Why the hell do people get into teaching?
It absolutely must have something to do with the kids. If you don't like kids, I can't imagine why you'd do it.
Next, it probably has to do with learning. If you don't believe in the idea of learning, I can't imagine why you'd put up with teaching.
For me, it absolutely has to do with kids. And it absolutely has to do with learning. But one of my favorite things in the world is seeing kids LEARN outside of my classroom.
I am not a teacher who has any illusions that my classroom is somehow more important than the rest of the world.... The rest of the world is just a different type of classroom.
This afternoon, I saw one of my students learning something entirely other than English.
This student is a great one. They are engaged during class: they pay attention, contribute to conversations, do group work, and they (occasionally) do some written work, as well. They are a very good English student with tremendous potential as a human being.
Unfortunately, all of my impressions are drawn from my experiences with this student inside my class. But today, I got to see this student as...something other than a student.
When I saw them today, they were in charge of their learning. There was no "Mr. Coen" to guide them (and, surely, in this situation, Mr. Coen was only getting in the way). This was a student who knew what they wanted, and they were kickin' butt and taking names.
I smiled to myself in this moment because I was utterly useless. A teacher I was not. I cannot think of a better part to teaching other than seeing your students learning (successfully) something that they want to learn.... And, so it's not English...oh, well--that's what American Lit is for, right?
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