Carter Hafif

My Teaching Philosophy

For as long as I can remember, education in the classroom has felt like a drag. Boring content that adheres to some arbitrary set of standards meant to prepare kids for factory work and provide a structured day-care for working parents. Becoming a teacher for me is a way to challenge these educational norms and redefine what school can and should be. I want to change how we think about a traditional classroom, using nature as inspiration and incorporating it into the environment in which we deliver education. I also want students to leave my classroom as critical thinkers that aren’t afraid to ask questions and challenge the status quo. Creating classroom content that is connected to the real world, maintaining a fun/safe/engaging learning environment, and promoting student equity through choice are at the core of my values for becoming a teacher. By utilizing the science of learning (Hewlett Foundation, 2013) and implementing a universal design for learning (Meyer A, 2014), I hope my students will leave with a self-directed, worldly, confident, and critical mindset. 

I used to love hanging out with my grandfather when I was a child. I consider him one of my biggest mentors and inspirationals. He taught me how to look at the world with a critical perspective and be intentional with how I interact with others. I’ll never forget when he first showed me the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke, and after talking about the feelings the film invoked, the choices that the illustrators made for each scene, and the metaphor that it might represent in our real world. If unfamiliar, the story follows a young prince from a village deep in the forest. He is cursed by the boar spirit inhabiting the mountain, propelling him on a journey to heal his curse, inevitably leading him to the root cause behind the forest’s suffering, humans. Meanwhile, the story through human eyes is that of survival and doing what’s best for their own kin, even at the expense of the surrounding environment. I didn’t know it at the time, but this interaction and film inspired two things in me, respectively. A critical eye to inspect the intentionality of design behind all things. And a respect for all things natural, including humans. I have now realized my purpose is to share these ideas with the next generation so they can build a better future for our species AND the coexisting natural world we so deeply rely on.