Why I Became a Teacher pt 3

 The third reason I and many other people went into teaching I thought was the most common reason. Turns out, especially in secondary education, it is not, it is the first two. The third reason is more common in primary grades. The reason is simple, we love being with our students. Teaching, guiding, helping, and supporting students is really what drew me first to youth ministry and later to teaching. Young people and students are incredible, and they are capable of great things. Even the ones who give you a hard time can be really amazing.

This really hit me when I became a dad. As a dad, I had my kids around all the time, and I loved how incredible they were. My kids are grown, and my youngest graduated high school in a few weeks. As a teacher, I don't have the same role with my students as I do as dad, obviously, but I get to play the role of guide in aspects of their lives. I am able to invest in their futures and help them become more successful.

Students and young people today are being abandoned. They are left to be raised by technology. Parents, guardians, and caregivers are not teaching kids at home like the once did. It seems that daily I see a post on social media about "things they should teach in school" which demonstrates that parents aren't teaching kids at home anymore. Kids need school and teachers who care now more than ever. Without teachers who care, students are more and more being raised by smartphones. They are learning life lessons from tictok and not a caring adult in their lives.

I care about students because I had teachers and adults who cared about me. I was invested in, and now as a result I am paying it forward. We need people who care about what happens to this generation, we have way too many people who are just concerned about themselves. We need to invest in the future, and that means investing in students.

The struggle I have is that I get frustrated when I care more about student success than students do. I get frustrated with parents, and I get frustrated with our society when they abandon our students. I get irritated when I see social media posts that continue to pass off the raising of students and kids to the schools and the outsourcing of parental responsibility. It can be difficult to remain a detached, uninvolved individual.

Why I Became a Teacher Pt 2

 In my last post, we talked about reason number one, that people just love teaching. Some people just love to teach and naturally are drawn to teaching. Today, I want to look at reason number two that individuals become teachers. Especially in Secondary Education (7th-12th grade) and post-high school, it can be for a love of the subject matter. Some people really love a subject and want to spend their life engaged in that subject. Elementary teachers usually don't have this strong desire, because they teach all subjects. As an English teacher, I think literature is the most important subject. You can see a previous blog post about why I think literature is important. If you find a math teacher, they are going to say things like "Math is the language of the universe". That is an actual quote from a friend of mine who of course taught math.

People teach a subject because they obviously love that subject. They are good at it, they believe in it, and they want other people to know and love it. Those who teach because they love a subject and sometimes struggle with people who don't love that subject. If a student says that literature is not important and reading is boring and stupid, I am aghast. I struggle with the belief that my students don't see the value in what I'm doing, because of course, it makes sense. Naturally, we all assume that people should have the think patterns of thought and logic that we do. When they don't, it causes us to have some discomfort and cognitive dissidence. We can see how things fit and struggle when they don't.

Teachers who love subjects are really passionate about subjects, but sometimes we don't explain them as well as we should. It makes sense to us, we understand the subject. We sometimes gloss over the subject because, for us, it clicks. If it doesn't click for a student, they can feel like we are a bad teacher. They struggle to understand and we struggle to understand why. Students need to have an understanding and basic education in all subjects, so be patient with those of us who think what we teach is the most important.

Literature is the most important.

Why People Become Teachers Part 1

 Today is the 1st of May, so I wanted to reflect on my journey. May is not only the last month of school, but also Teacher Appreciation Week is the 2nd week of May. Ending the school year and celebrating teachers, I wanted to focus on teaching for a moment. Normally my blog is focused on things of faith and theology, but I wanted to look at my other career for a minute. Let's talk about teachers. I find that people become teachers for 3 reasons. It can be one or more of these reasons, but you will discover every teacher has at least one of these reasons.

The first reason is, people become teachers because they love to teach. Some people find that teaching is just a default mode. When I began working in churches, I loved examining and explaining aspects of faith. I loved to learn about the Bible and then share what I learned with others. I loved the entire process. I didn't choose to teach, I just taught.

Some people are just natural teachers, it is how they are wired. The way information is processed, I don't really feel comfortable with something until I can tell someone else about it. I want to be able to understand something well enough to explain it to another person. I naturally became better at this process through teacher training and education, but teaching is just who I am. It is almost in the way I process information.

Some individuals go into the profession because it is just who the are. I was often told I would be a great teacher before I became a teacher. When I worked in other jobs, I found myself teaching. When I worked at a manufacturing plant, I was drawn to training and instruction. When I worked in wildlife, I found myself teaching homeowners about the wildlife that was causing the nuisance and how to deal with or mitigate it. I just taught.

In my life, I have loved teaching Sunday School. When I preach, teaching is more of my default style. Passing along knowledge and understanding is key to how I communicate. I find that even my storytelling is didactic. This leaves me with a few weak points. First off, those of us who are natural teachers can seem condescending when we are talking to people. My natural inclination is to teach, and in doing so I sometimes give too much detail or background. Naturally, people can feel like I assume they don't know anything. It can be off-putting to feel like an individual is talking to you like you are a student, and I don't mean to do it. I try to not assume a teacher role when I am just in casual conversation.

Some people are just wired as teachers. Paul says that God gave some to be teachers, so those who are in Christ may have the added spiritual gift to teach. It may require others to be patient with us, as we don't mean to be in teaching mode all the time, we just don't know any better. A teacher is more than what I do, it really is who I am in a very real way.