WHAT EDUCATION SHOULD BE FOR

-I believe that education should be used to enhance the human experience and enlighten the student to deeper understanding of the world. Education happens the day we enter the world as we start to sense of the environment we exist in. I think that education professionals are responsible for furthering the student’s inquiry process into the world so that they can make meaningful sense out of it.
-I believe teachers educate people by providing them the tools and skills to succeed. It is through education that individuals realize their own ability and power. It is through self-realization of ability that society advances.
-I believe that education takes the shape of many different forms and is a dynamic and complex process that continues over the course of ones life. I think that as educators we are responsible for being examples of life long learners. The most interesting teachers and professors I had in my formal education were the ones who were always interested in advancing their own knowledge along with the class. Instead of acting like solo experts, today’s educators must act as creative investigators.
-I believe that educators should never make a students education feel completed, determined or resolved.
-I believe traditional education is a privilege that many people around the world have little or no access to. I think there is a social responsibility to acknowledge the freedom and opportunity that comes along with the privilege of institutionalized education that offer formal qualifications.
-I believe education should encourage students to develop their own identity and to understand and appreciate the identity of others.
-I believe that a strong democracy is dependant on an education that emphasises literacy as a means to participate in local, national and global realms.

WHAT THE SCHOOL SHOULD STRIVE FOR

-I believe the school should strive to create an inclusive community that supports students to inquire about themselves, others, and the world. The community of the school should be one that allows for multiple different perspectives and ways of life.
-I believe a school should strive for a well-rounded advancement of the student, by providing access to arts, music, sports, academics, clubs, social responsibility, etc. Furthermore, I believe schools should introduce children to structure, routine, self and community responsibility.
-I believe the school should offer a gay-straight alliance club or some sort of safe place reduced of sexual sigma for students to be.
-I believe the school should offer the safely and support that is offered in an ideal home environment. Unlike the home the school should offer a learning environment that has a higher level of social engagement. Bullying should be condemned in all situations. Furthermore, there should be a system where teachers are assigned to mentor students who are vulnerable to bullying at school. Schools must be aware of the human relations within the school.
-I believe that in school all language should be inclusive/ non-derogatory.
-I believe that school should strive to make students feel safe in their own identities whether that is race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. one example could be creating gender-neutral bathrooms.
-I believe the social institution of the school, and teachers, need to demonstrate social equality, fairness and morality in their actions. School is where I, as a student, first came to grapple with the ideas of social justices and equality. Ideas of a just community and global citizenship should be of the upmost importance for a school.
-I believe schools should strive to be involved in current events and should encourage students to develop a sense of both local and global citizenship.
-I believe that gender-neutral uniforms should be wore by students to de-emphasis social class and gender ideals in the learning environment.
-I believe that schools should support English language learners as they strive for cognitive academic language proficiency.
-I believe that students should be allowed to speak in the language they feel most comfortable using in social situations, however English/French should be encouraged in academic areas of study in British Columbia.
-I believe that students should have access to a wide variety of clubs and groups afterschool or at lunch, especially clubs that emphasis social action, community development and cultural awareness.

THE SUBJECT MATTER OF EDUCATION

-I believe the subject- matter of education should encourage students to question what they learn and how it changes the world they already know. Subject matter should be learned in ways that emphasis concept-based learning over knowledge-based learning.
-I believe that students should learn fundamentals in many subjects that can be built upon over time and can make interdisciplinary inquiries.
-I believe that students should be engaging in subject matter through critical thought processes. I think that the Subject matter of education becomes increasing less important as inquiry and critical reflection become more important. It is much easier for information to flow in and flow out of the brain than to grapple, engage and make sense of it. I forget much of the information I was told to memorize yet I still think about topics that I was made to deeply and meaningfully reflect upon.
-I believe that including Indigenous education in significant ways is crucial to well rounded education, along with the inclusion of multiple perspectives such as women, minorities, and queer.
-I believe that teachers should equip students with the ability to “learn from media, to resist media manipulation, and to use media materials in constructive ways, but are also concerned with developing skills that will help create good citizens and that will make individuals more motivated and competent participants in social life” (Kellner & Share).
-I believe that strong critical media literacy allows students the control to the creation of their own worldviews along with their own identities that fit in with their social, political and economic values.

THE NATURE OF METHOD

-I believe the nature of method in education should strive to get students to investigate inquire about the world around them. This happens when the student engages in critical dialogue with their community.
-I believe the teacher should be passionate, approachable and knowledgeable. The presentation of a student’s formal education greatly affects the student’s ability to comprehend and digest new material. It also greatly affects the student desire to learn. This weighty task should be held for individuals who are engaged with their classrooms and who desire to know their students.
-I believe the methods of education should be student-centered and concept-based. Grading students on their progress should only be done to advance the student. I believe that excessive use of grading does little to encourage and motivate students. There should be a strong focus on intrinsic motivation. Similarly, I believe that education should move away from standardized, high-stakes test- taking.
-I believe a variety of methods should be used in a student’s educational experience to expose them to as many different learning styles and ways of engagement as possible. This is especially so for students who experience learning disabilities. Flipped and blended learning, along with field trips (place-based learning) are a great addition to the standard classroom-learning environment.
-I believe that strategies for social motional learning should be woven into the fabric of education so that teaching naturally considers the social well being of the pupil.
-Similar to Dewey’s approach of connecting theory with practice and reflection with action I believe educational method should be based in active learning, experimentation, problem solving and reflection.
-I believe in brain-based learning styles that are informed by the child and youth cognitive development.

THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

-I believe schools have a social responsibility to be leaders in their respective communities by modeling social and environmental justice.
-I believe the school should act as a place that encourages students to think about social reform and social justice. I believe students should be taught multiple different perspectives in their education and that teachers should shy away from teaching to one dominant viewpoint.
-I believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to invite students to deconstruct how they form a sense of self in relation to others based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity…etc.
-I believe the school should make efforts to link students to important resources regarding career aspirations, emotional well-being and social activism.
-I believe that schools should acknowledge structural privileges, for example the differences of race between those in power and those who are not.
-I believe that the school should be a space that invites its members to acknowledge the ancestral lands of indigenous people in which it is built.
-I believe that schools should encourage social progress by creating critical citizens, over ‘good ‘ citizens
-I believe that the school should address present-day of environmental –leading by example through green incentives and up to date education.