October 18, 2015

Why We Do What We Do

The opportunity to touch the future.


That's what most of the people I've taught with over the years have been all about. The focus of most educators during the past several years has been that "teaching is what we do." Somewhere along the line, though, we lost the "why." We have to bring back the why.

We went into education because we love working with kids and helping get them ready for their futures. Even when a child is in kindergarten, his teacher(s) are preparing him for his future. Our youngest students in school are only with us for 30 or so hours a week. Our teachers work hard to facilitate the learning of their students — teaching them to read, compute math problems, and so many other academic facets. It's so much more every day: counseling students, listening to students, helping them learn manners in the cafeteria, communicating with parents both bad and good information … When we say we want to "touch the future," we aren't kidding. Teachers truly do a great deal to help ready children for their futures. Every. Single Day.

Of course, it's not only the teachers. The bus drivers impact the kids. The cooks and cafeteria workers, the parapros, the secretaries, and even the principal influence student behavior. Children are our most precious resource and we must carefully influence and guide them every single day. In all reality, it's the community that works together to ensure that students are ready for their futures. It's just that teachers chose to impact students' lives because they want to touch the future. It's what they do.


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