by Rhonda Day

Created on: October 06, 2007   Last Updated: September 10, 2010

TEACHERS BRING IT ALL TO LIFE

Teaching is a noble, enviable, and demanding occupation. It requires knowledge, patience, understanding, and a desire to help others. Unfortunately, it is often under-appreciated, under-paid, and under-valued by many societal standards. So why do people want to teach?

People choose to teach for many different reasons. A desire to teach usually begins early in life when an individual finds that showing someone how to do something successfully provides fulfillment and excitement. As children advance through the educational system, they begin to formulate dreams and career aspirations through experiences that make them feel good or stimulate their interest.

A passion for teaching is a strong career calling whether it is to teach in a public school system, become a coach or trainer, or deliver training in a corporate setting. It comes with its challenges but it also comes with rewards that far outweigh any financial or occupational disadvantages.

Some of the primary reasons for teaching are listed below.

1. A strong desire to give back to the community and the world is a driver for teachers. Teaching provides the mechanism to return knowledge to others and to watch them grow and develop intellectually.

2. An ability to turn complex problems and massive amounts of information into easily digestible pieces of information and effectively conveying that knowledge to others creates fulfillment for them. Watching someone who is able to grasp new concepts and ideas through small building blocks created by teachers is a rewarding experience.

3. Watching others grow and develop mentally is personally satisfying for teachers. Being able to assimilate information and observe children or adults who are able to begin putting puzzle pieces of information and data together is an awesome experience. It's like seeing the light bulb actually going off in the student's head and seeing the excitement in their eyes. Teaching brings it all to life.

4. The one thing teachers love to do more than teach is learn! Teaching requires life-long learning for the teacher. As new technology, unearthed historical information, new data, and advanced strategies for teaching are identified, teachers are in the enviable position of utilizing or communicating this newfound knowledge to many others.

5. Preparing, mentoring, and developing the youth of today for the leadership of tomorrow are highly valued talents of teachers. They recognize that the work they do today will result in students continuing their education and becoming doctors, nurses, politicians, financial planners, interior designers, and yes teachers! It is through their knowledge, patience, and tolerance that they are able to help build strong minds for the future.

Teaching is often over-looked as one of the most valuable occupations in the world. A person who devotes his or her time to teaching makes this decision out of a strong desire to help others. They have a desire to experience the evolution of learning as it sparks the imagination in children and adults to move to the next level of intellectual thinking and understanding.

Teachers are teachers because they are passionate about their desire to build a better future! Their quest for lifelong learning gives them the desire to "pay it forward" every day.

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