Philosophy of Special Education
By becoming a special education
teacher I hope to encourage children to reach their fullest potential in all
areas of academics and life through encouragement and positive
reinforcement. I believe every child
deserves an education that is individualized to fit their needs; an environment
that is enriching and stimulates learning; and a teacher that is loving,
compassionate, understanding, and patient.
Individualized
Education:
A student’s educational plan
should be individualized and customized to fit the student’s personal and
educational needs. I believe students
should be taught through differentiated instruction. Students should be given hands-on activities,
adequate time and space to use materials in the classroom, and positive
feedback on their achievements.
Enriching
and Stimulating Environment:
A student’s environment should be
stimulating and enriching. Every student
deserves to learn in a clean, healthy, friendly, and inviting environment. Students should feel at home in the classroom
as much as possible. When a student feels
comfortable and welcomed in their classroom, they are more likely to learn and
grow.
Understanding
and Compassionate Teacher:
As for me, I believe I, and every
special education teacher, should be understanding of all students and their
needs, compassionate about what and who I teach, and patient with students,
families, and other professionals. Also, teachers should advocate for their
students and encourage students to advocate for themselves. By doing all these things a student’s
self-esteem should rise and when a student has self-esteem, anything is
possible.
Comparing
to other Philosophies:
I believe my educational philosophy
does not fit perfectly into any philosophy discussed in class. I do believe students
need to learn common subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, I also believe there is a way to
teach students these subjects while still focusing on what the individual student
is interested in. Although I believe I lean toward the progressivism
theory more than the essentialism theory, I still believe teachers should set
high standards and goals for each individual child.
My
Educational Experience:
As for my educational experience, I
believe I have seen both approaches (progressivism and essentialism) from my
past teachers. Since I was a military
child, I attended kindergarten through third grade in Germany and moved to the Illinois
in December of third grade. I believe most of my teachers in Germany leaned
more toward the progressive’s philosophy.
I remember one teacher in particular who would let the class vote on the
next theme in the classroom. Then all
the lessons for the next month would follow that theme. Also, the school seemed
to focus a lot of attention on art, physical education, music, gifted and
talented programs, and extracurricular activities. Once I moved to Illinois I
believe everything was a bit more structured and followed more of the
essentialism philosophy. No longer did I
attend art class or my talented and gifted program. Instead everything focused on math, science,
history, and language arts. Once I
arrived in seventh grade we had the opportunity to choose what order we took
certain classes in but we did not choose what those classes were until high
school. Finally in high school I was
able to once again choose some of the classes I attended. My high school offered classes from band to
agriculture to child care. Overall I
came to enjoy my experiences with having the freedom to pick and choose what I
learned about. Sure we still had to
learn the 4 main subjects (math, history, science, and language arts) but
having the freedom to choose other classes made attending to school that much
more enjoyable. As a future teacher, I
hope to give my students some freedom with what they learn. Unfortunately with all the state testing and
regulations the choices they have will probably be very limited.
