I believe that an outstanding teacher is one who has the courage to learn with their students in a process of inquiry grounded in principles such as these. The teacher's methods, materials, evaluation procedures and discipline strategies must be consistent with the teacher's convictions about the value and purpose of education. I would characterize my teaching style as intense and personal. The greatest reward I find in teaching is the hope I feel when students begin to change. Drugs, crime, sexual permissiveness, unemployment, and the erosion of family life seen to haunt our education system, eating away at the foundational assumptions of the past about the purpose and value of education.
Schools can succeed if they provide much more than the usual basic academic programs.
Our students may seem sophisticated, yet they are often unmotivated to espouse the values upon which reform depends. Their greatest asset for survival is found in their resilience. When basic trust is built through the efforts of a caring teacher, hope awakens and hunger for personal answers begins to be expressed. If teachers are to play a vital role they need special support, special training, and a variety of concrete possibilities in the larger community to which they can point their students. Teachers alone cannot build the partnerships with parents and other caring adults in the community, provide job opportunities, or solve complex social problems which impact our youth.