Teaching Philosophy
To teach is to assist in the development of opportunity. Teaching indeed is an investment into the thoughts and motivations of others. Teaching can be thankless, hard, and excruciating. It can be inspiring, refreshing, and at times a true delight. Teaching is undeniably about focus, patience, and an unquenchable thirst for the information that exists in someone else's head.
I do not believe that there is one specific methodology with which any student can be reached. There are no absolutes in the practice of teaching. With each new student I am presented anew the sport of understanding. It is crucial to comprehend the mental and conceptual foundations from where my students come. Equal in import is it that the students can obtain the same of me. Exchanging thoughts, ideas develop into tangible matter.
Upon the arrival of an idea, there is yet to make it real ... to make real an idea into a completed thought. Skill, craftsmanship, and perseverance are more than demonstrable, they are practiced. There can be no thought considered complete without meticulous attention to physical detail. The act of making must endure diligence and passion. As an object develops, encouragement towards observation and reaction is imperative. Matter will change as it passes from mind into material, for in the mind there exists no gravity. There will always be far more to know about a tool than simply how it works.
In essence, to teach is to provide for the opportunity to think and then act. That action must allow for the possible change of thought, and hence change of mind. It is my job as a teacher to be the parasite that digs the hole in the skin through which all the ideas and actions eventually sink into the skull. With luck, we are successful.