As I journey towards a profession so varied in pedagogical values, I reflect on the beginning of the program when we were asked to complete the sentence, teaching is for… In the course of one term, educators and peers alike have lended the opportunity to reflect on a question I am sure we will all continue to ask ourselves countless times again. My answer before the start of this term, was that education is for everyone. However, with the insight I have gained through the duration of this program, in my studies and through my field experience each wednesday, I can now truly understand how naive my original answer was. Despite my good intentions, I had no clue of the extent teachers go to for their students in the form of time, energy, and emotional strain. What had driven me to say that education is for everyone, was my personal belief that it should be a human right for every individual on a global scale to have access to quality learning environments; I can only hope that my actions will create a high impact in my community.
The beauty I see in my pedagogical journey, as I strive to become an educator who implements inclusivity and equality in the classroom, is that I am aiming to keep the same answer I wrote in the beginning. Our Public School System should have a place in every classroom for every type of learner. I now see that education is for students and teachers alike. Education is for everyone; a symbiotic relationship between the teacher and student in which we all give and take from one another in order to sustain a thriving learning environment. Of what I have seen of the class environment, complexity is curated within the way individuals change and adapt in regards to the evolution of the systemic classroom environment. Adaptations and modifications such as Universal Design for Learning methods lend students alternative options to coursework.