Teaching from the Heart - My Teaching Philosophy, 2006

I believe needs are capacities.

If you need love, you have the capacity to love.

If you need respect, you have the capacity to respect.

If you need freedom and action, you have the capacity to be free and to act.

If you need communication, you have the capacity to communicate.

If you need community, you have the capacity to be a part of a community.

Et cetera, et cetera.

 

Whatever the content-area at hand, I believe "education" ought to support people in developing their curiosity and interest in exploring these "needs" and "capacities." 

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Love and Respect. All people deserve to experience what it is to give and receive love and respect, and to have the room to learn to be resilient, responsible, and creative.  

Freedom, Action and Reflection. People have innate curiosity, natural intuition, multiple intelligences, and a desire for action and learning.  Learning must be experiential and made meaningful in genuine, real-life context.  

Communication.  We explore and ask questions of ourselves, of others, and of the world in order to learn.  Dialogue toward understanding is powerful.  Understanding intention and language is powerful. 


Community.  Communities, such as school, help us to explore our identities as individuals and as groups.  What we learn together is made meaningful in how we act together.