Philosophy

Jina Kim
ECD 101
September 24, 2012
Philosophy
My personal philosophy is: to instill good morals and values in all children; respect all children and their families’ cultures, ethnicities, race, beliefs, and structure; and to treat each child fairly to ensure that all children feel equally special. Also to have families, communities, and educators work as one; remain a lifelong advocator of children; exhaust all resources before deciding to hold a child back a grade; and to maintain a constant fun, loving, safe, and positive environment for each child. It is a philosophy such as the one I have set forth that will encourage all families to feel welcomed, all children to feel loved, and everyone to want to work together as one in order to aid in a child’s optimal development. Early childhood education is important because it is the starting point to the further development of the brain and also the first stepping stone into expanding children’s knowledge. Learning starts in infancy, long before formal education begins, and continues throughout life. Early learning begets later learning and early success breeds later success, just as early failure breeds later failure. Success or failure at this stage lays the foundation for success or failure in school, which in turn leads to success or failure in post-school learning. Recent studies of early childhood investments have shown remarkable success and indicate that the early years are important for early learning. Moreover, early childhood interventions of high quality have lasting effects on learning and motivation. My plan is to become an elementary school art teacher so my activity plan will consist of art journals, clay projects, painting projects, and many other activities that will help a child to express oneself through a fun and simple project. Research shows that as children participate in artistic activities, it unconsciously brings out a child’s hidden emotions and without knowing it, the child tends to express any kinds of hardships, happiness, or even future wishes into these art projects with the usage of a certain color scheme or a certain drawing pattern. So with the help of these art projects it will allow me to connect to the child by giving me a chance to better understand my children through interpretations and representations of the child’s art and possibly find a good solution to these issues. So to connect with the families of my children I plan on having weekly meetings with all the parents and if I find that the child seems troubled based on the interpretations of the child’s artwork, than I plan on having separate meetings with those parents so that I can be able to explain to the parents how their child feels. It is best to keep the parents informed so that they can better the child’s educational abilities and keep the child in a stable environment. In these meetings I plan on showing the parents their child’s art “portfolios” and allowing the parents themselves to interpret the drawing so that they can have a better understanding of how their child feels whether it is happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion. This is the best possible way to allow the parents to personally connect with their child and to allow the parent to connect with me as the teacher. In conclusion, my philosophy is to become the first stepping stone in a child’s future success by starting their education in art with fun activities that expresses their hidden desires. To connect with the children in a personal way, to allow them to express hidden emotions, and to connect to the parents in a way that will allow them to better understand their child’s needs, wants, and happiness. It is my goal to be able to start a child’s art education in a way that will allow them to better themselves and to be successful in their future no matter what field they plan on studying.