translating information into interesting, applicable, and understandable media” is a way of employing as many resources as possible to communicate clearly to every student regardless of learning style.  The goal of this type of teaching is to produce students who can autonomously interact with information and harness it to achieve their own goals.

Exemplifying and Urging Strong Moral Character:
The erosion of morality in society has malevolently affected schools. The only moral plumb line some students will encounter is in the public school setting. Therefore, I make it my goal to structure lessons to encourage students to make moral and ethical decisions.  My job is not only to prepare students intellectually, but to direct them in making habitual, upstanding and integral life decisions that lead them down beneficial paths.  I stress universal values such as honesty, kindness, service, loyalty, and diligence as foundational principles of life.

Discipline:
Neglecting a child’s need for discipline produces hellacious adults.  Discipline produces respect, diligence and realistic attitudes towards life.  Students often make it their main goal to push the limit or to test authority.  This tendency must be met early with firm resistance.  Rightly applied discipline can lead to the most impactful lessons in a student’s life.  Refusing a child this privilege produces willful, hyperactive, uncontrollable, and unreliable adults who will only strain society’s resources. 

Learning Theories:
In the school setting, I ascribe to a mixture of acquisition and formalized learning.  Acquisition learning is another term for “learning by doing.”  The learner may not realize learning is taking place because a task is being completed.  Yet, the experience is inherently part of the learning process.  Formalized learning happens when there is someone facilitating the learning.  In this process the learner is aware that learning is taking place.  Aquisition learning is encouraged by classroom proceedures, a range of visual stimuli, and the structure of my assignments. My students are constantly tackling problems together (in dyads or groups) using their knowledge from previous lessons.  I also facilitate formalized learning with direct instruction and guided inquiry. 

*There are 771 million illiterate adults according to the 2006 Global Monitoring Report (UNESCO 2006).