My Teaching Manifesto

I am a teacher who stands up for students who are oppressed against the system that keeps them from believing that they can achieve so much more, who is in favor of equality and equity within the educational system against individuals who believe that the work in education is done, who is a supporter of speaking out in order to cause change against teachers who refuse to step forward in order to help their students for the better, and who is a defender of teaching social justice within the classroom against administrations and systems that claim that there's no longer a need to continue fighting. I am a teacher who favors continuous learning throughout my life and against not reflecting on what I am doing, saying, teaching, and learning. I am a teacher who rejects that this is "just the way things are", because it is responsible for all of the pain, confusion, and struggles of students who remain oppressed by those in power. I am a teacher full of empathy and open-mindedness, in spite of the pessimistic outlooks that I have heard from many teachers throughout my time in classrooms over the past few years. I am a teacher who refuses to give up the good fight especially when I have so many years ahead of me in this career. I am a teacher proud of the leaps and bounds being made by teachers and students who are standing up for change in the education system. If I do not struggle for change, then I will no longer be the person that I thought I was.