Teaching: Questions for Teachers
Whether you decide to teach in the elementary grades, in high school, or in college, there are certain basic personal qualities you should have if you want to be successful in your job. Answer these questions:
1. Do you enjoy good physical and emotional health?
2. Do you enjoy working with other people – children, young adolescents, adults?
3. Do you like to study? In college teaching this is a must, since your chances for advancement will depend upon your capacity for independent research.
4. Do you become enthusiastic about new ideas, and do you like to discuss them with others?
5. How well do you express yourself and explain things to others?
6. Do you have a sense of humour?
7. Are you interested in what happens in your community, in your city, in your nation, and in the rest of the world?
8. Do you care about your personal appearance?
Every great teachers since Socrates knows that you learn through questioning. If you are a good teacher, you will get your students to respond to you. As a good teacher, you will need enthusiasm, a love of learning, and what former Harvard president James Bryant Conant called “the passion to learn and to understand.”
The good teacher treats each child as an individual ready to gain inspiration as well as knowledge. The good teacher is willing to explore the unknown, seeking to contribute new knowledge about the nature of the universe itself. By preserving the best values of the past, a good teacher can make the future a better place in which to live.
Janet Fine in
Opportunities in Teaching
