Committed teachers change lives.
For this reason I choose to serve as a teacher.
Yet as an educator I am not merely concerned with passing on
information. I believe that all students
are of infinite value. Thus it is important to me to provide a balanced
academic experience. A well-rounded
education develops the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.
In
an effort to increase learning many schools are extending academic hours and
taking away recreational time. Despite
these efforts, however, learning gaps and attention disorders continue to
grow. What most of the world is failing
to realize is that neglecting the physical needs creates imbalance. “Since the
mind and the soul find expression through the body…whatever promotes physical
health, promotes the development of a strong mind…” (White, 1903 p.195) I
believe that students should not be confined to rows of desk or the indoor
environment. Students should be engaged in activities that develop their
bodies. Engaging students in movement enhances learning.
As a Seventh-day
Adventist educator I have an advantage to realizing the opportunities of
physical education as learning environment.
God’s book of nature should be placed before children from their
earliest years (White, 1903). According
to Louv (2008), many children are losing the creativity, passion, and mental
health as more and more nature is being stripped from their world. Nature
provides endless opportunities for the hands-on exploration of science, math,
Bible, and much more.
In order for
students to be engaged in meaningful learning, I believe they need to touch,
manipulate, and interact with their world. Nature lets its students explore
without putting boundaries of textbook on their inquiries. Using the outdoors
as a classroom allows me as a teacher to further individualize education. It allows teachable moments to develop from
experiential learning as well as individual interests and talents. It provides
experiences that will kindle the fire for knowledge in a child’s heart.
It is important to
me to provide a variety of learning experiences. Not all students learn in the same
manner. Students need to be able to
learning cooperatively, through projects, experiences, song, movement, and much
more. As a teacher I am always looking
for new way to teach something, to make learning more real and engaging for
students. I believe that I will never
stop learning; there will be no time in my career where I will consider myself
to “have arrived”.
As a teacher I
consider the destiny of the souls entrusted to me to be my highest responsibly.
It is my desire to bring students so close to Jesus that they can’t resist Him. If a student leave my classroom and remembers
nothing of God I find it to be the greatest tragedy! My goal is found in the
words of John 17:3 “That they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou has sent.” (John 17:3)
“No work ever
undertaken by man requires greater care and skill than the proper training and
education of youth and children.” (Fundamentals of Christian Education p.
57) This quote, which inspired me as a
young undergrad student, still drives my endeavor for excellence today. Children are the future, they are
impressionable, they are the ones to whom the Kingdom of God is promised. I believe that education is the highest responsibility
and the biggest blessing to which anyone can dedicate their lives.
References
Holy
Bible: the new King James version, containing the Old and New Testaments..
(1982). Nashville: T. Nelson.
Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature deficit
disorder. Chapel Hill, NC:
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
White, E. G.
(1903). Education. Mountain View,
California: Pacific Press Publishers Assn., p. 101, 102.
White,
E. G. (1923). Fundamentals of Christian education. Nashville: Southern
Pub. Association.
