Teaching. Is it in you?

So for one of my classes this summer we were given ten questions for our final exam. Each answer was to be one page long (typed single space). What was interesting about these questions, was the way that our teacher described them, "These are all potential teacher interview questions". So this assignment in the long run, is beneficial, in the present, tedious. I found that most of my answer were "surface-level" "hire me please" answers. But I found myself truly drawn to this question: Why do you want to be a teacher? It's bold. It's honest. It came from my heart.

I want to be a teacher because I love people. I love people that do not have it all together, people that are looking for answers, people that are confused, people that know that there is truth out there but they just do not know how to get it exactly. I love people that are looking for purpose and identity. I have found that there is a great collision of those things and being a teacher. When we are honest with ourselves, when we were younger, we did not have it all together, we were constantly looking for answers, we were confused for the most part, and we were looking for purpose and identity. As a teacher I have that opportunity of pointing them to answers, clarifying confusion, leading them to truth through research and even past the mist of education and knowledge, strengthening their core, their character development. I am not supposing that I brain wash kids to what I believe or do not believe. I want them to be able to look at the deck of cards handed to them and play them, and not only just play them but to enjoy doing it.

I want to be a teacher because I love education. Honestly, I love education because I see in my own personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the similarities that Jesus has with me. How he loves me unconditionally, regardless of how many times I screw it up and do not have the right answers, he continually wants to teach me and lead me to truth. And honestly, He does it with a tender hand when He needs to and He does it with a strong hand when He must. All in all, I want to be a teacher because we have a huge sphere of influence.

At the end of the day, I want to be a teacher because that is something that I am passionate about. Teaching. That is it, nothing really fancy about it. I honestly am not overly passionate about social science. What I am passionate about is that kids learn. That kids develop in a healthy manner that will sustain them more than just a few years after high school. I want kids to be able to walk away from their high school years and say that they learned about life and how to adapt and survive in it. But I like I said previously, not merely survive but to live a fulfilling life satisfied past a job and past an big time degree from a college. But truly tap into what life is about. In the words of a favorite musical artist of mine he says, “we’re all connected”. We are social creatures, meant for interaction, meant for each other and I want kids to not only know that but also believe that. Belief is a funny thing, because it is something that you on your own decide, at the end of the day, you have the choice of what you believe and why. It is at that crossroad that I want to be, seeing where and why kids make decisions, while in the process help leading them to their decision (not mine).

I want to be a teacher because I want kids to know about the world and how big it is. I want kids to know that the world they live in is so small compared to how big the world really is. I want to widen their gaze to something that they cannot explain by themselves unless they go experience it. I want my students to go explore to the ends of the earth. Why? Humility. When they begin to explore as I have, they realize that life is so similar and different for people cross culturally. People are so similar in what they struggle with, identity and purpose and yet different in circumstances and how they respond to those circumstances that define their character and resilience. I want to help breach those misconceptions with truth and instilling seekers of truth.

Finally, I want to teach because I believe that love is where change begins. Six years ago I realized that this world is messed up, that corruption and selfishness reign in the streets that I lived in. I saw it on the news, I saw it in the faces of my friends and family and I lived in it. I have lived in selfishness. I have lived in selfishness and pride in myself and what I can accomplish with my own weak hands, and what I have come to realize and believe is that love is where change begins. It is where change began for me, and once I received that love through a wide variety of influences in my life, I realized that it is for a greater cause and purpose that we are here. And if I can share the purpose of life to people, to lose yourself in loving other people and living for something bigger than you, then it is all worth it. That is where I get my strength, knowing that this life that I live is not for me, it is for a greater purpose. Greater than educating all the kids in the entire world and trying to change every single life that I encounter, because the world has already changed dramatically through one man, namely Jesus Christ. That is how I will go to sleep at night, with peace in my heart and grace on my hands. Resting that in my own abilities I can do nothing apart from Him, while yet working in light of the grace that I have been given.

Next blog I'll tell you why I think that it is interesting... Stay tuned.