I was pleased with my grade on my philosophy of education paper. I am glad that the way I felt about the content was reflected by my grade. I turned in the paper relatively confident that it was a good statement of how I feel about education, and I'm happy to know that I'm heading in the right direction as far as being able to articulate those feelings.

In class today we discussed that teaching is very value-laden. I think something important to remember is that teachers are human, just like everyone else. We can not be expected to suspend our values and beliefs so that our classrooms are completely objective. Bias is a part of human nature based on what we're exposed to in life and how we are raised. I think it is important that we implement our personal value systems in the classrooms because it helps a teacher to be more comfortable in his/her classroom. Being completely objective all of the time would be very stressful, and would not create a good environment for the students.

However, it is not a good idea for a teacher to force their students into adapting their personal values to match those of their teacher. While a teacher shouldn't have to hide their values in the classroom, they should also leave them to be criticized by their students. It is important that the studetns have the opportunity to disagree or agree with the values of their teacher. They may or may not choose to implement those beliefs in their lives, but regardless they are learning from the experience of breaking them down individually. One way to give students this opportunity would be to talk about values in the beginning of the year while discussing classroom rules and such. This provides a good opportunity for students to discuss how they feel about certain issues, and it helps the studetns and teacher get to know each other better.