This is Why I Teach…

 

Within this past year, many political issues have arisen in Idaho’s Education. Many issues which, sadly, have caused the public and many educators to question why do teachers continue to teach in spite of the mess in our schools? (Larger class sizes, cut in pay and benefits, lack of aides and school specialists, etc.)

I know why I teach. It’s the love of the kids and what I can give them. But I never found such a beautiful way of expressing it as this section I read out of a recent book. (Breaking the Code: The New Science of Beginning Reading and Writing- J. Richard Gentry)

“If you teach a child to read…you have given that person an extraordinary gift. Perhaps this gift will chart the person’s brighter future. Perhaps it will lead him or her to discover their inner self. Reading may allow the person you teach to create a new vision, or in Albert Einstein’s words, awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. It my comfort him or her in loneliness. When you teach someone to read, your gift will sometimes make him or her cry, and sometimes laugh. Through reading some will unshackle brutal bonds of abuse, slavery, or oppression. Reading will help them find their way.

Reading may help your student dream better; it may help him or her pray. It may lead your student to deeper more profound thought making. Reading informs. When you give the gift of reading, you connect mankind to all humanity in the past and present. And for the reader who writes, that person’s thought may transform future generations. Your student’s written word may persist long after the writer is gone.

My mother would say to you who are reading teachers: “Your life has great purpose and meaning.”

Honor the person who taught you to read. In teaching another or by moving them forward, you honor mankind. Reading teachers amplify our most profound human qualities. Reading teachers are in a class of their own.”

And THAT is why I teach and love it.

-Amanda