Educating Students What gives me hope for the future as an educator committed to helping students grow, develop and achieve in all areas of the whole child is the knowledge that I have a deep interest and love for the idea of developing the whole child, which is founded on my own philosophical basis on what I have learned over the years -- namely, the classics and ideas of classical philosophy. In short, the ideas of and access that I have to the works of Aristotle give me confidence and hope in the knowledge that I can share these great character formation gifts to the next generation; in other words, I am not lacking a direction in this respect because the research shows that these ideas still have legs (Kristjansson, 2014). My hope is thus based on what I know and understand about the relationship between education and character -- which is what I view as the essential element in providing real education. It is not enough that educators simply give students the facts or the information or the tools -- they must also give them the example of how to grow and why to grow; they must cultivate a desire to learn and grow within the student by fostering character formation and good character education (Haynes, 2009). It is this character, ultimately, that...

Developing the whole child is based on the idea that a whole philosophy is needed -- one that can explain in a reasonable way why we live, what will make us happy, and how we can achieve that goal (Kristjansson, 2014).
This hope is further supported by the belief that parents will begin to be more involved in the lives of their students and that more families will be staying together and supporting one another in the future (Vera, Israel, 2012). I think the past few decades in which we have seen the rise of broken families in the country will begin to turn over a new leaf: more people will see through their own experience how important it is for families to stay together and to be there for one another. So a great deal of my hope as an educator in the future is that society and communities in general will have developed…