Be a Teacher

Be a teacher…

‘Even if you aren’t going to be a teacher, be a teacher’

This post is inspired by the viral graduation speech made by Tim Minchin. I thought it was phenomenal. I sometimes wonder whether real graduations actually have guest speakers like that, or whether it is some Hollywood fantasy that YouTube has concocted to make us believe in ourselves once more; obviously, Disney is behind it.

He gave 9 superb points of advice, but the one that really resonated with me was about teaching.

The type of society I was brought up in measures success by how high up the banking ladder one is, or how many 0’s one can write on a check (before the decimal point, that is!). Teaching as a profession is not the most extravagant job, there are not many prospects for massive bonuses and prestige, and so it is not regarded in the best light. If one wishes to become a teacher, most of the time, the talk of the town will be that said person did badly on their exams, or could not find a job, and hence resorted to teaching. Unfortunately, there is truth to that point, and some people do resort to teaching as a last resort. Thankfully, this mentality does not exist everywhere, but I was surrounded by it.

Naturally, when I chose to pursue a Bachelors in Mathematics, the first question I was asked was ‘Why? You want to be a teacher?’.

‘No, no… I would never degrade myself to teaching life skills to our future generations. It is far more important for me to wear a suit I can’t fit in, drive a car whose name I can’t pronounce, all the while, appeasing the same demographic of society that sets out to please itself’

Ok, I never said that! I won’t lie, I got this question so much that I usually had a  large list of professions ready to convince people that a Maths degree was for more than ‘just’ Maths teachers. I would pull out articles about Maths graduates earning high salaries, and how ‘demanded’ we would be. It was as if I were hell-bent on being seen as successful BECAUSE I wanted not to be a teacher.

I do not want to be a full-time teacher by profession. Although I am passionate about change within the Education sector, and I have always been open to teaching on a voluntary basis, locally or in third world countries, I do not wish to be a Teacher with a capital T. I respect the hell out of Teachers though. I admire them. I can remember almost every teacher I have ever had, whether they were horrendous, exemplary or just plain ordinary, because that is the effect a teacher has on a young mind.

That puts me in the category that the majority of us non-Teachers are in; a teacher – with a small t.

Education should never become elitist. It it does/if it has, then it is up to us to teach, and pass on anything we have learnt. Be that experience, skills or knowledge. You learn with each passing second. Even if you ‘never learn’, you learn.  A conversation with a smiting idiot will teach you a number of things: -

1)   Don’t engage in conversations with smiting idiots

2)   The best way to escape a conversation with a smiting idiot

3)   The smiting idiot might break character for but a moment in an impromptu departure from smiting idiocy, and you might actually take something beneficial away

4)   Who the hell am I to call someone a smiting idiot? Maybe I am being judgmental

Life really is about learning. To live is to learn, and philosophically, I fail to see how the concept of life, time, reality and learning can be separated whatsoever (that could lead to an interesting discussion if I weren't the only reader of this blog). What better way to express our life, our learning, but by teaching? To me, that is poetry.

Be a Teacher, or spend your life teaching