Recently, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the 10 best paying jobs of 2014 by Adam Auriemma. While I perused the article, it suddenly occurred to me how flawed societies views are when thinking about education. In fact, there are some people in the teaching profession who may be high on that list!
People in the past and even presently look down their noses at teachers. Worst yet are those who will blatantly tell you that teachers make "no money". BINGO! This is the problem. We can never put a monetary value on teaching because teaching is more than dollars and cents. I am not implying that money is not important. It will come but it is not the driving force for being an EXCEPTIONAL teacher.
After writing my first blog, The Marvels of Modern Education, my student from fifteen years ago contacted me to share with me the impact I had made on his life and how he is now living his childhood dream. He recounted that as an eighth grader I had given him a "pile" of information about engineering after expressing that he would like to become an engineer. This brought tears to my eyes. On reflecting I thought... I must have been crazy..... yes crazy! The fact is that I believed in this student and all my students. I have high expectations for each of them.
Teaching is not a job. It is a passion. Teaching is more than facts, figures, memorization, and test-taking though they all have a role to play.Teaching is all about the HEART. It first begins with LOVE for children and your expectations for them to succeed despite the odds. It is instilling the values and attitudes of working hard, being disciplined, love for others, celebrating successes and failures, and most of all having fun!
Inspiring a love for learning and a spirit of inquiry will supersede the need to artificially engineer college and career readiness. To all my teachers who have positively impacted the lives of students....... I say THANK YOU because you may not hear it enough. Congratulations! Continue to be EXCEPTIONAL. We can do it one child at a time......the cost PRICELESS!
Indeed the classrooms in which we stand whether traditional or modern will have an EXCEPTIONAL TEACHER.
What's your story? Please share.
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