What is your teaching philosophy?

I have changed this page somewhat because my previous document is the same one that I send out with my CV. In that form, it's not the best to present on a page such as this. While I work on a new one entire, I will post my outline, which I hope will suffice for now.. 

The bottom line is that I care for students more than I could probably (or would want to) express to them verbally. I left a lucrative career to become a college-level instructor because I felt that I could make a positive impact upon individuals' lives. I have been constantly amazed at how a few, vocal students have interpreted my actions as an educator to be somehow detrimental to their futures and done so for a personal reason. I am an educator, not an edutainer. Indeed, I try to explain all of these ideals to my students before class begins (and several times during the course of a term), but it honestly seems like this is all forgotten the moment I describe my rigorous expectations or hand back the first assignment or quiz/test that they're disappointed in.

In summary:

• I believe that students have potential they haven't realized yet, and I believe I can help them realize that potential in order to improve their abilities as scholars and persons who will be responsible to care for others.
• I have knowledge and ideas I am duty-bound to convey to my students.
• I'm not a professor to be a popular person . If I am, that's great, but I won't attempt to become popular at the expense of my students' futures.
• I serve the public trust as an educator, and as such, I am also duty-bound to help students acquire new skills or to improve upon the ones they possess when entering my classroom.  
• I teach toward those who want to be challenged rather than teaching to the middle. Put another way, I teach toward a common coin rather than a common floor. That being written, I will give all students the ability to pass my courses, so as long as they do the work required of them. 
• I place great care on the ideal outlook that college-educated students should write well and believe that college-educated students should be able to express themselves and their arguments clearly and concisely, built on a foundation of evidence and consideration for that evidence over emotion and feelings (I'm not discounting feelings, but that type of writing isn't the type of writing one uses to communicate in facts-based rhetorical writing). 
• I believe that the educational system most students have been exposed to has done them a disservice by promoting positive self-esteem at all costs rather than focusing on honest academic achievement, attributional retraining, and controlling ruminative thoughts. I want my students to feel good about their accomplishments because they actually accomplished something, even if that means they're frustrated with me or if they don't recognize accomplishment in themselves until several years down the road. 
• I was responsible for personnel and the hiring of that personnel and I believe that I can help students prepare themselves better for the realities of a competitive, capitalist, at-will-based workplace. I understand that not all professors value this, but part of the college experience should be experiencing viewpoints and modes of conduct different than what one is comfortable with or finds ideal.  
• I do not believe in the "student as consumer" model of education. I subscribe to the "student as product" model.

Some pages that might help you while I'm getting this done can be found here, here, and here.