As a graduate of FHSU, I was many times asked to revise my teaching philosophy. Though it is thus: anyone can learn anything provided they are willing to. It’s that simple. I wasn’t a bright student in my time in K-12. But I decided to “apply myself.”
That’s a non-traditional sense of the word. Usually, one wants to say that “applying [oneself]” is one-and-done. You either do it or you don’t – implying that intelligence is inherent and can’t be ‘learned’ or enhanced to better deal with life issues. The thing is, hominid brains are plastic. We can learn any number of things just by wishing them into being. That’s not what the research says, though.

Modern intellectual and scientific rigor necessitates that if you are disabled, or outlier, you will always be outcast, and never fit in. I take a different approach.
I tailor my learning to you.
I know you can understand this, if you are reading it. It may not be the way I understand it, but I’m willing to wonder why that’s so. And I want to connect with you. Because ‘love’ is the answer. Care is not a card to be played at the last moment.
So whether you have dementia, severe physical ailments, or just learn differently, I want to guide you to a new place.
Somewhere others might have told you you’d never exist in.

Because that’s important. And I want to see you shine.
So let’s keep going now.
Ready?
Set.
And – begin.