Podcasting

media type="file" key="Finalized.mp3" align="center" width="240" height="20" Welcome to my podcast. My name is Brandon Parker. I’m currently a sophomore at Metropolitan State College of Denver. I am a history major with a minor in secondary education. Today I would like to give you my philosophy on education and more specifically the field of history. Before I do that I believe you need to know a little about my background to give you a better idea of where I’m coming from. I was born and raised in Colorado. I grew up in a small town in SE Colorado called Ordway. The son of a Baptist preacher in a town of only a thousand people, I had a unique upbringing. I was homeschooled through high school but was allowed to play sports and be involved at the county high school. After high school I joined the Army and spent four years out in North Carolina. The Army was very beneficial for me, helping me to mature and gain invaluable experience working with a variety of people. After the military, I came back home to Colorado and moved to Denver to attend Metro State. My philosophy on education as a whole begins with the parents and family. The place where kids learn their values, habits, speech, and outlook on life is the most vital area of education. I don’t believe parents need to have their children reading by the age of 3 but I do believe they should encourage their children in activities that require some thinking and reasoning. When kids begin to go to school, the parents need to be the reinforcement of the teachers’ guidance. The same works for areas of discipline and behavior. The teachers should not be held responsible for students’ behavior; they should only reinforce the parents’ instructions and rules. When I think of myself as a teacher, I want to be a teacher that is genuinely concerned with my students’ education. I believe it is my responsibility to give them my best work because I, as their teacher, play a vital role in how they view school as a whole. If I cannot connect with them and capture their attention then that adds to an overall negative view on school. Teachers should be role models but not the top authority in students’ lives.  When it comes to history, I believe many students have been cheated out of a good education. That is not to say all schools are doing a bad job. History is a unique subject because there are so many unknowns. I have three main points which I see as vital to teaching history well and properly. First, there are facts in history and unknowns in history. The facts should be presented as just that, fact. When it comes to those unknowns, the teacher must keep the integrity of history. I believe society wants to know what happened in history so badly they construct a neat story and use that as fact. What is wrong with having unknowns? Creating history to fit our current ideals or just to have something can be very damaging to future generations. Second, present history from an unbiased platform. This ties in to my first point but is worthy of its own remarks. I have studied text books from secular publishers and religious publishers as well as had teachers with opposing biases. History is what it is. By that I mean it is impossible for anyone to know exactly the motives of ancient people. We have writings which give us good insight and we have artifacts which offer clues. But never should a teacher present history with his/her own personal bias injected as truth. This is accomplished by presenting the varying views on history to allow the students to see what they believe the truth is. Although a teacher may believe a certain way, the bias can be hidden or reduced if multiple viewpoints are presented. Third, challenge the students to think critically and look to hard facts. I want to give my students the opportunity to build critical thinking skills so they are better prepared to make assumptions when needed. Also, I hope to prepare them for the next level of education. If I send them out with better skills to observe history and filter out the bias then they will have a better chance at succeeding as they go along with their education. With these basic principles in mind, I hope to be a benefit to all of my future students or anyone I might have the opportunity of helping with their education.
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