The teaching profession is the central agent of implementing the education system. The teaching career is thus a sensitive career since it can break or break the career of many individuals in the education system within any government (Highet, 2008, p12). One of the major roles of teaching is to operate the education system, improve and develop the quality of education. The teaching profession does not really count on how much has been has been paid out to the teachers but on how much is the productivity of the teacher. Teaching is mainly dedicating oneself to produce something of value from inducing knowledge to others. Thus being a teacher mainly involves helping the students to acquire higher standards of knowledge, morals, skills and also improved abilities (Banner, 2003, p13). The work that is done in the teaching profession stands to benefit many individuals not only in the present but also in their future. Being a teacher is very challenging compared to other careers since it involves a lot of work load and it is normally not appreciated by many. However this should not deter any interested individuals to venture into the career since it has its own way of satisfaction and reward.
One interesting thing about the teaching career is that it involves the molding of people’s minds and characters something that the students will stand to benefit for the rest of their lives. The teaching profession involves helping the students change their minds about how they view different phenomena in the society by giving them knowledge. It is such a big privilege for some one to be entrusted with the role of ensuring development and also the growth of younger generations. The teaching career involves a big responsibility of parenting since the teachers will be responsible for promoting mental health and ensure moral behaviors in children. The teachers spend most of their time with the students than their parents do. Any behaviors that are uptaken by the students are easily molded by the teachers. The teaching career, therefore, comes as a privilege to the teachers to have the role of bringing up responsible individuals who have good morals in the society (Richards, 2006, p17). They are therefore the people who have the honor of building a morally upright society.
Teaching also provides the opportunity for personal intellectual development. Teaching involves coming in contact with new ideas, experiments, and books. There is always the desire to acquire more knowledge and widen the intellectual capacity of an individual. Through teaching, one will be constantly involved with searching for more information to enrich the knowledge that is passed to the students. This involves reading articles and new journals that are related to the subject of interest. It could also involve searching for new updates on the internet. This eventually not only stands to benefit the students but it also benefits the teacher since he/she also get to learn new things in the course of your career Such gained new knowledge acts as a form of motivation for most teachers to acquire higher levels of education (Schul, 2006, p26). In the course of teaching, students also get to ask many questions related to what you are teaching and this way, one also gets to know so much that maybe you thought you know. Such questions help one to expound on the different topics of interest. This means the knowledge one has when starting to teach a subject will keep advancing as your continue teaching the subject over time.
The teaching career involves molding the future of many individuals in society (Mayer, 2007, p34). Through teaching one can pass knowledge about different phenomena in society and around the world today to the young generation. With time such young generations that are in class can realize their skills, abilities, and interests in other different fields of knowledge. On the other hand, through teaching one can learn the different abilities of the students by watching and listening to them as they continue to pursue their studies. The teacher can then help such students to fully realize their abilities and skills by helping them acquire more advanced knowledge in the fields (Banner, 2003, p18). All the students in the same class will most likely not be finally interested in the same fields. Some will have their interest in the medical field, others in banking others in sports among other careers. By helping such younger generations realize the full benefits of acquiring knowledge in the different fields, teachers affect the future of the student’s career. This is because the students will most likely choose their career paths based on the knowledge they have acquired in school. Teachers will also not only affect the future of the students but also the future of the countries intellectual people. Without the teachers, the country will suffer from having an illiterate society. Today many things require different expertise and this is only realized through the knowledge that is passed to the upcoming generations. The teaching career is therefore prestigious in that it builds a nation’s level and quality of literacy.
Considering a career in the teaching field would also be beneficial since the driving force of succeeding in the career is the student’s success. Nothing is satisfying in the teaching career like seeing the students succeed in life based on the knowledge that you instilled in them. The success of the students gives one the motivation to work even harder and get the best out of the students (Dreeben, 2004, p31). It is a source of motivation for the teachers. This means that even though the teachers will require other motivations from the administration, the greatest one is always within the teacher in the daily activities. Even without good pay in some areas, the final goals that the teacher wants out of the students make one be more committed and dedicated to the students. The success of students is a source of pride to the teachers. It is a great feeling to see successful business people, doctors, and pilots among others who have made it in life because of the knowledge you gave them. The success of the students is therefore a great source of inspiration and motivation for the teaching career something that is a great experience for any teacher (Richards, 2006, p21).
Most people are always seeking to work in careers that are challenging. No one wants to be in a career that does not give you a reason to move into higher ranks to achieve the best. The teaching career is both rewarding as seen above and also comes with various challenges. Such challenges give one the interest to pursue higher studies and acquire higher ranks within the career. For example, the world is changing today with different technologies coming up now and then. This changes the course of doing things in our daily lives and it, therefore, has a big impact on the education sector. Teachers have to constantly update the knowledge passed to the students to produce very qualified intellectuals who can fit in the global market today. This is a great challenge in the field since one has to keep learning new things every day. Other challenges include coping with different personalities of students every day. The teachers, therefore, have the challenge of practicing patience to learn the different characters of the students and how to handle them. Another challenge is that not all the students in the class will be able to fully make use of the knowledge you instill into them. This gives another challenge to the teachers to identify the problems of such students and help them to realize their abilities and interests which may be in other areas. It is the responsibility of the teachers to counsel such students and help them to become productive individuals in the community by giving them knowledge mostly in the areas they are interested in and coming up with different career paths for the students. Such challenges in the working environment make every day a new experience for the teachers and this is very interesting since one will always have to handle different issues every day. Thus teaching eradicates boredom in the work environment as every day is a learning day for different issues.
Once one is enrolled in a teaching career, there is no reason to worry about job security. Teaching assures one of a job and a way of earning a living in your life. This is because most parts of the world have a shortage of teachers. In almost every state there is a shortage of teachers making it a very good career to embark on since one is assured of getting a job easily within the job market (Dreeben, 2004, p39). The shortage of teachers however varies from country to country and also from subject to subject. One can take advantage of mostly the fields of mathematics and sciences where most people are shy to teach. On successful teaching of such courses, one is then flexible to look for jobs in high-paying areas. Getting a job is also assured especially if the performance record of the students is very good. The success of your former students will always rank you in the job market and sometimes we find different schools competing to acquire the services of certain teachers based on their performance records. It would therefore be very advisable for anyone to consider a career in teaching since it is a lifetime rewarding career.
Being in a teaching career means one is usually around the young generations. Such a generation is very interesting to interact with since they always have new ideas and updates about the new happenings within the society. This makes the working environment very interesting since you are always getting to learn new things from the young generation. One is therefore able to maintain a youthful status in life by just being around the young people. The fact that one can learn from the young generation makes them appreciate you as one of them and this makes it even easier to instill more knowledge into them since you can know what they think outside the normal learning process (Banner, 2003, p23). You interact with them in their social life making it a very favorable and enjoyable working environment. Through the learning of new ideas and trends from them, you can use them to break barriers in the course of teaching by trying to offer what the students appreciate most in their current generation especially in their social life. Solving problems and bringing the students back to class by bringing yourself to their level becomes very easy.
The teaching career also fits well with personal life since you can have enough time to be with your family. The time that your children are on holiday you will most likely be on holiday as well, thus you can spend more time with them. On the other hand, most schools do not have an all year teaching program which means that you can have some months off especially during summer where you can either use the time to be with you family, look for another job, or even take further quick courses taught during summer to upgrade your career (Mayer, 2007, p42).
In conclusion, teaching is a lifetime career to consider since its lifetime benefits are more psychologically satisfying than any other job. Taking a retirement having made a lot of change in various individuals’ lives is a great feeling to be always proud of. Teaching and being successful is more of a gift than a career and making full potential of it is a great reward in life. Many individuals will always owe their respect to you for the impact you will have made on their knowledge and success in their lives.
References
Gilbert Highet (2008). The Art of Teaching. Vintage Press
JA Bargh and Y Schul (2006). On the Cognitive Benefits of Teaching. Journal of Educational Psychology. London
James M. Banner (2003).The Elements of Teaching. Yale University Press
K Richards (2006). Being the teacher: Identity and classroom conversation. Oxford University Press
R Dreeben (2004).The nature of teaching: Schools and the work of teachers. Scott, Foresman
RE Mayer (2007). Benefits of teaching. Journal of Educational Computing Research. Baywood Publishing Company