Tyler Wesseldine Roster #19
Philosophy of Education
The year is 2002 and I just graduated high school. I am preparing to go to college because that’s
what you are supposed to do not because it’s what I wanted. I needed to get away from my
broken house. My parents going through a divorce and my father and mother both dealing
with alcoholism. I leave for school and realize how unprepared I am. I have no one to look up
to and get lost in shuffle. After a year I decide education is not for me and I drop out. Fast
forward to today and here I am 37 years old and back in college. I have done ok for myself so
far in life, but I have always felt something was missing. I have always had a fear of not being
wanted. A fear of not having guidance or a mentor to talk to. A fear of being alone and lost. I
have learned a lot the hard way in life and when COVID hit my world came crashing down and I
lost my job of 11 years. So, there I was jobless and worried about my future. I had a lot of time
to think and reflect on my life. In talking with friends and family I started to wonder what I
wanted my future to look like. I have always been a sports fanatic and friends have told me
what a great coach I would be. Did I want to just get another job and be ok? Or do I follow that
advice and passion, I have? I have decided to follow that passion to coach. But where could I
coach and make a living? “what about teaching?” a friend asked. It immediately hit me. YES!
Teaching seemed to answer all of the questions I was seeking answers for. A sense of
Belonging, being able to coach/mentor a student who maybe has family issues or doesn’t have
the support system just like I didn’t have. A chance to make a difference and guide a lost kid
who isn’t ready for the challenges ahead of them. A chance to take what I was missing and
make sure it doesn’t happen to another kid. To me that’s what teaching is. Taking your
experiences, wisdom, knowledge, success and failure’s and helping a student succeed. Being
someone they can trust and lean on when they have no one else to turn to.
So now I know I want to be an educator. How do I do that? I knew that when I was in
school, I learned through doing. I hated reading or long lectures but thrived with group projects
and going places. I learned a new word Progressivism. This is me to a T. When I started
reading this, I couldn’t put it down. I felt like John Dewey was inside my mind and knew exactly
how I thought. This would be absolutely how I would teach and get my students to thrive like I
did when I had classes taught in this manner. I am an aspiring history teacher. I can show my
students a book about the Holocaust, but I will never forget the feeling I had when I set foot in
the Holocaust Museum in D.C. We can read about the Vietnam war, but nothing compares to
starring at the Vietnam Veterans memorial and reading the names of fallen soldiers. I can give
my own personal recollection to students of Sept 11 and where I was when it happened but
being at ground zero in the middle of Manhattan and being able to hear a pin drop is something
indescribable. I can’t think of anything more impactful then being somewhere and seeing and
touching history. If I can take my students to some of these places and have them see first-
hand then there is no doubt in my mind it will sink in and that information will be stored for life.
In 5 years, I hope to be taking kids on a journey through history and mixing in current
events as well. I hope to be making a difference. I hope I can make it fun and stimulate
thought and reflection. I’d like to have students teaching me as well. I’m told you are never
too old to learn, and I am seeing now more than ever that its true. I also want to be a better
listener. Take in what a student is saying and be able to process it and guide and mentor to the
best of my ability.
When I think of a good teacher only one word comes to mind above all: Inspire.
That’s what it means to me to teach to inspire. Inspiring students to think for themselves.
Inspire students to question and wonder. I believe if we can inspire as teachers, we create
great leaders. Above all isn’t that what we want from our students? To be inspired and to lead
the future generation of people. Any good teacher inspires and strives to make that student
the best they can be. To pull out what makes them tick and then to get them to see it as well.
It opens up so many doors for the student and gets them to see their potential. A good teacher
should also go beyond the books and curriculum. Be a safety net for latchkey kids, and see the
signs that help is needed. I look back and wish I could go talk to that 18-year-old kid who was
lost and worried and alone and just tell him it’s not your fault. I wish I could go back and inspire
that young man to stay in school and finish what you started. I see starting college over as my
second chance. I see becoming an educator as a privilege and one I won’t take it lightly.
