Is Teaching the Most Important Job in the World?

After parenting, a childs teacher is the most important person in their life and this makes teaching so important. When it is done effectively, children all over the world are able to become promising and productive citizens. I once had a doctor friend of mine laugh and poke fun of the teaching profession and I was quick to respond... someone had to teach you, didn't they? He paused, reflected and then responded with a simple and apoligetic yes.

I believe educators and people in general forget sometimes how much of an impact a teacher will truly have on the children they come in contact with throughout their career. Who else other than parents spend as much time guiding the learning of children? Effective teachers can motivate and inspire children to reach their potential even when they don't want to or feel that they can. Ineffective teachers can also impact a child just as much, but in a negative manner. Both types of teachers have an immediate impact on a child's perception of self, good or bad. Students will perform to the expectations of the teacher and great teachers know this. It is always such a joy to have students come back to me years later and tell me of the positive impact I had on their life... that is why I do what I do- for them.

Think back to the teachers that had an impact on your life. What was it that made them so important to you? Was it the subject that they taught? Maybe, but I can imagine that if you are like me that is not exactly what made them so special to you. I feel that it was what they inspired within you and me. It is this inspiration that he or she instilled that helped us look beyond the classroom and towards the outside world with a certain sense of curiosity to be taken on and learned from. Why? Because teaching is the most important job in the world. We knew that someone cared about our success even if that teacher never said it. Remember this as you enter your classrooms... Children will never care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

What Keeps Us From Being Great?

Are you always able to achieve the goals you set for yourself? Me neither. Its not because of a lack of effort, I don't think, but more a lack of long-term focus.

I was sitting in church and our Youth Pastor was giving the sermon today. It is here that something he said struck me to my very core. He said "When we veer off course by just a few degrees, it doesn't appear to be a big deal in the short term. But as we get further and further away from our goal the distances become greater and greater."

This is something I definitely need to be aware of in my faith, but it also hit me because of my career. While reading Howard Gardner's "Five Minds of the Future" one of the things he mentions is his moral duty to his profession to do the absolute best job he is capable of doing. What I take of him to be meaning is that his ability to perform at a high standard is not just what he expects from others in his field, but also of himself every day.

There are a lot of times we see things happen, whether it is with the students we teach or the peers we work with, we know is not proper in our line of work. For some reason we don't pick up one end of the stick because we will then have to carry the other end as well. The problem with that is we have now given that person permission to continue doing what we plainly saw them doing wrong. Is that Okay? Part of integrity is not just what we do when no one is looking, but also what we allow ourselves and others to do when we veer off course. It is not the small changes in angle that lead us away from being Great, I believe it is the lack of course corrections. By holding ourselves and the people around us accountable we get to keep our integrity in tact and continue our quest of moving from Good to Great!

Everything is Possible

I am currently about halfway through Sir Ken Robinson's newest book, The Element, and I am finding myself more and more inspired as I read on. The majority of the book is a collection of real stories of successful people, such as rocker Paul McCartney, actress Meg Ryan, cartoonist Matt Groening, choreographer Gillian Lynne, author Arianna Huffington, physicist Richard Feynman and so many more that are "passionate about what they do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else." Story after story is shared detailing each persons struggles trying to "fit in." Each person struggled to try to fit the mold of what their cultures idea of normal in education is supposed to look like with little success. In spite of this perceived difference and perceived inability, they have all been able to reach new heights within their own respective field. It is a truly inspiring book.

A lot of people definitely did not view me as normal growing up as well. I was never told by my mother or stepfather that education was important. I did okay in school but was never really motivated and really did not care for the whole mess anyway... I really only did well enough to continue to play sports and that is what kept my grades at least at a functioning level. The funny thing is, I was in advanced classes and several AP courses and didn't even care enough to know what that even meant. My teachers always told me that I had lots of potential... so what does that mean? My grades were so poor and my background so gloomy (I was the first Shepherd to graduate High School) I even had a guidance counselor tell me to start looking into a skill instead of a college after my senior year. Glad I didn't listen to her. I had a best friend whose dad made him go to a local community college that summer and he talked me into enrolling as well.

Two degrees and almost 20 years later, I am now an administrator in a middle school where most of my distant relatives live. I am doing what I am passionate about and can’t imagine doing anything else and I have a chance to show the students I work with that Everything is Possible. They are working through a lot of the same struggles that I had to overcome in my childhood and I use myself as an example to show them they can do anything they want to and stress the importance to never allow anyone to tell them that they can't. I also use myself as a model for my teachers as well, by sharing my childhood stories of struggle and doubt with them as well in order to help them see the potential in every child we touch. This past week I have had several conversations like that, in addition to reading this book. All of this has caused me to reflect on what is possible in this world. I grew up believing that anything within the laws of physics is possible. Now, in a world full of technology that is moving at the speed of change, I truly believe that Everything is Possible.