Blog Post 1

Hi there! My name is Megan Simmons. I'm 25 and I live near campus with my little Scottish terrier named Nietzsche and my two roommates. I grew up in Laplace, Louisiana, a small New Orleans suburb in the middle of a swamp. I moved to Mobile when I was 16 and graduated from Robertsdale High School. My first two years of college I changed my major a few times and finally settled on philosophy. I loved being a philosophy major and exploring different schools of thought and playing with logic problems. I received my bachelor's degree in philosophy in May of 2008 and then, well, I tried to figure out what I was doing for a couple of years. I considered everything from joining the Peace Corps to going to law school. Finally, after working as a paralegal for a while I realized that I really wanted to be an Elementary school teacher in New Orleans.
Why do I want to be a teacher? I love kids. I love how weird and absurd they can be and how curious and excited about the world they are. I love seeing how they work things out and interpret their world. When I graduate I plan to move to New Orleans and teach in an inner-city school. I feel like I have a connection to the culture and the people there and I know that they have a need for good teachers. I'm particularly interested in the Critical Theory philosophy of education. I think kids growing up in the inner-city of New Orleans need to be empowered and taught the value of their own culture and learn to draw strength from what they already know and build on that knowledge.