Teaching Philosophy

constructivism in a time of mass distraction

Educational Beliefs

The Relational Prerequisite

My approach to education is grounded in a simple but profound truth: the relationship always precedes the teaching. My pedagogical philosophy is a synergistic blend of two foundational gifts I received early in life. From my father, I learned the value of inquisitive questing and the belief that everything of real value must be discovered for oneself. From my mother, I learned the paramount importance of non-judgmental empathy, socio-emotional questioning, and embodied presence. Because of her example, I intuited early on that true learning requires a sturdy bedrock of emotional safety, and that a teacher’s presence and connection to their students must always come before the curriculum. I strive to build positive, trust-based relationships with my students, meeting them where they are and ensuring my classroom is an emotionally supportive architecture where they feel seen, heard, and valued.

Constructivism and the Cultivation of Agency

My teaching heavily favors a student-centered, constructivist approach aligned with the developmental theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. I believe that teenagers cannot be passive consumers of information; instead, they must individually discover and transform complex information if they are to genuinely make it their own. A modern education should emotionally empower students while simultaneously summoning their agency, inquiry, and interest-driven discovery.

We live in an era where torrential amounts of information pacify our sense-making capabilities, leading to an onslaught of digital demoralization—a famine of wisdom amid a deluge of willingly self-satisfying information. I see my role as an educator as a humanist intervention against this digital atrophy. I am deeply committed to relieving students from eight additional hours on a screen in order to retrain their attention back toward self-direction, the development of their interpersonal skills, and an awareness of their deep self. Technology is a useful tool, but the wholesale replacement of teaching with technological substitutes is a profound mistake. Real problems are solved not by downloading more information, but by the quality of attention we give to what matters to us, best learned alongside others in communities of support.

Classroom Ecology and Choice Theory

In my classroom, student dignity, agency, responsibility, and involvement are at the forefront. My classroom management philosophy is heavily influenced by William Glasser’s Choice Theory, which emphasizes non-coercive "lead management" over an adversarial or authoritarian teaching style. I focus on developing positive relationships, soliciting student input on rules, modeling desired behavior, and cultivating "referent authority" based on trust, ethics, and care.

I firmly believe in avoiding a teaching persona that coddles, condescends, or recapitulates a parental dynamic. High school students require an environment that supports a self-concept of responsible adulthood. By fostering an emotionally safe classroom with high expectations, clear boundaries, and mutual respect, cortisol levels are lowered, and students are given the psychological equilibrium necessary to engage in free inquiry, critical debate, and self-exploration.

Literature as Soulcraft

I believe that history and language arts classrooms are the preeminent venues for training the human mind. Entering into literature is an act of profound empathy; it requires us to enter an author's mind and view characters as avatars of how we might be if faced with similar choices at critical junctures. The subtlest faculties of human nature are often first acknowledged in these texts and interrogated for all their limitations and possibilities.

My ultimate goal is to zoom out and dig down, reconstructing texts into the realm of the personally relevant. By training students' attention on the stories and potentials they inhabit, I aim to equip them with the critical awareness needed to read, interpret, and re-write their own lives. Through this process, they develop the capacity to choose their own narrative, consciously dispensing with passive distractions, and reclaiming their sovereignty and purpose in a noisy world.