Why are you a teacher?
Why do you want to be a teacher?
It can’t be the money. In Malaysia we’re among the lower paid professionals, as opposed to Singapore, where teachers are among the higher paid government servants.
It can’t be the fame and glory. There’s almost nothing glorious about standing at the front of the classroom, yelling at the top of your voice for the students to quiet down.
It can’t be the hours, because contrary to popular belief, teachers do not just clock in at 7.20am and clock out at 2.30pm. Teachers wake up at the crack of dawn, clock in at school at 7am, clock out between 3pm to 5pm, go home and take care of family matters until 8pm, and then continue marking books, preparing lessons, completing backlogged paperwork, write reports and so on, sometimes well into the wee hours of early morning. Then they sleep for a few hours, and then drag their bodies out of bed again at the crack of dawn again the next day, beginning the cycle all over again.
So if it isn’t these things, what is it?
Well, it could be a number of things, couldn’t it?
It could be the high you get when the students are in stitches laughing at your jokes, as if you were an Apollo stage stand-up comedian.
It could be the excitement you get when you see the students completing your tasks, and seeing the understanding dawn on their faces as they absorb the knowledge you have passed on to them.
It could be the pleasure you get when you know that you are in fact shaping the very future of those bright young minds, that you are and always will be an integral part of thousands of lives.
It could be the feeling of utmost satisfaction when many years have passed by, and suddenly out of the blue, a smartly dressed executive calls out your name, and asks you if you remember teaching him once upon a time, and that because of you he is where he is today.
It could be all these and much, much more.
What could your reason be?
How bout the presents you get on your birthday… Banyak tuh…
Salam Aziz, nice of u to drop in.. Become a teacher for a few years and Hinode Shop will give you a medal for keeping their business alive..hehe..
It’s The Passion that keeps me going. Just that. Nothing else matters (well, maybe a little incentive could work too)
And oodles of it you have my friend.. That’s why your students all love you to bits.. You are a true teacher indeed
I am still a teacher because I am free to dream of becoming anybody I like while am still in this profession.
I can keep all my dreams -wonderful dreams, wonderful aspirations wonderful inspirations in life…things that as I grow older I feel more realistic about and the longer I teach the more I see my dreams taking shape in their lives of my students…
The feeling of being able to connect with people at the level no one else could is my strongest motivator…and I love school, I love students…I just hope my children will have someone who have the heart like mine as their teachers…
Hi Jessie, nice to see you here!
Yes, I totally agree with you about the connection we have with people, with our students. It is a unique bond that no one else gets in other professions (though each profession has its own specialty).
Teaching is definitely a long-term job, because it’s only in the long term do you really see the difference you made in your students. As such, teachers who find that they are not interested in teaching, even after 3 years, should quit while they are able to do something about it. Otherwise, it is not only them who will suffer, but their students too.