Important Questions...

Why do we teach? What is the difference between school "work" and student "learning"? What makes for good teaching?

We all have teachers that have had an impact on our lives, teachers who have mentored us and helped nurture within us certain passions that eventually will be our futures. For the most part, I have been blessed with good teachers for my entire educational career, but there are of course the several that had the most impact on me. I can think fondly back these teachers, but to put my finger on what made them good teachers is difficult. There are so many factors that make it possible to label them "good". But I think the most essential of these factors, and the answer to the questions both "Why do we teach?" and "What makes for good teaching?" is the fact that these teachers gave me, as their student, their entire heart, and they cared about me as if I was a priority in their life...almost like a parent. They went beyond school work: textbooks, worksheets, papers, and curriculum, and found the good in me and nurtured it. They guided me at a point in my life when I needed guidance and I needed people to help me become an creative and ambitious individual. Teachers can indeed make an impact on their students by teaching them from the book, following the curriculum closely and being a picture perfect teacher. Their students learn a lot and leave more intelligent and probably inspired to learn more, if the teacher is effective. I have had many teachers like this--ones that are knowledgeable and effective, but never took the time to get to know me or my peers. I retained the information I learned, but as an impressionable and needy youth, I gained nothing more. I think it's so important to understand that students not only want to learn, but they more essentially, as human beings, just want to feel connected to people, and that as a teacher, you have a unique opportunity to make a difference to so many individuals. I think teaching is important for the betterment of the world and for the good of society, but on a more primal level, I think it's important just to be fulfill and be fulfilled. This is, at least, why I want to teach. I want to feel connections with creative and unique people and to share ideas and stories and, essentially, continue to be taught, by my experiences with young people that are individual and that love the same things I do. Student "learning" should be as much about passing on your own knowledge as you learning from them.

I feel like the above paragraph is scattered and unorganized. But that's just it. It's so hard to be conclusive about things like this....good teachers are good teachers for reasons you can't really assign words to. They're good at what they do because they care about it, and they care about other people. Is that corny?