I approach teaching with empathy because I want my students to feel seen, understood, and cared for. That's the type of environment in which I think the most effective learning takes place. There is no curiosity without security.
Human beings learn in many ways and have many different types of intelligence. I try to serve every type of student using the learning and intelligence models that Fleming (VARK) and Gardner (Multiple Intelligences) have laid out. This means providing a variety of ways to complete assignments, engage with course work, and express oneself.
A student's time in my class should help them foster curiosity and empower them to examine the ideas ingrained in them by their society, their community, and their culture. They are encouraged to still participate in all three, but as someone who can express individual ideas and liberate themselves from any they don't agree with. I hope to give my students what Paolo Friere (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) describes as an "understanding of their place in society and how to alter it".
Public schools should provide education, community, and material support to children and young adults as they develop. These schools are a service to their community and thus teachers should act in community and solidarity with their students rather than treating the students like prisoners, customers, or helpless individuals. Education should be free at the point of entry and access should not be varied based on wealth or status. Schools should provide teachers with the same sense of stability, equality, and comfort that they provide students.
As a teacher I have certain moral obligations to protect and support my students. For me, that looks like creating a classroom free of oppressive speech and behavior where students can pursue their curiosity and liberatory ideas within the framework of the course. The classroom is not a space that I police, rather it is a space I take responsibility for and create in community with students. In the same way that students are expected to be non-violent and respectful to everyone, I hold myself to an even higher expectation. I teach with the knowledge that this position of power has been used consciously and unconsciously to do harm to students in the past, and I do not wish to replicate that harm.