Can Teaching Be a Vocation?
Exploring why teaching is such a rewarding career...
“Why in the world would you want to be a teacher?” As a teacher for over twenty years, and now a professor of teacher education, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this question. Admittedly, in terms of academic rigor and proper behavior, our education system in the United States is often found wanting. As a result, it can sometimes make for a tough environment for teachers. However, choosing to become a teacher can prove to be a most rewarding and satisfying career. Here are two compelling reasons on why you should become a teacher, and remain one.
Calling
The Cambridge Dictionary defines vocation as “a type of work that you feel you are suited to doing and to which you should give all your time and energy”(1). In other words, teaching is a calling. That line is more than just cliche. For the effective educator, that line is a core truth and anchor by which the teacher is confirmed in the best of times and steeled in the toughest. It is not only the happy moments that make you want to be a teacher. Just as it is not only the arduous times that make you want to quit. What brings you to teaching and helps you stay is a deep sense of calling to the profession and the lasting impact you make on the students in front of you each day.
“... teaching is a calling. That line is more than just cliche. For the effective educator, that line is a core truth and anchor...”
Compassion
My pastor defines compassion as “sorry with shoes on”(2). Compassion is love in action, not simply a feeling, but feeling with follow-up. Oftentimes, you become a teacher because you have genuine compassion for others. In the case of an educator, it is compassion for the students that are in your daily care. Whether it is a child facing trouble with reading or arithmetic, life without a dad, true hunger issues, lapses in learning due to frequent moving, or even homelessness, the compassionate teacher opens their heart and arms to embrace each of these learners with care. Spending time with students, with a genuine spirit of compassion, develops a connection that results in lasting impact and positive change in the lives of students.
“Compassion is love in action, not simply a feeling, but feeling with follow-up.”
A Better Question
If you possess genuine compassion for others, particularly children, and have a sense of calling to teach others and a desire to watch them grow in their learning, “Why in the world would you NOT be a teacher?”. Recall Christ’s words in Luke 6:40, “Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher.”(3). May the students you teach and fully train become compassionate and productive in the pursuit of their own vocations just as you have.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/vocation. Accessed 12/18/2023.
Paul Hines is the pastor at Munfordville Baptist Church. https://www.munfordvillebaptist.org/
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