4 Why Teach?

Aletha was at the end of her rope, barely hanging on. The especially hard thing was that she hadn’t expected to reach that point at her particular stage of her teaching career. Aletha knew that starting out would be a challenge, and indeed it was. Aletha had taken a good couple of years to manage student behavior, learn the idiosyncrasies of the curriculum, and adjust to the endless hours of preparing lesson plans, grading student work, and dealing with parents unhappy with their student’s performance. She’d then had a stretch of a few years of feeling reasonably competent and satisfied. But recently, Aletha was questioning again whether she was up to teaching. She even had her eye on an administrative position in the school. Anything, Aletha felt, to get a break to catch her breath. Aletha was drowning in teaching.

Motivation

Your motivation to teach can be important. At times, you’ll surely need it. Not that teaching is necessarily an arduous job, along the full spectrum of vocations. It’s frankly not. Teachers generally work in comfortably climate-controlled, clean, safe, and secure conditions. Teachers often have their own rooms that they arrange with their own desk, chair, computer, and other accoutrements. Teachers also dress comfortably, work collegially, and don’t generally lift much more than a finger. Teaching’s physical demands instead mostly have to do with standing, concentrating, smiling, and speaking for long stretches, modestly challenging at times but seldom intolerable. But teaching still has sufficient mental, emotional, psychological, and relational challenges for a teacher to need a solid motivational foundation. Teacher burnout is a real thing, due to high testing stakes, unreasonable parent expectations, inadequate administrative support, student misbehavior, and long work weeks with endless after-hours tasks. If you don’t know why you’re teaching and don’t feel particularly committed to it, teaching will eventually undo you. You’ll find yourself beset with nagging questions and no longer feeling up to the daily task. Be sure of your reasons for teaching.

Meaning

Life’s deepest challenge has something to do with making meaning. If we were only animals, then we could take pleasure in satisfying our basic needs, as teaching generally does. Teachers aren’t generally going hungry or without shelter or clothing. But we’re instead extraordinarily conscious creatures, constantly demanding meaning and purpose out of our activities. It’s not enough for us to just survive or even to materially thrive. With the divine spark within us, we also need to find meaning and purpose in what we do. Teaching, as much as nearly anything else one can conceive, carries great purpose and meaning. To teach is to foster human awareness. To teach is to prepare others for a worthwhile life of meaning and purpose. Teachers form the foundation atop which pastors and priests work, coaxing students to read, write, and reason their way into lives worth living. If you can’t find meaning in helping others find meaning, then your problem may be deeper than having chosen the wrong vocation. Teaching offers abundant opportunities to see meaning and purpose in your life. 

Calling

Teaching also has the features of a profound calling. Teaching does not just provide vocation, income, and material security. Teaching isn’t like a factory job where a worker assembles the same widget, over and over, while watching the clock and wondering what it all means. Teaching instead has such a strong human element to it as to give teaching a deep allure. Young folks feel called to various vocations, like saving cute animals, piloting airplanes, designing skyscrapers, operating excavators to dig great ditches, or acting on the stage in grand plays. Teaching is one of those alluring professions about which young folks dream. For some of us, especially when young, teachers have a majesty, command, ministry, and mystery to them that makes them all their own. Teaching may have called you from an early age, telling you that teaching was your authentic vocation, one that would make you, too, all your own. 

Ministry

Teaching is also a precious ministry to needful others. The very role of a teacher assumes a student in need. As a profession, teaching is all about continually meeting needs. The needs of students are not generally material needs. Teachers don’t usually feed, clothe, and shelter students. Parents meet their children’s material needs. Teachers are also not directly responsible for meeting their students’ emotional needs. Parents instead have the primary responsibility of caring for their students’ social and emotional needs. While teachers may help with those other developmental needs, especially social and emotional needs among younger students, a teacher’s primary responsibility is to meet the student’s intellectual, academic, and critical-thinking needs. What makes teaching such a special ministry to the student is that those academic, intellectual, and critical-thinking needs that teachers serve may be every bit as great as the material and other developmental needs that parents meet. And parents know it. Parents know that they are entrusting their child’s depth, breadth, fullness, roundedness, and maturity to their child’s teachers. Teaching thus has the hue of parenting but on a higher plane. Appreciate the priceless ministry you pursue as a teacher. 

Employment

We all have material needs that motivate us. Teaching is a profession that can readily meet those needs. Full-time employment as a teacher may not provide the substantial extra income that work in business or the medical or legal professions may provide. Teaching may not make you wealthy. But society values its teachers sufficiently to generally ensure an adequate income to provide for oneself. And over a longer time in many circumstances, teachers can do quite well with that provision. Teacher compensation can vary from state to state and job to job fairly widely. The local cost of living likewise affects whether teachers can do well enough for themselves and their family on a teacher’s salary. Summer employment may be necessary to supplement a teacher’s income, during certain stages of life. But on the whole, teaching can earn an individual a decent wage, without the dangers, risks, and physical breakdown that other vocations present and demand. For that extra bit of motivation, keep in mind the economic benefits that teaching supplies you and your family.

Benefits

Teachers, especially those working under union labor agreements, generally earn attractive benefits along with their salaried compensation. Good healthcare insurance with broad coverage and lower deductibles and co-pays can be exorbitantly expensive. Many teachers, especially those working under labor agreements, get good healthcare insurance as a benefit. Public school teachers often also get a pension, a benefit that is rare to non-existent in private employment. Teachers may also have defined-contribution retirement plans available to them and qualify for Social Security, giving teachers the opportunity for a secure and comfortable retirement. Teachers also often get their summers off, generous holiday breaks, and reasonable personal and vacation days. They may also get generous paid maternity and paternity leaves. On the whole, teachers can enjoy more-comprehensive and generous benefits than workers in other vocations, more than making up for the limited opportunity for especially high income. When you need that extra motivation, remember the benefits that your teaching supplies. 

Security

Teachers may also find good security in their employment. The value of a job isn’t only in the income and benefits it offers. The greater value of a job may be in its longevity and security. Teachers have a greater opportunity for long-time service than workers in many other jobs. Public school teachers working under a labor agreement will routinely enjoy substantial job security, with job termination only for good cause. Private school teachers may not have equivalent protections reflected in their teaching contracts, but the custom of fair treatment and job security may still apply. In higher education, labor agreements or tenure arrangements may provide similar protections, where the custom of long-term and secure employment may also apply. Don’t underestimate the value of your job security as a teacher. A long, secure, and steady employment can make up for whatever else teaching may lack in material and non-material benefits, when compared to other vocations lacking in that security. Even traditionally high-paying and high-reputation professions like law and medicine can be significantly more insecure, bumpy, and disruptive than teaching. Remember and value your job security when needing motivation.

Advancement

Teaching can also offer reasonably rich opportunities for job advancement, largely within the teacher’s choice and preference. You may have substantial opportunities, but no pressure, to move up in your teaching employment. Teachers may enjoy step increases in salary simply for returning to their jobs year after year. With increasing seniority, teachers may also enjoy promotions to preferred assignments, classrooms, and school duties, and have opportunities to move to preferred subjects and grade levels. Teachers also generally have the opportunity to coach sports, advise student clubs, supervise stage productions, and otherwise participate in school life, sometimes with extra compensation. Teachers may also take on administrative duties, whether as department chairs, directors, or the like, again with extra standing, authority, title, and compensation. Teachers may also move from teaching to administration, whether as directors, assistant principals, principals, deans, provosts, vice presidents, or presidents. Educational programs require substantial administration, sometimes with several administrative layers. Don’t undervalue your opportunity for advancement. Consider pursuing advancement, if you need a change and new challenge. 

Community

Teachers also enjoy a greater sense of community in their employment than workers in many other vocations. A school is much more nearly like a family or village of its own than most other workplaces. In higher education and in prep academies, students may live, work, eat, sleep, study, and play all on campus, making it their literal home. Even in schools without student living arrangements, students may not only study on campus but also eat, recreate, and socialize there, making campus their figurative home. Faculty members play a special role in that campus life, in loco parentis or as stand-ins for the absent parents. That parental-like role can give faculty members an extra sense of community and endearing responsibility. It’s no wonder that students at all levels may return years later to tell teachers how much the teacher meant to them. Working in such a family-like environment can be much arduous than working in a cold and lifeless factory or office setting. If you’re needing motivation to continue teaching, consider the alternative workplaces where you might end up missing your school community. 

Growth

You also have personal reasons to teach, relating to your own growth and development. No one learns more than the teacher. If, for instance, you take up teaching on the side, in an adjunct-faculty role related to your day-job profession, you will instantly see your professional practice in new ways. You will inevitably deepen your job knowledge and hone your job skills. When you teach, you must sharpen and clarify your subject-matter knowledge to communicate it clearly and inspirationally to novices. You learn new conceptual relationships and hierarchies, and how to reason and analyze with greater force, subtlety, and clarity. Teaching also draws out your presentation and speaking skills, and may develop your graphic and writing skills. When teaching, you may find yourself drawn into new research, experiments, studies, writing, and publication projects. You may also find yourself engaged in rewarding collaborations with others who share your research interests. Teaching offers abundant opportunities for personal growth. Don’t undervalue those opportunities when needing fresh motivation to continue or rededicate your teaching. 

Reflection

What is your motivation to teach? Did teaching call you from an early age? Do you find good meaning and purpose in your teaching craft? Do you have a strong and clear sense of the ministry of care you have in meeting the many needs of students? Does your teaching position offer you greater job security than you would enjoy in other fields? What are the employment benefits you enjoy as a teacher? Are your employment benefits as a teacher greater than you would enjoy in other fields? What opportunities for advancement do you have in your current teaching position? Would pursuing one of those opportunities increase your work satisfaction? Do you value the collegiality of your co-workers? Do you enjoy the sense of community that exists on your school’s campus? How do you participate in the school community, beyond your teaching duties? Would you draw greater job satisfaction if you participated to a greater degree in campus life? 

Key Points

• Teachers may need to keep in mind their motivation to teach.

• Teaching provides great inherent meaning and purpose as a vocation.

• Teaching can have an allure, calling one to the role and station.

• Teaching is a great ministry of care and concern for the needful.

• Teaching is generally attractive employment with good compensation.

• Teachers can enjoy especially attractive employment benefits.

• Teachers often have greater job security than other fields offer.

• Teachers often have substantial opportunities for advancement.

• Teachers enjoy a greater sense of workplace community than others.

• Teaching also gives you the opportunity to grow and develop.

Read Chapter 5.