How can you change lives if you’re doing it for the summers off? Who are you helping if your heart isn’t in it?
Being a successful teacher is not a matter of pushing through the college coursework, earning the necessary certifications, and passing Praxis exams. It is an inborn passion, a talent, and a burning desire to touch the lives of future generations. What it takes to be a truly effective teacher simply cannot be taught through a course or assessed by any exam. Either you have “it” or you don’t.
Teaching is a career in which your students get out what you put in. Every day is a new opportunity to guide a child toward a love of learning. Every day is a chance to create a warm, welcoming, and safe environment that supports children’s development. Teaching is not an “in the meantime” or “for now” career, it’s a commitment to devote yourself, twelve months of the year, to bettering the lives of our future doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen and women.
The truth is, children are the ones who suffer when the wrong people end up in the front of the classroom. These Plan B teachers burn out quickly because the passion isn’t there. They become easily frustrated because they see student misbehavior as burdensome and irritating, rather than as learning opportunities. The so called “easy” career they once thought it was, turns out to be rather demanding.
The reality is, it is incredibly exhausting to teach little humans. However, it is even more rewarding for those of us cut out for the career, for those of us who have the ability and desire to engage young minds with ease, facilitate their thinking, ignite their imaginations, and cultivate their dreams.
So if you’re falling back on teaching, do us all a favor and find a Plan C.
