Educational Philosophy:

More than content teaching, we are involved in people growing, so we must use a whole person approach. Humanism, developmental psychology and experiential learning theories provide use with the best clues on how to fulfill this task.

Favorite Movies:

• 2001: A Space Oddessy
• Saving Private Ryan (because of the message)
• Heart and Soul
• Blade Runner
• Patch Adams
• ... and most other movies, actually

A Good Story:

This true story was sent to a newspaper by an elementary school teacher:

At around Thanksgiving time, an elementary teacher in America gave her students big pieces of paper and asked them to draw a picture of something they were thankful for. The next day, the children brought in their pictures and she showed each one to the class. One child drew a picture of a TV, and another, a picture of a farmer. But the picture Johnny drew, like the boy himself, was a little more unusual. Johnny, smaller than the other kids his age, rather fearful, and always sitting off by himself, had drawn a childlike picture of a hand. The hand was huge, so big, in fact, that it covered the whole paper.

The teacher showed the picture to the rest of the class and asked them if they could guess whose it was. One child raised her hand an said: "I know. I know. It's a giant's hand, because it is so big." Another child said, "I think that it's God's hand." Then the teacher asked Johnny, "Johnny, whose hand is this?" Johnny looked down, murmured a bit and the teacher asked again. He then answered, "It's teacher's hand." The teacher paused for a moment, but then understood. Since Johnny was so shy, she sometimes took him to recess, holding his hand.