Why Teach?

Okay seriously? Who wants to spend 8+ hours a day, sitting in a room (with the occasional bathroom and lunch break), to stand around talking day in and day out about the same old subject? Why teach? What does one gain from doing this? Okay....maybe I was a little cynical. The question still stands though. Why teach?

Maybe the better question is, “why not teach”? For the past week our EDU100 class has been reviewing the deeper meaning behind teaching and the subject of why one should teach in the first place, and when I say, “deeper meaning”. I really do mean, deeper meaning. It’s really not about the money (but it is a concern since teachers are significantly underpaid), nor is it about the ability to simply have a job, nor is it even about the ability to just be in a school. It can be, and this does motivate some people, but overall the general consensus seems to be that teaching is about the chance to inspire someone else. The chance to give another individual someone to look up to and the chance to impact the future.

This Huffington Post article summed up nicely what it means to be a teacher and why one should become a teacher. I think the most important thing I have learned though. Is that as a teacher it’s less about the individual student and more so about what you can do for the student. How can you help this person achieve their full potential and how can you inspire them to become the person they want to see themselves become. It really is a job of sacrifice.  

Who I am

Wouldn't be much of a blog without an introduction, right? My name is Ryan, and I'm a 22 year old senior at Salem State University studying for a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, the study of cognition and behavior. I'm not actually from Massachusetts. My childhood was spent in Pennsylvania. I came to Massachusetts by myself for school back in 2011. The only pre-educational experience I possess is my work with developmentally disabled adults at a day habitation facility. Our specific workshop in the facility is designed like a classroom setting with activities planned beforehand based around educational skills such as learning math skills, basic reading skills and sensory learning. 

Just a forewarning. This semester, along with this blog and another blog these two will be the first blogs I've ever created. I'm looking forward to learning more about creating effective blogs to help me in the future. While this blog is mostly a product of my EDU100 class, I'm hoping to learn more about the connections between psychology, education, classroom settings and learning in the process. Here is a link related to the subject of education and psychology.