Play the Sunset

I recently had to write a paper explaining why I would want to teach and what kind of teacher I want to be...so I thought I would share a few excerpts.

...Teachers must cultivate not simply students, not young minds alone, but develop children into independent adults. This is the one line phrase of the teacher I most love and the teacher I most want to be. This is also where it gets complicated. How am I supposed to characterize my teaching career so that I might not only give knowledge, but also give tools and a vision for life? Based upon general beliefs of what a teacher needs to be, I must and plan to embody seeming contradictions in my teaching. I want to be a teacher that is like the father who has just let go of his child's bike seat, but is still running next to it guiding the path and giving confidence to the new rider. I need to embody independence and support at the same moment. I also must care about the well being of my students as much as the father cares about the well being of his child. I can mange students getting skinned knees and bruised elbows, but i will not allow for any broken bones or stitches. Not having taught to any great extent, I think I would try to do this by giving assignments that were not always terribly difficult, but a little uncomfortable. I want to drive my students to expand their spheres of learning, take control of their lives, and find confidence in their work. What I most of all do not want are students who are content to stay in class with only what they know and only what they are comfortable with.

...And so as I contemplate what I would like to achieve in my career the question becomes more difficult with more thought. Initially I might think that I want all my students to succeed and have all of my students respect the teacher I am. But this outcome, these achievements do not parallel the drive and reason I have for wanting to teach. No, I believe a teacher cannot ask for respect; he must act and let his actions prove whether he is worthy of it. I do hope that I will prove myself, but I will not ask for a student's appreciation. As for my students going on to succeed, of course I imagine that i will be the teacher of the next great American author or the next genius critic or theorist, but this is not an achievement I will strive for as much as a dream I will hold dear. Instead I hope that I will create students who never forget the humanity of life. I hope to inspire students to never lose the emotion that lies within the logic of writing and reading, of theorizing and analyzing. I want to teach so that I can push and guide not simply students, but a new generation of thinkers, lovers, and doers to achieve their own impassioned dreams.