Which of these joys would entice you to teach?
1. The broad range of influence teachers have, now and on future generations.
2. An artistic aspect. Teaching is the most creative of all the professions because every student is a puzzle with unlimited potential, which a teacher can put together by finding the best solution for the student’s learning style.
3. Teaching connects us to history because we transmit knowledge that’s been accumulated over two millennia and more. The skills and subjects we teach now will continue for the next millennia and beyond.
4. Plain creativity alone beyond the arts. All of us are creative and in teaching we can be our most creative selves each and every day.
5. Teaching puts you directly at the fountain of young people. Think of Filipino youth or the youth of the world as this new stream of water coming in. You are always right there with the latest examples of mankind and get to see them up close. It keeps you young; it keeps you hopping. Teachers never get jaded and old because they are always right there when a new bunch of kids comes into the classroom.
6. You get to change society for the better. Whatever seems to be the problem of the century or decade you get a chance to roll up your sleeves and dig in to help fix it.
7. The actual performance of teaching is so rewarding. The sense of fulfillment you get hour after hour after hour. It’s not a cold thing; you’re not dealing with figures and numbers. You have these exciting faces looking back at you.
8. It’s so productive. At the beginning of the year your students are at one level of knowledge and at the end of the year they have jumped, they have made gains. This increase in knowledge is the production that only you have been able to pull off. So you can measure it, which is wonderful – when you can measure what you have accomplished.
9. Teaching is the opposite of corporate greed. You are giving from the heart. You are in a sense putting these kids way ahead of yourself, and their learning ahead of yourself. You are involved in an unselfish act.
10. You open doors to everyone in your classroom. That means that you are at the portal or the gate of the best of mankind. It deals with motivation and striving because that’s what you instill each day because you believe that every child can have wonderful strengths and can really become an outstanding student and that the doors are wide open and you help them through.
By: Elmer A. Baracao | Teacher II | Mariveles National High School Poblacion | Mariveles, Bataan
