Why Do Teachers Teach (And Why They Shouldn't)

Most teachers ought to take stock of their lives, and what drove them into teaching.

Was it because they loved to learn? Where did they learn to love learning? Chances are, it was not at school. I learned to speak French listening to Nineteenth Century Opera while reading and reciting the libretto of each work.

I learned Spanish in part from what I had gleaned from French, since the vocabulary of the two Romance languages is very similar. After practicing with Spanish speakers in the schools where I worked, students and staff alike thought that I was a native, or at least that I had paid extensive visits to Spanish-speaking countries.

The point of this side anecdote is to demonstrate that the most forceful and effectual learning often takes place outside of the classroom. Most teachers would have to concede this unpleasant reality.

Another reason why teachers enter they profession: they liked school because they were good at it.

However, being good at school means that these individuals were good at being schooled. They were good at getting the gold stars, they happily received the student of the month awards, they proudly posted their Achievement of the Year Awards in their rooms for all to enjoy and envy.

A thorough schooling does not an educated mind create. An educated mind must be created from within (hence the etymology of the word "education": "to draw out").

Teachers teach because they liked learning. Ideally, everyone likes to learn. But why be forced to learn with a bunch of people your own age who have about as much interest in what you are saying as they would learning about the inefficiencies of the Berlin sewer system?

One teacher actually declared that she loves teaching because when she teaches young people, she sees herself. Crass narcissism aside, a teacher who is looking for herself in her students would be best advised to find some other line of work. That is just plain sick, if not unfair for the kid. Isn't education about getting children to see who they are? What they can be? Young people are not the cookie-cutter canvases for self-absorbed instructors.

Some teachers are into the power trip. At least that's what one instructor told me at UC Irvine, although he really didn't care about teaching, spending more time belittling students and telling tasteless jokes.

If I did learn anything in that class (or any other class at UC Irvine, it was by watching movies or (gasp!) reading books not assigned to me in the library. The stacks are your friends. They open easily, and they do not snap or belittle you for making mistakes, and they do not grade you up or down. Books are such wonderful teachers, but I digress. . .

Teachers have a vision, that they can help students see the light, achieve great things. What do you do, though, when you don't care? What do you do for a student who does not care, or who is so hungry from mal-nourishment that they want something to eat, not something to learn?

Why do teachers teach? I guess because they get something out of it. A stable job, a generous pension, a chance to become an administrator, making more money (but also working more hours, so it all breaks even).

Just before my student teaching ended, my mentor teacher asked me why I wanted to be a teacher. I paused. I paused some more. I kept thinking.

"It's hard to say, isn't it?" He answered.

It is, when you have nothing to say. In the deepest part of me, the part that could only be honest if brought to the light, I could not gather one reason for wanting to be a teacher.

Most teachers ought to take stock of their live, and what drove them into teaching. I am now taking stock of what drove me out of the profession, in spite of the kind words, the nice notes from students, and the general desire that I would never want to teach again.