On Writing Educational Philosophy Papers

In the last seven years of my educational career, I’ve written at least eight different educational philosophy papers. Each paper was a honing experience—a draft of a draft if you will. Each draft more plainly articulated a clearer picture of my educational values, and when I was asked to write my philosophy for the National Writing Project, I was seriously thinking about breaking the latest draft out and have another go at it. I mean it would be easier, right?

But honestly, the latest draft is as boring as the first. And while it may be an example of smooth, professional writing, it is also an example of what I think others want to hear about my educational beliefs. It is an expression of my undergraduate and graduate educational experience—not my practical experience. It's filled with pseudo intellectual jargon like “scaffolding” and “synthesis.” It’s ripe with phrases like, “using small groups to empower students to find, to evaluate, to participate, and to apply critical thinking skills, while being changed by truth encountered in literature.” (Notice the planed parallelism?) And while I believe in all of those things, I’ve found that my main goal in the classroom is much more basic. I want to teach or encourage students not to hate reading, writing, and learning. Somewhere between second and ninth grade, somehow, learning becomes mundane to most students. Learning becomes like your seventh kiss. You’re just going through the motions—no more butterflies, no more worry about where your hands go—just another kiss. I try to remind them that learning, reading, and writing can be empowering given the right scenario (like a first kiss).