In my classroom, every student is diverse and unique in his or her own fashion. For instance, some students are Caucasian; some are African American; some are Hispanic; some are Asian; some are two or more races; some are Native American; and some are Pacific Islander. Some want to become engineers, some want to become scientists, some want to become football players, some want to become teachers, and some do not know what career path they want to pursue. Some students are social creatures, while some are quiet and keep to themselves. Some are dedicated to school and their education, others are not. However, no matter what the differences are, they can all contribute to the classroom and all differences are welcome.
As I said, all children are unique in their own culture, interests, social habits, and commitment to education. Regardless of their differences, students need a place in which they receive education and social interaction to achieve satisfaction. School is a function in society that fulfills both of these needs. Whether students are shy or outgoing, they all enjoy companionship because they enjoy having someone with whom they can confide. However, students do not often enjoy going to school because they must learn. It is up to the teacher to make learning fun and enjoyable. Otherwise, students will be under the impression the teacher ignores student interest and only wants to lecture. In addition, since students enjoy social interaction, one of the best methods for them to learn is through group activities.
As stated before, one of the most important roles of school is to provide education and social interaction to students. Through these two roles, students achieve happiness because it provides students someone to confide in and an education. Although education may require drudgery, students can learn necessary skills and social values they need to succeed in the real world and their future careers. For students to achieve success in education, schools should teach essentialist and perennialist values, which include basic skills to prepare them for the real world in essentialism and humanistic ideals in perennialism.
Thus, it is the teacher’s role to create a curriculum that makes learning joyful. One of the best methods to accomplish this task is to use student interest as a platform to create a curriculum. In other words, teachers should use social reconstructionism to reconstruct the typical curriculum in their own unique style. Also, teachers should make the classroom more progressive by having students actively participating in classroom practices. In addition, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of social interaction in the classroom. Students must work together in group activities to learn from one another, and again, because they enjoy social interaction.
How are students’ parents involved? First of all, parents must teach their children the social values that are expected in public places such as school. For example, it is the parents’ role to teach them respect for peers and authority figures that is expected of students in school; as a result, students are treated with that same respect. Another important role for the parents is to be involved in their child’s education. Parents have the greatest influence on a child. Thus, if parents are caring of their child’s education, they communicate that they want their child to succeed. Consequently, the child will strive to succeed because his or her parent encouraged them to be successful.
Finally, my belief in teaching is that all four teaching philosophies are important in teaching a diverse group of students. Teachers should use social interaction to facilitate the joy of learning the essentialist and perennialist values. To teach these subjects to make them more appealing to students, teachers use social reconstructionist and progressive values. Because parents have such a strong influence on children, they must be involved with their children’s education as much as possible. All of these elements together give a child the best education possible.