Anne Haas Dyson - Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Throughout Dyson’s career, Dyson has strived to engage students with their own interests, while helping them develop common skills. In Dyson's words: “As a teacher and a researcher, I think intellectual, political, and moral issues of teaching and learning are best understood—and grappled with—when they are embodied in everyday human experiences of teachers and students, in and out of school; conversely, I think teachers immersed in the very human context of classroom life (which is not neat, not orderly, and not predictable) must also see the larger issues implicit in their daily decisions.”

Continuing, Dyson states, “Finally, my identities as a teacher of the young and not-so-young merge in the kind of engagement I require of my students. Having struggled to help a 6-year-old realize that fish starts with F, not God or water, I do not equate lecturing with teaching. There is nothing lonelier than standing in front of a class when I’m not sure they are, intellectually, with me—and nothing is more satisfying than when we are all making progress together. Then teaching is its own reward.”

Additionally, Dyson stresses the importance of unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten as a “fundamental avenue” for learning. Attempts by parents and educators to bombard children with information to give children’s cognitive abilities an early boost may be well-intentioned, but is ultimately counterproductive. According to Dyson (2009), “That approach doesn’t appreciate the role of play and imagination in a child’s intellectual development. Play is where children discover ideas, experiences and concepts and think about them and their consequences. This is where literacy and learning really begins.” Although Dyson sees some value in teaching the ABCs to children in pre-kindergarten, she believes that attempting to accelerate learning actually works against a child’s development. According to Dyson, kindergarten and preschool should be a place for children to experience play as intellectual inquiry, before they become taken over by the tyranny of high-stakes testing. She states, “I’m certainly not opposed to literacy in the early grades, but the idea that we can eliminate play from the curriculum doesn’t make sense. Kids don’t respond well to sitting still in their desks and listening at that age. They need stimulation. We have to intellectually engage kids. We have to give them a sense of their own agency, their own capacity, and an ability to ask questions and solve problems. So we have to give them more open-ended activities that allow them the space they need to make sense of things.”