Why Teach?

Teaching is so much more than just a "job" – what is it then that calls us to teach?

The profession of teaching is far more complex than many people realize. To be a successful teacher, you must be a leader, a mentor, a friend and an expert. Knowing how to blend these roles into a consistent, public personality is a huge challenge, the response to which will determine your future as a teacher.

Very often in our culture, people don't think of their work as a calling. For many people, their work is a means to an end. They work for a paycheck in order to live their lives. But those of us who are called to teach have a true vocation. Our mission is to increase the world's capacity for growth by enabling each of our students to fully maximize his or her talents, imagination, analytical skills and character. We are like gardeners who plant seeds in the fertile earth. Add a little intellectual fertilizer, let the sun and the rain bring life to the seeds, and then we get to watch the seeds become flowers and plants and sometimes even towering trees.

I'm not entirely clear why some of us are called to teach. Perhaps it's our own desire to nurture our own talents, perhaps it's our social commitments or perhaps it's simply a love of children. Probably the most exciting thing in a teacher's life is to see the "lightbulb" go off in a student's head as they suddenly grasp the meaning of a word, the logic of an equation, or the relationship of history to their lives. Central to our vocation is that we bring a joy that cannot be measured, but must be seen, felt and heard.


Taken from an article from Professional Development : Your First Year
November/December 2005, Vol.36, No.3