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Teaching
Statement
For
the past several years, when my family and friends learned that
I was studying Chinese,
their response was inevitably, “Chinese is the wave of the future! You are so
wise for studying
Chinese.” From my perspective,
however, I chose to study Chinese because of its rich historical
past. If Chinese is the wave of the future, then
Chinese is first and foremost the wind that creates
the waves.
Understanding how history has unfolded over a
series of people, events, and places so
as to understand today
is intrinsically valuable; this satisfies an innate
curiosity about where
humans came from and how humans got to
where we are, and it also informs the present
much
like a personal memory informs each person’s actions. For
example, a Chinese proverb says, “If
one is
bit by a snake, he/she will be afraid of a rope for ten years.”
This principle may be applied
to history. The study
of the past is like studying a large memory bank. Some lessons
will be
learned, some will be re-learned and some
will be forgotten. It is our responsibility as educators
to show
students that learning about the past and thinking
about the future is their responsibility
because we are all
contributing to one large collective memory bank.
Furthermore, it is our
challenge to help students make
connections from the global past to the global present,
drawing
from as many sources as possible so as to maximize the
truth of the social order.
From
these connections, students develop ideas on how to engage,
sustain, and, possibly,
improve the social order.
Understanding American democracy requires examination of the
nation’s
history and political thought. Many students
do not think of highly involved town gatherings as part
of
American democracy; American politics today is enamored
with celebrities and businessmen.
Ironically, Alexis de
Tocqueville witnessed American democracy and warned, “When
the past no
longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in
darkness.” Democracy, he affirmed, is contingent
on
consistent effort. In order to preserve American democracy, the
public must participate in public
life. The tools for
engaging in public life are often first developed in schools.
Social studies educators,
therefore, are given the unique
opportunity to inspire the youth of the American nation to
sustain,
reform, and invent democratic values.
As
educators, we must help students draw connections from knowledge
to their lives, provide
a
variety of instruction
so as to access a multiplicity of intelligences, and model
respect for all people.
As social studies educators, we must
focus on understanding how the past relates to the pressing
issues spawned by the age of Globalization. Problem-solving
must be at the forefront of the curriculum,
rooted in a balanced
set of knowledge and viewpoints. Teachers must ask,“What kind of society do
we want to live in? And, in particular,
in what sense of democracy do we want to be a democratic
society?” For me, the kind of world I want to live in and teach
in involves one that fully recognizes
the plurality of voices
worldwide through an authentic form of democracy and seeks ways
to improve
the human condition for all without imposing
a specific path to history or a specific method of living.
Globalization, after all, should be teaching all of us that the
world
has developed from multiple
histories taking multiple paths.
Education works as the step toward understanding these paths. |
