Teaching is truly a pervasive profession and as such, the strong will to succeed and a brave character are needed. Let it be known that the weakest of hearts is the least candidate to get involve in teaching for it is never an easy task.
I decided to become a teacher mainly because I find happiness in the company of children so logically, I chose a profession that could give me the maximum exposure to them. I thought that children are the sweetest, that they are the easiest of company, and that as long as you are nice to them, they will all like you. Now that I think of it, that reason is quite shallow because although teaching involves a great deal of spending time with children, it requires more than that.
True, children are sweet but it is also in their nature to be active and mischievous. They will not always sit beside you and stare at you with fascination. They will run around, scream, and turn the classroom upside down so as a teacher, you should be able to keep up with them by being active yourself. You have to make sure that you have the energy to give them the activities they need. You have to creatively find ways on how to maintain a lively atmosphere. Then of course, you have to have a great deal of patience to forgive their mischief and the tactfulness to correct them.
True, children are easy company but it is not always the case. They will only be attentive and participative as long as you hold their interests and that, I think, is one of the most difficult tasks of a teacher. You have to always have new things to offer, new things to show, new things to tell about, and new things to share in order to satisfy their curiosity and to nourish their love of learning.
True, children are nice but they also have the tendency to be disobedient if they think they can go away with it so as a teacher, you have to be somewhere between strict and lenient. Better yet, you have to know each of you pupils’ characters to be able to handle their disobedience in a way they needed to be handled. Learn to criticize the fault but never the child. It is difficult but great teachers learned the art of affectionately instilling discipline in their pupils.
I am a young teacher and I am still learning. It is very difficult for me sometimes but I know that I’ll never be truly happy having a career other than teaching. I might do jobs out of the teaching profession when I have to but I will always go back to teaching because it is my passion…my craft… and I will strive hard to perfect it.
