Custom «Reasons for Becoming a Teacher» Essay Paper Sample

Teaching in its broad sense can be defined as the process by which an individual uses his expertise to assist others to acquire necessary skills, values and knowledge that are indispensable for human well being. In his book, Raths, (1971) defined teaching as the process of acquisition of values and enhancing thinking. This means that teaching is a tremendously significant career that has got a variety of benefits and positive impacts. For this, in addition to other reasons, I want to be a teacher.

Teaching involves learning and gaining a lot of information thereby making one more knowledgeable. The story of feeling renowned for doing a superb job like making doctors out of the hopeless profoundly inspires me to be a teacher. According to Raths (1971), teaching involves assisting others to gain skills, knowledge as well as values that are particularly necessary for survival, and for improving their country’s economy, and that will remain as my legacy for ever which is a magnificent achievement to me.

I am also motivated by the fact that the teaching profession involves both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. I am specifically motivated to work with learners with special needs. Helping them achieve their dreams is the key reason why I want to be a special education elementary teacher. The extrinsic reward that I will get from this move comes in the form of appreciation can be inform of salary, recognition, promotion, high social status and even a better opportunity to secure other higher level degree programs such as masters and PHD (Cameron, 2006). The good salary, obtained from teaching, can assist me earn my living to enable me live a truly enjoyable lifestyle just many teachers do. I have also seen that many presidents in the world were once teachers. Abraham Lincoln who was once president of America was an outstanding teacher who had got gracious words of wisdom, as portrayed in his writing; A Letter to my Son.

Purpel, (1999), in his book, views teaching as a vocation rather than a career as well as a calling rather than a job. I also tend to agree with him and see teaching as calling to assist the learners to get to know and understand the society’s political, economic and social structures, beliefs and other concerns. This is primarily serving the society directly. I, therefore, want to be a teacher to serve the society and help to improve it socially by ensuring the preservation of societies’ norms and customs. Politically, it is possible to impact exemplary leadership skills in learners. Teaching economic issues pertaining to Agriculture and Environmental conservation assists in enlightening the learners to be aware of the basic development areas. The learners can then consider these areas and apply them for economic development.

Another reason that also drives me to teaching is of the fact that I want to commit myself to student in order to make them learn. Whitney (2007), in her book, asserts that learners become committed to learning in school when they feel a sense of belonging and importance and if engaged in activities that hold meaning for them. I have realized that much of the attention has been majorly focused on normal average learners while overlooking the learners with special needs. For this reason, I am seriously encouraged to give learners with special needs the attention and commitment that they deserve. I feel obliged to get myself committed to the learners with special needs to enable them explore, analyze, synthesize, infer and work independently to exploit what they are capable of doing. Normal students are easy to teach as they require little assistance as compared to learners with special needs.

Teachers are role models to others in the society because of their organized lifestyles, good salary, their social class, their personality, principles, and above all, they are successful people. They are the ones that shape the country because everyone involved in developing the nation must pass through them at one point. I admire teaching, and I want to be a teacher in order to also leave a legacy that teachers always leave.