On Teaching! What makes a person want to become a teacher. No matter the subject, teaching is teaching. But are you there just for the pay check or do you really want to teach students and make a difference. Through the years, I have seen both types.
Some how, fate or the Lord has a way of pointing you in the right direction. I recall the first thing in mind on the first day of school was, what have I gotten myself into. But gradually I started to fine my way. Talking or listening to other teachers helped. In college, then and even today, you are not taught how to teach. You are given courses to take that relate to education and then when done you do your student teaching and thrown into the arena to fend with the lions so to speak.
Kahlil Gibran best known as the author of “The Prophet”, which was first published in the United States in 1923, wrote “On Teaching”:
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.” “If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own
mind”.
On Teaching
So actually a teacher is there to show the way, the how, the why. No teacher can make a person do anything. All he/she can do is to try and show each student more or less, how to think and take notes and which path to take. The teacher helps in awakening what is already there, hidden in the crevasses of the mind.
When I was in college my mother suggested maybe I could go into teaching. At that time, the thought of becoming a teacher was not in my vocabulary. Even if I did, what would I teach. Just the fear of facing all those young students was enough to keep me at bay. My mind was geared to becoming a professional musician. When confronted with certain situations, I would stop and ask myself. What would some of my teachers do when faced with these problems? Since I was always coming back to music, I had decided to teach music. What would my band director do or say. That helped some. In thinking about it, my music director used to use phycology on us and would get positive results. So I started applying some on my students with some success.
“Teachers change the world one child at a time”. In my forty four years of teaching, I have never experienced two same days. Every day, week, month and year was different and challenging. The students challenge you. They like to test the teacher to see how much they can get away with. As a teacher I never stopped learning. Even today as a retired teacher, I am still learning.
My greatest reward has been some of my students coming forward and thanking me for showing them the way. Some are teachers. Others are lawyers or doctors. All productive individuals going on to higher education and finding the way.
Response Magic