It is my philosophy that education in our country should take a proactive

approach of respecting, acknowledging, and profiting from diversity in the classrooms.

Based off of research and my own personal experience, I believe that teachers are
obligated to create a positive environment where everyone is respectful of different
backgrounds. I believe if students get to learn the other perspectives of different types of
students, they develop a sense of empathy and perspective about other points of view
that is crucial to their development. This isnt just my opinion. A study called Authentic
Instruction for 21st Century Learning: Higher Order Thinking in an Inclusive School
conducted by Betty Preus, showed that classes with a higher diversity level increase
the high order thinking, deep knowledge, substantive conversation, and connections to
the world, in the classroom. However, classes do not need to have a large variety of
races or ethnicities in the class to embrace diversity. For example at the private, Jewish
day school I attended, Pardes Jewish Day School, my favorite teacher, Adam Zwieback,
who taught 7th and 8th grade Social Studies among other things, never tolerated
anyone disrespecting another person or a group of people. At the same time, he
inspired people who had certain opinions to listen to and better understand differing
attitudes and beliefs. He has since become a mentor of mine. I want to become a

teacher so I can similarly inspire other students and I plan to embrace his philosophy of
education as a part of my own.
I believe that it is essential that every student in the classroom feel like they are
being treated fairly and equally. As a teacher, I will establish ground rules for the class,
and even let the kids help to establish these rules. Within these rules, I will make sure to
elaborate the importance of mutual respect and gaining new perspectives. For
example, in a history lesson about the Vietnam War the class should draw attention to
the perceptiveness of both the North and South Vietnamese citizens, as well the
feelings of the soldiers and diverse views of Americans on the war. Students can also
take this as an opportunity to debate whether the U.S should have ever entered the war
by assigning half to take the position in favor and the other half to argue the position
against. This also allows them to work in diverse groups where every student has to
contribute and students can learn new perspectives.
Consequences for breaking the rules of mutual respect should be established in
the syllabus. I believe that if a teacher is able to establish respect in the classroom, for
both the students and the teacher, then the class will optimize its chance on learning
difficult concepts, perspectives, and philosophies.

Source
Preus, Betty. "Authentic Problem Solving and Learning in the 21st Century." Education
Innovation Series (2015): n. pag. Web.