School is cool.
In education, my philosophy is that students should be educated in such a way that inspires them to want to continue to learn more. Hand in hand with that, educators should lead by example in treating school as a place where everyone is there to learn together, a place of academia where the explicit goal is educating and elevating ourselves. If there is a way of teaching that can spark that interest in students, then I posit that it is the correct way. The arts have a huge advantage in getting students to engage and look forward to being at school and can create a great environment for learning in general to take place. I myself have felt that way as a student, but not initially. For me it took going to college full time without any major or goal in mind, to realize how much I was enjoying being there, that I had wasted time treating school like wasted time. Once that spark was ignited for me and I realized that becoming informed and gaining knowledge was reason enough to attend school, I became excited, decided to focus on art and design, and became a much better and happier student overall. While that was my experience, all students will have different needs, as far as what it takes to become engaged, and so teachers should ready and willing to adapt their teaching style and philosophy to whatever is required, to not just educate the students, but help them find the method or subject area that inspires them to begin to educate themselves. Whether that means taking a progressive approach and guiding students while they find their own way, or a more traditional essentialist approach presenting the information to them directly and consistently, may change student to student. As an educator it is important to pay attention to each individual and spend time and effort on finding out which method will be the most successful in getting each particular student to engage with the material. While it may not be possible to reach every student, striving anyways to do just that is what makes a great teacher. My ultimate goal in an academic setting is to remind the students, and fellow educators alike, that school is a valuable place not to be taken for granted, where we get to better ourselves in whatever way we choose to.