unit 10.Why is Teaching the Most Important Profession

Why is Teaching the Most Important Profession

Teachers are our nation builders—the strength of every profession in our country grows out of the knowledge and skills that teachers help to instill in our children.

Teachers have the capacity to shape the minds and futures of many - and they do so at all kinds of critical life stages.

Kindergarten teachers introduce young minds to the wonder of learning - and to the basic tools of learning that students will use their entire lives.

Middle School teachers have the onerous challenge of instilling a passion for academics in large groups of teens and tweens, whose minds are so deeply focused on developmental issues and their idiosyncratic social worlds.

High school teachers are charged with teaching detailed intellectual content to large groups of “near adults” - whose worlds are often tumultuous on the inside and on the outside.

College professors are charged with inspiring young adults - teaching them the nuts-and-bolts of highly technical content areas while showing them how limitless their life possibilities are. And in combination, across an individual’s lifespan, it is an army of teachers who have ultimately shaped how that individual understands the world and his or her place in it.

Reasons Why Teaching Is The Best Job In The World

1. The potential to transform lives –A teacher helped a student in any number of ways, from academic to welfare and emotional learning,

2. It gives you the chance to be continuously creative – of course there are increasing levels of accountability in teaching, but teachers are allowed to be creative in every lesson. Teachers have so many opportunities to try new ideas, and indulge in iterative process to ensure the optimum learning environment is created.

3. It offers you a chance to continuously get better – teachers are not only encouraged to seek continuous professional development, but can ask for observation on a regular basis, to provide opportunities to grow and learn from masters or more experienced practitioners.

4. It is a grounding, humbling profession – the amount of work teachers do compared to remuneration is shockingly disproportionate, (paid vs non paid hours of work and secondly, in relation to other similarly creative and important (and not so important) vocations in our society).

5. There is always satisfaction somewhere –

On closer inspection, teaching demands are actually central to the job itself: explaining to parents where you are coming from; being observed; collaborating with others; marking teachers to feel satisfied.

6. It’s a chance to truly to lead the world in the 21st century – introducing students to new technologies and ways of presenting, curating, and collaborating with others with what they know is truly exciting and truly invigorating. Modern teachers are actually pioneering pedagogy, and can and will be able to hold their heads up high in the future when we look back and see how learning in this day and age took a radical but enormously beneficial turn for the better.

Engaging students in greater collaboration, and instilling initiative in curation and the promotion of information leads to truly independent learning, and setting up such learning environments is an opportunity that all teachers now have before them. There are few more gratifying feelings that being needed.

Conclusion

Of course, so much of the technological addition to teaching has all been achieved mostly through our own initiative, having to source and implement the enterprising learning strategies. But this only provides another string to our bow, and in the context of how important 21st century skills are, another example of why teaching is such an amazing thing to do. Sometimes teaching is exhausting, but friends, always come back to the core of what we are doing.