Educational Philosophy
It is barely October of my senior year in AP English and Dr. Englund opens the class with an overhead copy of a scribbled handwritten note. The overhead projector is just sitting idle, with this seemingly random note projected at massive proportions on the pull-down screen. The note is addressed to Dr. Englund herself, and as she reads the note out loud to our class she emphasizes the sweet and genuine words of its author. To everyone’s surprise, the note is signed, “Dr. Viktor Frankl,” the author of Man’s Search for Meaning! In fact, as Dr. Englund goes on to explain, she had been Dr. Frankl’s teaching assistant in her post-graduate years and she had worked very closely with him on his work and teachings. With this interesting biographical anecdote, Dr. Englund catches everyone’s attention. Now our class is ready to invest in this obscure text that nobody else in the 12th grade, let alone in our high school or even our city, is reading.
Throughout the memoirs of his time spent in a concentration camp, Dr. Frankl builds a foundation for a way of thinking and interpreting individual existence that he further explains through his theory of logotherapy. Dr. Frankl elaborates and delineates the concept of logotherapy as an Existential theory that invites individuals to live and experience life through a “will to meaning.” Diving deep into such complex ideas with high school seniors is truly a pedagogical masterpiece. Dr. Englund managed to hit the proverbial nerve in every high school senior, inviting them to openly acknowledge and question his or her existence within a larger world that he or she is being subtly, but not slowly, thrown into.
My experience with Man’s Search for Meaning and Dr. Englund informed my understanding and belief in literature and life in a monumental way, thus directly leading me down the path of teaching. With this sense of direction and passion, I can confidently define exactly how I want my experience as a teacher and my students’ experiences in our class to be designed. As a teacher, I work to teach through intellectual concepts that are relevant and challenging, like Existentialism, that will enlighten and excite students about the texts that we will encounter and the experience they will bring to them. In order to do so, I believe in stepping outside of the book room and away from the standard reading lists, selecting texts that my students, community, and myself have strong connections with. Literature read in my classroom needs to be particularly pertinent to my students and their culture and community, but there is also significance in looking outside of their personal existence to explore and understand other cultures that can bring new perspectives and balance. In tandem with reading, writing serves as a central mode of expression in my classroom, allowing students to intellectually and personally reflect on the texts that they are engaging with as readers. Finally, in establishing and fostering exemplary discussion skills relevant both inside and outside of the academic world, my class serves as a forum for students to grow as thinkers and speakers. I work to equip my students with the proper academic knowledge and intellectual perspectives in order to take on the great enduring questions of literature and life.
Although growing in my teaching career, I am wholeheartedly dedicated to finding meaning in my experiences as a teacher and furthermore, guiding my students to finding and understanding the value of meaning in their lives. I know that literature can be a gateway to this pursuit as it was for me with Man’s Search for Meaning and many other texts that were read with the essential logotherapeutic ideas of meaning and fulfillment in one’s existence. With that in mind, I will try to empower myself and my students with the literary knowledge, tools, and language to believe in the magnitude of finding fulfillment in a meaningful life. I carry Man's Search for Meaning with me everywhere I go as a spiritual and intellectual touchstone. This poignant memoir always reminds me that in order to maintain a positive existence, one must dedicate him or herself to a commitment in which he or she can find a meaning that is fulfilling. I have found fulfillment in my role as a teacher and I can only hope to offer my students a literary experience that may also lead them down a similar path. Perhaps they will find a particularly poignant piece of literature that they too can carry around for the rest of their lives as a constant reminder to live a thoughtful and meaningful life.
-Asal (Mirzahossein) Meyer, Fall 2008
Throughout the memoirs of his time spent in a concentration camp, Dr. Frankl builds a foundation for a way of thinking and interpreting individual existence that he further explains through his theory of logotherapy. Dr. Frankl elaborates and delineates the concept of logotherapy as an Existential theory that invites individuals to live and experience life through a “will to meaning.” Diving deep into such complex ideas with high school seniors is truly a pedagogical masterpiece. Dr. Englund managed to hit the proverbial nerve in every high school senior, inviting them to openly acknowledge and question his or her existence within a larger world that he or she is being subtly, but not slowly, thrown into.
My experience with Man’s Search for Meaning and Dr. Englund informed my understanding and belief in literature and life in a monumental way, thus directly leading me down the path of teaching. With this sense of direction and passion, I can confidently define exactly how I want my experience as a teacher and my students’ experiences in our class to be designed. As a teacher, I work to teach through intellectual concepts that are relevant and challenging, like Existentialism, that will enlighten and excite students about the texts that we will encounter and the experience they will bring to them. In order to do so, I believe in stepping outside of the book room and away from the standard reading lists, selecting texts that my students, community, and myself have strong connections with. Literature read in my classroom needs to be particularly pertinent to my students and their culture and community, but there is also significance in looking outside of their personal existence to explore and understand other cultures that can bring new perspectives and balance. In tandem with reading, writing serves as a central mode of expression in my classroom, allowing students to intellectually and personally reflect on the texts that they are engaging with as readers. Finally, in establishing and fostering exemplary discussion skills relevant both inside and outside of the academic world, my class serves as a forum for students to grow as thinkers and speakers. I work to equip my students with the proper academic knowledge and intellectual perspectives in order to take on the great enduring questions of literature and life.
Although growing in my teaching career, I am wholeheartedly dedicated to finding meaning in my experiences as a teacher and furthermore, guiding my students to finding and understanding the value of meaning in their lives. I know that literature can be a gateway to this pursuit as it was for me with Man’s Search for Meaning and many other texts that were read with the essential logotherapeutic ideas of meaning and fulfillment in one’s existence. With that in mind, I will try to empower myself and my students with the literary knowledge, tools, and language to believe in the magnitude of finding fulfillment in a meaningful life. I carry Man's Search for Meaning with me everywhere I go as a spiritual and intellectual touchstone. This poignant memoir always reminds me that in order to maintain a positive existence, one must dedicate him or herself to a commitment in which he or she can find a meaning that is fulfilling. I have found fulfillment in my role as a teacher and I can only hope to offer my students a literary experience that may also lead them down a similar path. Perhaps they will find a particularly poignant piece of literature that they too can carry around for the rest of their lives as a constant reminder to live a thoughtful and meaningful life.
-Asal (Mirzahossein) Meyer, Fall 2008