Why do teachers teach?

“Teaching, for those who love it, gives us purpose,” said French teacher, Madame Farrier.

Many view teaching as easy, and quite sub-par of a “dream job”. They do not see the value in becoming a teacher and undermine it as something for those sub-par in life. Teaching is a profession that needs to be more recognized as these people, humans, could have been making more money in the business world, but would rather inspire and teach the younger generations.

We take for granted how many learning opportunities there are in the classroom, as part of the many kids in the United States, who are lucky enough to receive a free public education, but see going to school as a chore.

Teaching is dynamic believe it or not.

“Teaching is not a job when you can rest on your laurels,” said Farrier.

Being a teacher means planning lessons and finding fun, interactive ways that all students will enjoy and stay engaged in. Many Grandview teachers “opt” out of the traditional boring PowerPoint lectures and recycled worksheets, in exchange for more hands-on and engaging activities.

While it’s difficult to find lesson plans that can keep student’s short attention span active, I have found this to be a major reason I enjoy literature–especially plays. Without a doubt, Shakespeare can be difficult to understand, but it’s an engaging story thanks to my teachers in the past. Acting out the scenes and being more interactive in my classes is much more interesting than listening to lectures, which is why we should commend teachers for coming up with lesson plans every day.

They can’t just search for all their interactive lesson plans on the internet, and students need to realize that almost all teachers take pride in their classroom and classes.

“I’ve never been bored a single day in teaching.” Holly Hoggarth, an English teacher and librarian said.

Before teaching, Hoggarth worked in public relations and advertising. At the time, Hoggarth thought that it would be fun; in reality, it was uninteresting and uninspiring.

“I remember a lot of my friends were like ‘I can’t believe you work in public relations and advertising and would ever want to leave,’” said Hoggarth. “Because I think it sounded like this sexy career. It was so boring!”

While a 9 to 5 job might pay more, many teachers would much rather be here inspiring young students and taking them on to hopefully bigger and better things after high school.

Performing arts and athletics teachers arguably have the most difficult job in lesson planning, as they must come up with projects and scenes, or how they’re going to keep their students physically active. It isn’t simple finding scenes from plays that would fit the criteria for the material you need to cover.

Are these teachers making a difference in kids lives?

The hope for any teacher is to inspire the next generation and hopefully make learning interesting–and if possible, fun.

“That’s why I come to work everyday,” said Farmer. “Because I feel like I can make a difference for someone and change their life, and not everyone has the opportunity to do that.”

From a student perspective, hearing a teacher’s reason for coming to work every day is quite refreshing. I get to hear, in this case, Mr.Farmer’s and I hope many other teachers, reason for coming into work every day They want us to succeed and hopefully change lives.

Teaching needs to be acknowledged, and that teachers here at Grandview, and all around the world only want the best of their students. So thank your teacher some time, they’ll appreciate it.