TEACHING IS NOT A DELIVERY
SYSTEM… IT’S AN ART FORM…
1. Teaching is a Relationship: Teaching is about
relationships. Students need to know you care before they will care about what
you know.
2. Teaching is
a Vocation - Calling: Teaching is more than a noble profession. It is a vocation, a calling.
The teacher is the most important person in any civilization, as on him depends
the molding of the nation. There are not many born teachers, but there are
those who love teaching, and there are those who enter it as an occupation. The
chief qualification for a teacher is his or her love for children; from
there can follow the training by good teachers and professors of techniques and principles.
3. Teaching is a Mission: Dictionary defines mission
as “task assigned”. You are called to be a teacher and you are sent into the
world to accomplish a mission. Teaching
as your mission means the task entrusted to you. “Once a teacher, forever a
student”. You are expected to contribute
to the betterment of this world in your own unique way. To teach is to
influence every child entrusted in your care to become better and happier. To
teach is to help the child become more human.
4. Teaching is a Profession: The term professional is one of the most exalted in
the English Language, denoting as it does, long and arduous years of
preparation, a striving for excellence, a dedication to the public interest,
and commitment to moral and ethical values. If you take teaching as your
profession, you must be willing to go through a period of preparation and a
continuing professional development. You must strive for excellence, commit
yourself to moral, and ethical and religious values and dedicate yourself to
public service.
5. Teaching is
a Career: Teaching as a career is not made
lightly; rather, it is the culmination of a process of reflection about what one
wants to do with his life and his education. One choses education as a career
because he believes that education is perhaps the most important function
performed in our culture, or for that matter, any culture. He believes that
teachers individually and collectively can not only change the world, but
improve it, and in the process find personal and professional renewal. Teaching
is an important and well regarded profession within our community and people
from all walks of life find it a professionally and personally rewarding career
choice. It is a unique profession because everyone has been in a school setting
and seen teachers in action, even if just as a school student.
6. Teaching is
Leadership: Teachers
exhibit leadership in multiple, sometimes overlapping ways. Some leadership
roles are formal with designated responsibilities. Other more informal roles
emerge as teachers interact with their peers. The variety of roles ensures that
teachers can find ways to lead that fit their talents and interests. Regardless
of the roles they assume, teacher leaders shape the culture of their schools,
improve student learning, and influence practice among their peers.
7. Teaching is an Art: Considering teaching as an art implies not only a different
understanding of teaching, but requires considering a different framework of
knowledge as well. In the arts there are clearly ways of knowing and doing that
cannot be represented within the measurable, objective domains of traditional
science and education. The musician's refined sensitivity to nuances of tone,
the actor's to voice and gesture, the clown's to the possibilities of
improvisation, all represent dynamic forms of knowledge and expression which
inherently resist fixation and standardization. The highly emergent qualities
of artistry do not lend themselves easily to scientific research or discourse
and thus do not reflect that type of knowledge which most educational theory
has propagated as essential. At the same time such forms of knowledge
incontrovertibly evidence precise ways of knowing and acting. Inherent in the
concept of teaching as an art is the view that those capabilities and skills
which excellent teaching demands are far closer to those required of artists,
than of scientists.
8. Teaching is a Science: The concept of teaching as a science widely prevalent
today became an increasingly accepted view in the course of the 20th century.
Its origins can be found in educational thinking in the second half of the 19th
century. From this point on, the practices of teaching and teacher education
came to be seen as legitimate fields of scientific inquiry and knowledge,
offering the underlying basis for ensuing educational theory and practice. This
view is clearly evident, for instance, in most educational research in which
the objective methods of the natural sciences have generally been accepted as a
standard paradigm. Concurrently, it has also become the dominant perspective in
the training of teachers, shaping the entire approach to pre-service and
in-service training.
9. Teaching is a Subversive Activity: This concept puts forth ideas about education that
are radical, controversial, bold and fresh. It suggests eliminating syllabi,
formal curriculum and textbooks from education settings. It introduces ideas of
student-centered learning over teacher-centered teaching, and leading students
to learn by asking questions, not by teachers giving lectures.
10. Teaching is an Act of Love: Loving teachers, like loving parents, encourage
students to do their best, engage them in active learning, praise children for
their accomplishments, and help them learn from mistakes, set limits when
needed and place a priority on nurturing self-confidence. Furthermore, loving
teachers help their students to aim high, while creating an accepting
atmosphere and emphasizing positive personal relationships and basic values of
kindness, consideration, cooperation and thoughtfulness. Without an expression of this caring, loving
feeling when working with kids, teachers and their students are all left
lifeless and without much meaning at the end of the day. When all is said and
done, teaching must be first and foremost an act of love!
11. Teaching is Not a Business: Business does have something to teach educators, but
it’s neither the saving power of competition nor flashy ideas like disruptive
innovation. Instead, what works is, time-tested strategies. The process of
teaching and learning is an intimate act that neither computers nor markets can
hope to replicate. Small wonder, then, that the business model hasn’t worked in
reforming the schools — there is simply no substitute for the personal element.
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