Mr. S. Cullen Social Studies Home Page

Philosophy of Education

Education is the foundation of tomorrow, it is ongoing and never ending.  We are always learning, an endeavor that we undertake from our first breath to our last exhale.  It occurs whether we are conscious of it or not.  I believe all of us have the potential to learn, create, and achieve anything we set our minds to.  It is because of this belief that I have pursued the life defining task of an educator.  Teaching is not a job that begins and ends in the same day.  It is a lifestyle that fits into the construct of what we call an occupation.  As a member of this lifestyle, I believe there is no limit to what children can achieve. 

Social Studies is not a discipline confined to one subject, but is rather a multitude of themes, ideas, and skills that come together to illustrate the world in which we interact with daily.  Everything from Economics to Geography, Political Science to Civics, Philosophy to Sociology, and Anthropology to Psychology all make up the great discipline of Social Studies, which require skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, analysis, creativity, and synthesis to fully master.  As an educator I must transform the unobtainable into the tangible, to present students with an understandable structure that paints a picture of the world that they will be interacting with daily.  Social studies is not an explanation of the world in which we live but rather an introduction to it.

Our society is extremely complex and versatile. There are many long standing legacies still relevant from days long since passed. Educators must tap into these themes to introduce students to the relevance of history as humans are still struggling with the same issues we have always been since the written record of history was fashioned. Social Studies forms a blueprint of our existence and lays out the current path we are heading, yet each and every student may interpret this differently, as academics still debate and argue core components of our past and the relevancy of even  modern trends of the present. As an educator I will supply every one of my students with a historic blue print yet the construction of their interpretation of history on contemporary society will be unique to each and every one. It is because of this that reinforces the lifestyle that I have chosen, which in turn will influence the foundation of the future through our children.