I would like to begin by stating my belief that no individual deserves to be a teacher half-heartedly. The opportunity to guide and educate others should only be granted to those with a true desire to see change both in the world and in their students. While such passion is hard to measure, it is clear from a student’s perspective which teachers are fully invested and which are not. As a student, seeing the inequalities between and the segregation of “good” kids from “bad” in the classroom had an immense impact on the ways in which I view both myself and my peers. These experiences fueled my path towards becoming a teacher.

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          I believe that students would learn better if they understood that their worth is not and should not be based on numbers. Going through high school, for instance, was a cycle of worrying about rank, grades, and GPA. I highly agree with Jean Piaget’s idea of intelligence and plan to implement their theory into my future classroom. Piaget saw intelligence as a human trait, not as something used to categorize people. As a teacher, I plan to put more emphasis on how my students got to an answer rather than the mere correctness of it. In the science classroom, in particular, it is important to promote disequilibrium. Students are driven to learn best when in a state of disequilibrium, as this requires them to make sense of the world around them. An essential element of implementing this theory is to pose probing questions without answering them yourself. The questions should cause enough disequilibrium to spark curiosity in the classroom, giving the student a motive to question, think, and theorize themselves. One’s ability to build theories and hypotheses is much more valuable than reaching the correct answer.

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          A guiding principle for my philosophy is the idea that teachers must take a nurturing role, not in the sense of being a parent, rather a practice of care. Teachers cannot ignore the structural inequality that exists and impinges on the lives of marginalized students; many struggle with and are subjected to oppression, poverty, and abuse. It is crucial that we as teachers recognize that a student’s silence or inappropriate behavior, for example, does not make a child inherently “shy” or “bad.” There are underlying issues for a person’s way of being, and we must work to support and understand the student’s multidimensional identity. A vital element of nurturing is the incorporation of proper representation in teaching the history of science, which includes women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks. Teaching and showing students this history can cultivate an inclusive and encouraging environment. In sum, this guiding principle is solidified with the idea that a child’s abilities are contingent on the basis of nurture, not nature. As a teacher, our job to nurture curiosity, foster exploration, and learn from students.