Through my experience with children in multiple settings, I have developed a strong belief that all children are individuals with different cultures, experiences, personalities, beliefs, and learning styles. Children deserve to have a right to express their individuality. Designated time should be given in a classroom to allow students to share about themselves. It can be integrated into subject matter or be a special day set aside for each child to teach the rest of the class a little bit about themselves. In some manner or another, children should have the opportunity to express who they are and where they have come from. I feel it is an important part of developing a classroom community where all students feel welcome, important, and equal.

            I believe a teacher’s role is bigger than just teaching for educational purposes. Teachers give support in all aspects of life. Student should have someone, if not available through their family, to confide in, to go to for help resolving problems, and for emotional support. The teacher becomes this confidant. Children should be comfortable in the classroom, with the teacher and other students. It should be their home away from home and be an escape from the negative aspects of life that occur outside of the classroom. Due to the fact that not all children come from supportive home environments, teachers must do their best to make the environment of the classroom friendly, nurturing, and consistent. Establishing regular routines in the classroom can play a vital role in creating a supportive environment and relationship between the child and teacher (Caring Teacher’s 15).

Teachers should teach respect and honesty and value these in their classrooms. “Respect means treating our students as we would want to be treated” (Caring Teacher’s 31). Our students are dependent on teachers to help them develop courage, self-confidence, and values. Values can apply in the classroom as well as in family situations, community, and further on in many experiences the children will have as they grow up in social settings.

On a more traditional level, teachers must educate children so that they can grow up to be successful members of our society. They must teach children to read, write, do mathematics, and understand our history, science, art, music, and healthy lifestyles. Reading aloud is a vital part of education. Frank Serafini and Cyndi Giorgis list 13 reasons why reading aloud is so important. The reasons being: reading aloud increases test scores, introduces readers to new titles, authors, illustrators, genres, and text structures, builds a sense of community, provides opportunities for extended discussions, is pleasurable, connects readers with content area subjects, demonstrates response strategies, increases readers’ interest in independent reading, provides access to books that readers may not be able to experience on their own, provides demonstrations of oral reading and fluency, helps readers understand the connection between reading in school and reading in life, provides demonstrations of quality writing, and supports readers’ development (Reading 8-11). Combined with reading aloud, facilitating discussions can help develop comprehension skills, the ability to construct their own interpretations, and give them the opportunity to develop interpretive skills (Creating Literacy 412).

            Although teachers are a very important part of education, they are not the sole providers for these children. Parents and community need to be involved as much as possible. In some circumstances, parents can not be involved during school hours, but involvement as home can be just as beneficial. Children need someone to read with, ask questions, share what they have learned, and above all, they need someone to give them encouragement and support. They need to have that someone at home that says to them, “I am proud of you for all your hard work you are doing for school.” There needs to be someone that can share with them the importance of education, social skills, values, and give them the internal power to have ambition to succeed. A well known quote says, “It takes a community to raise a child.” I believe this to be true while relating to education as well.

            With this support from teachers, family and community, students need to take responsibility for their education as well. They need to be intrinsically motivated to learn. Goals should be established and worked for. Students should absorb the information being taught, take it seriously, develop friendships, learn social skills, learn values, leave the classroom full of knowledge and with the ability to apply it to the outside world. They need to have the mindset that school is not worthless information but really appreciate what they have learned and develop as human beings as they grow into strong, supportive, educated, respectful adults.

            Teachers, students, parents, and the community all have important roles in the education of a child. When intermixed in a successful way, a child’s education can be more beneficial than any one entity working on its own. I believe education in schools is more than simply learning information out of books. Children must be taught social skills, values, strategies, and information and be able to take it all and turn it into useful information to use in life in general.