Why Teach?

At some point in the past year, or in the near future, those of us who are embarking upon our education degree will ask ourselves why we have decided to become teachers. For some of us, it will have been something we have dreamed about since the first time someone asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. For others, it may be something that was not discovered until we actually had life experience, and realized what we DID NOT want to do with our lives, and what we had a natural talent for.

I myself fall into the second category. When I first graduated highschool I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had always liked kids, but for some reason being a teacher never really came to mind when people asked me that question. I went through my first few years of university thinking I may end up in the social work or psychology fields, as I really enjoyed those subjects. However, I later realized, being someone who is settled in the rural area, that my opportunities for employment would be few and far between, and I was back to the drawing board.

It was at this point in my life that I decided to leave education for awhile. I graduated from BU in 2006 with an arts degree that seemed kind of useless at the time, but thought it might be beneficial to me to work for a few years before I wasted any more money on a career path that I was uncertain about. After living in Red Deer Alberta for a year, I found my way back to Manitoba and ended up landing a job as the secretary at my old K-12 high school. Over the next 3 1/2 years I got a real feel for the community of a school. Not only was I the secretary, but I also took on roles as curling, soccer and volleyball coaches, as well as lunch time supervision in both ends of the school. I LOVED my job, but the one thing that I really didnt like about it was that I did not get to spend much time with the kids. I loved that their 30 second visits to the office were the highlights of my day. I also found it amazing what a pick-me-up they could be when I was having a rough day. For this reason I came to really look forward to my lunch duties.

So this brings me back to my original question, why teach? There are many things that could be said of the profession. It is a reasonably well paying job with good benefits, and you get all holidays and summers off which for a parent is a dream. However, as much as these things are perks, I dont think that one can rely on those reasons alone to make them happy. My interest in teaching has a lot more to do with my passion for working with kids, that feeling of accomplishment I get when a child has that "lightbulb" moment, and the feeling of community I get when i'm working in a school, including the teamwork that takes place between colleagues. I also really love the idea that being a teacher is not just about academics, and that it is important to teach the child as a whole. The school I used to work in had a motto that I loved. "We Make Good People."

I was also drawn to teaching because I think that it draws on some of my greatest strengths in patience and organization. I think  that humour is important, I dont get rattled very easily, and I really believe that there is merit in the phrase "take your teaching seriously, but yourself lightly." It is this combination of different things that I think makes people want to teach, but there is no all inclusive answer. This is what makes teachers great. We might all have the same base beliefs, but in the end, we are all still individuals with different strengths and things to offer.