Danny’s Philosophy

I have a deeply embedded love of academia for its own sake. The Socratic principle of learning for its own sake has always guided my love for what I consider to be a noble profession like teaching. I like to recall the contents of a card once given to me from a former student that reads, ‘thanks for always showing us where to look, without telling us what to see’.

I have always fostered a love for critical thinking and analytical skills, wherein I embed how to study and why we study, without ever telling the students what to think. Equally, I am a traditionalist with regards learning, in that I sincerely believe that one can not have deeper level understanding, without some core knowledge.

The higher order critical thinking skills that I love to help nurture in young minds, must be underpinned by knowledge and analysis, otherwise arguments are essentially reduced to noise. However, simply learning by rote and regurgitating facts does not enrich us spiritually or emotively. I also believe in the power learning has, to increase our understanding of human nature and the human condition, thereby enhancing our emotional intelligence. In so doing, I strongly maintain that a love of learning can increase our compassion and empathy and thus make positive impacts on the world around us. It should never, in my view, simply be reduced to a means to an end.

As I turn 40, my appetite for learning and self-improvement is still as strong as when I was an A Level student. Learning is an open suitcase we take with us through our life, adding materials as we develop. Education can be a fundamental tool for making us more open minded and thus potentially more engaging and interesting when meeting people through our life’s varied journey.

I was fortunate to benefit from a traditional and formal education, wherein only my optimum effort and best work I was capable of, was acceptable. This clearly instilled immense resilience and determination. I have carried this principle into my extremely varied career, thereby insisting on high expectations of both endeavour and output. We are all on our own learning journey, relative to the individual, and I can offer assurance that I help each student raise their own confidence and beliefs in what they can achieve personally.

I have often stunned my own colleagues with what students have produced in my class; often vastly exceeding work expected of their age group. This is no accident or coincidence, but rather a product of my approach. Children and students will never cease to amaze us with what they can grapple with and achieve, if only we don’t condescend or patronise, instead showing them all there is nothing to fear in the unknown when studying. Learning should not be easy, and it should not be reduced to being easy or straight forward.

For perhaps too long in the profession, students have been able to coast or get by without people realising their potential and encouraging them to give more. I have an uncanny ability to recognise an ineffable quality in someone’s writing and thinking and have on many occasions been cited as the only teacher that has spotted an immense talent that has hitherto been latent. This recognition can of course entirely change the approach of the student, as they realise they are being noticed properly for perhaps the first time.

With my degree in Philosophy and MA in English Literature, I clearly have a deep passion for writing, reading and critical analysis. As an avid reader, (reading over 100 books a year), I therefore have a particular talent for getting young students to think in entirely original ways. My particular strength is in helping students realise and nurture their talent in writing. It is my particular gift and talent and am thus able to greatly assist in creative writing, comparative writing and essays.

Having started my career in an immensely successful grammar school, I have a particular ability to push very able students to their absolute optimum. I can help foster this love of learning for its own beauty and challenge and stimulate their thinking beyond the work already done capably within the classroom and school setting. I have often formed strong bonds with my students using humour to help foster a healthy awareness of the absurd and to add a light touch to learning, as great learning occurs through optimism rather than fear.