Teaching values

Do you like to be with young people?
Do you gain satisfaction by helping others?
Would you like to live more constructively?
Do you wish to achieve great name and fame?
Do you want to get rich fast with knowledge?
Would like to be a distinguished man in your locality?
Is a career in education consistent with these values?

First of all it is important to note that your goals must be earned in any occupation. For example, you probably know of teachers who seem to be discontented, unhappy and insecure. Some of them appear to look upon teaching as a job for which the pay order is the ultimate reward. They leave the school campus with the final bell and hate to return even in the morning. Some are disillusioned, cynical, and bitter over inadequacies and inconsistencies in the present school system. On the other hand, you probably know of teachers who seem to regard teaching profession as a challenge from which great satisfactions are gained. They enjoy a sense of gratification from helping children of different age groups grow into constructive, well-adjusted, democratic citizens. They feel an obligation to each child in helping it realize its maximum capacity to learn and live constructively. They sense the dignity and worth of the profession in which they work. They possess an infectious enthusiasm for their work. Each day seems to hold new opportunities and challenges, for which creative solutions emerge. Life to them seems to be happy, continuous building-up process. They are the people with whom children like to be linked, and they are the ones who are realizing more fully the real values of teaching.

Inherent values of a career in education

Service to people: The school’s primary function in society is to transmit and progressively refine our cultural heritage to the young. The effectiveness of this process rests especially with the teacher. It is the teacher’s obligation to weigh, evaluate, and separate the finer aspects of our culture that should be transmitted to the succeeding generations. It is his obligation to help to raise in every possible way the level of civilization. He has the advantage of working with a child during his most formative years. Young people are so full of pep and vigor that they challenge the teacher in every field of human emotions. Teachers laugh with them, study with them, and play with them day after day and month after month. They seek to fill your life full of their trust, joy, and respect that it is difficult for a teacher to become mentally old.

Contact with others: Parents and other members of the community come from all walks of life and usually represent variety of classes, creeds, nationalities, and races. Their ages, interests, and occupations are also varied. It is like a vast reservoir of life to explore. The teacher must be able to meet and mingle easily with all these and to gain their respect, cooperation and admiration. You become expansive rather than ingrown in nature.

Economic security: A teacher has his clientele established as soon as he accepts a position. This makes it possible for him to move from place to place without suffering. If the foundation of our society should topple, our schools would be one of the last agencies to disappear.

Molding behavior: As a teacher you are a potential artist, but you deal with animate materials. You will have the task of molding the greatest master pieces of mankind. When you feel that your time, money, and materials are being needlessly spent, remember the sharp reaction of Michaelangelo, when he was criticized for wasting marble: “Yes, the marble is wasted, but the statue grows.”

Intellectual simulation: The curiosity of the pupil is a constant prod to further intellectual activity. The study of human nature, child growth and development, and the learning process ceases to be an intellectual growing point for an effective teacher. The teacher is not expected to be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, but a guide and philosopher who leads the pupil into wider areas of learning.

Prestige, Home and family: Teaching places a high premium upon effective human relations. The teacher is in a position to study the significance of good home life, through the behavior of children. Through his continuous association with the children, the teacher can develop an insight into their needs, wants, interests and problem areas. He senses the importance of good home-school relationships.

Recreational opportunities: The teaching profession is also unique among careers due to vacation provided during the summers. The teacher may look forward to having fun from two to three months each year. He may seem it a golden opportunity to broaden himself culturally through travel, reading, or advanced study. Many teachers wrote short stories, poems, novels, essays, commentaries and plays; painted pictures; composed symphonies; and made other artistic contributions of immense value.