WHY BECOME A TEACHER?

I'm sure we have all been asked a time or two, WHY do you want to become a teacher?  I remember just before I started the elementary education program and I was at my cousins bridal shower.  I was talking to someone and telling them that I was going to school, and I told them how excited I was to start the program.  She then began to ask me why I wanted to be a teacher, and how awful of a job that would be, and they don't get paid nearly enough, and how she thought that if I was going to be a teacher I should at least teacher junior high or high school because at least then I wouldn't have to be a babysitter...  At first, I didn't really know how to respond?  But then I got thinking, and who was she to tell me that I was choosing an awful career???  What made her think that she needed to tell me that?  I chose to not be offended by her comments to me, because if I was really worried about those things that she was telling me I OBVIOUSLY wouldn't be choosing the career path that I was.  As Chapter 3 clearly states that their are a variety of reasons that people choose to become teachers, and how much light children bring into our lives!  

This quote pretty much sums up one of the many reasons that I have chosen to become a teacher.  Teachers can make so much of a difference in children's lives and it all starts inside the classroom. 

 As teachers... we sense as novices that we are destined  to be much more than just dispensers of information, sergeants of behavior, and captains of the test prep."

As teachers we are preparing our future generations to become valuable and beneficial members of society.  In a way it is up to us to make sure that we are preparing this children to grow up and to become successful.  Another reason that the book mentions why some people choose to become teachers is because they want to give back to our society.  

To end on a high note, Deborah Meier who was a remarkable principal said this when she was told that her faculty was remarkable, "Her school staff is not remarkable because they are more gifted than other teachers or because they have taught longer or because they went to more exclusive colleges.  They are remarkable because they lived what they believe."

That is what it all comes down to.  Care for our students, and living with what we believe.  Keep these things in mind as my next post will be all about teacher responses to students needs.