It Takes a Special Person to Be a Teacher

          Have you ever wondered who the most selfless people are on this planet? Have you ever thought who else is going to help your children become successful adults someday? Have you ever contemplated which occupation is the most thankless, but the employees don’t seem to mind? Well, I’ll tell you right now, the answer to all three of those questions is teachers. Here’s another question: why do people want to become teachers?

            As a current student at South Dakota State, I have looked back on my days in high school, but not to reminisce about what I did. I look back and focus on what my teachers each brought to the table. No teacher is alike, and I think that’s a very good thing. You need a variety of different personalities to have a successful school, in my opinion. But they all have the same objective in the long run: to give their students the tools necessary to be success after high school, and to see their students progress from start to finish.

            I have talked with many of my old high school teachers, and they are my biggest supporters about my wanting to become a teacher, along with my high school teacher parents. I’ve asked them if they’ve ever gotten sick of teaching, if they ever wonder if what they’re doing is effective, and if they enjoy their job. Not one teacher has told me they’ve ever gotten sick of it, and they 100% enjoy their job. Some have said they have contemplated their methods when they were first starting out, but most teachers at my school have been teaching at least 10 years, and they’re confident in their methods.

            I also asked some of my old teachers why they went into education. I got different variations of the same answer. And that answer was, “I wanted to make a difference.” All teachers, I believe, want to educate their students to let them to be successful. And teachers are willing to accept a low-salary compared to many other 4-year degrees because they care so much about the future of our world.

            I started off as an electrical engineering major when I first went to SDSU. The whole time I was there, I thought about getting my masters afterwards so I could become a lecturer at a university. Even when I was an engineering major, I still wanted to me a teacher. It’s because I have what many other teachers have: the passion for teaching. Nobody wants an unpassionate person to be teaching them. If the teacher isn’t passionate about what they’re teaching, how can you expect the students to be passionate about it?

            It truly takes a special person to be a teacher. In my case, I want to be a math teacher. I am taking almost all the same classes of a math major, which could get me a job as an actuary, a statistician, or a banker. Those jobs pay way more than a teacher. However, to me, those jobs don’t seem as important. Are they all important? Yes. But who do you think taught all the statisticians, actuaries, and bankers the information they need? Teachers. And they did it not for their own personal gain, but to help their students reach their goals.

            I hope this blog helps you all look at teachers with a little more respect, because they deserve it.