I decided to start the year sorting out my thoughts and clearing my storage. I felt that I was particularly drawn to something I wrote more than a decade back. I felt that it was a really wise and accurate picture when I wrote a journal entry for MOE when my internship journey ended. This was the first time I think I pondered what it means to be a teacher as a vocation. Even though I have been in education for many years I actually felt that I could still felt the curiosity and wonder of a really awesome kid who wrote so eloquently about this profession at 22 years old. I am awed at how my old self could write so enthusiastically and it really impressed my future self. I didn’t expect a decade later that I would get “encouraged” by my 22 year old self who hasn’t experienced the real hardship of being a teacher yet. I do get so encouraged by my old journal notes and would like to share it with any longsuffering teacher.
I see the multiple roles of teachers from being disciplinarian, counsellor, content knowledge transmitter, mini-celebrity/entertainer, baby-sitter and co-worker, administrator, leader and consumer too. Therefore, if I ever have the heart to be a teacher, I am assured that it takes something from the inside which is the love for people, for societal change, for shaping morality of students. However, I do recognize the limitations of such lofty ideals where we have a limit to how we can influence students. There are often other factors like family and peer group and the mass media. As a permanent teacher it is necessary to distant ourselves from students because it is never healthy to let them into our personal life when we need to maintain professional image. Other limitations would be the breakdown of the family sometimes when students carry their baggage to school whether in violent burst of anger or just general frustration with life as such.
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