Why do people become teachers? Why does anyone want to become a teacher?

I know that I want to be a teacher because I want to help people, and I'm sure that if you ask many teachers why they chose this profession, they are likely to tell you the same thing.

If we truly go into the classroom with the mindset of helpfulness, patience, caring, and love, then why has the classroom become such a stale, emotionless environment with children who foster a negative connotation with any utterance of the word "school?"

I understand that schools are underfunded and teachers have to jump through hoops now just to be able to teach lessons in their own classrooms. I realize how the red tape can strip the joy from any profession as if this one isn't exhausting enough in its own right. But where has the passion gone? The energy? The love for learning and for passing on your knowledge? The desire to inspire future generations into greatness?

As a future teacher, I want to make a change, but it's terrifying to see so many teachers become lifeless in their jobs.

Well, there's one man who hasn't lost the spark.

You may remember his New York Times bestselling book, "The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child," or the 2006 film which told his story, "The Ron Clark Story" (starring Matthew Perry as Ron Clark).

Yes, Ron Clark has been changing the education game now for a while and inspiring many with the fire inside of him. After using the earnings from his bestseller to purchase a warehouse, which he turned into a real life Hogwarts, Ron Clark opened the Ron Clark Academy in Southeast Atlanta, GA, on Sept. 4, 2007, and welcomed his first class of students, with a goal in mind: for these students to enjoy going to school.

Ever since, Clark has been inspiring, motivating, and challenging students with his innovative and creative modes of teaching. And the students love it!

The students are definitely challenged, though. They are held to an impressively high standard, and they always rise to meet it. Through the encouragement and motivation they receive at school, the students feel like they can accomplish any goal set before them, and isn't that how we want all students to feel? Confident and capable.

In studying the Ron Clark Academy, the one thing that continues to amaze me more than any other is the way Clark and his faculty and staff build relationships with their students. They treat the students like people, not like numbers, and not like a job. Like people. They genuinely care for and invest in the lives and futures of each of the students, and that may be making a bigger difference than anything else they are doing. There is a mutual respect that is vital to a successful classroom.

Clark continues to show us that if you don't lose sight of why you love what you're doing, you invest in relationships with the people around you, you work for what you believe in, and chase after what you want, you can accomplish anything.

There is an epidemic that is taking over our classrooms. It's a sense of lackluster-ness, and it's destroying us from the bottom up. We are, in fact, not helping anyone by being stagnant. Let us find our love, empathy, and passion again, and let us start by employing it in the classroom.

Ron Clark reminds me that you can be a teacher and love what you do, inspire others, and not become burnt out by the monotony, if you are willing to put in the hard work and creativity to create something special and meaningful.

You can learn more about the magic that is happening at the Ron Clark Academy here!