Summary of Teaching Philosophy and Goals My desire to teach is based on the belief that teaching will provide me with a challenging and rewarding career. This is my second college experience as I have a degree in Business Administration and have worked in retail management and banking jobs. However, I found these career paths lacking in satisfaction. I've come to the conclusion that I want my life's work to accomplish more than a numerical paycheck. Teaching is the profession that will offer me the opportunity to achieve these goals. The philosophical position that will guide my approach to teaching is idealism. Because I believe that the individual is a creation in the image of God and has free will. Once this is established, the learning process starts on its own. Plato best described this principle of idealism in his writing entitled “Allegory of the Cave” in which he states: “Whereas our subject shows that the power and ability to learn already exist in the soul; and that just as the eye cannot pass from darkness to light without the whole body, so also the instrument of knowledge can transform itself from the world of becoming into that of being only with the movement of the whole soul and gradually learn to bear sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good. "I agree with Plato's reasoning that our creed...