"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."
-Henry Adams
Can there possibly be a more important profession than teaching? Is the act of teaching the most noble act that one can aspire to do? To my first question, I've thought about this for a long time, and I would honestly have to say 'no'. It's the reason I've chosen to wander down the path that I am. I'll say it clear as day: there isn't a more important profession in the history of mankind than that of an educator. I say this because without teachers, there would be nothing else - only chaos and radically undeveloped tribes roaming the globe. Some would argue that law enforcement might be more important for the same reasons - without it, we would be left with chaos. True, but without teachers and education, there would be no law enforcement, there wouldn't be anything. Everything - in its roots - begins with the foundation of education and is carried out by a teacher. What about the President of a country - isn't that more important? Again, without a foundation of education, we would have no organization, no government, and subsequently, no President. Or, even if there could be a President without the foundation of education, it wouldn't be any different than a group of chimpanzees declaring a leader. I asked my friend this question and he brought up the medical profession - doctors. Surely they're more important, they save lives and prevent disease and plague. Back to the basis of my argument, without education and teachers, would we even have doctors? They were taught by somebody - even if it was other doctors, they were still taught. Which brings me to my second question - is the act of teaching the most noble act that one could aspire to do? To this, I would have to give a resounding 'yes'. Even if you aren't pursuing a career in education, you can still teach others. You can still contribute to society and engage in the most noble act there is - teaching. So think about this. Think about where our community, our country, and our world would be without the benefits of organized education and without teachers willing to dedicate their lives to the carrying out of organized education. Think of the undeveloped countries in Africa and the Middle East and look at the way their educational systems are organized. How would life in these areas be different if they had the same educational systems and the same kinds of teachers that we do? Bottomline is: Go out and teach. Regardless of what your chosen career is, or what you do, teach others and contribute to the foundation that is education - there is no higher calling.
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5 comments:
You also have to remember that teaching isn't the origin of all things. When man created the wheel, he wasn't taught to create. It was innovation and imagination that led man to create many of the foundations that are present in today's humankind; so to say that the world be like the movie "Doomsday" without teaching might be going a little far. Man can still innovate on his own. Some of the greatest minds in human history were self-taught, such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Di Vinci, etc.
Then again, when man creates a foundation, the only means of maintaining that foundation is the passing of knowledge from one person to the next. It's probably no coincidence that the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution occurred on the cusp of the rise of organized universities in Europe. When man creates the wheel, in order to avoid recreating the wheel time and time again, he must be taught the wheel first, then innovate to turn the wheel into a cart. Teaching and the passing of knowledge is at the core of human advancement.
HOWEVER, your blog is about the profession of teaching, not the abstract idea of teaching. It's important to differentiate the two. A dad teaching his son how to swing a baseball bat is drastically different than a teacher who teaches her students to calculate a second derivative. Teaching (in the abstract sense) is so that one person passes on their personal knowledge in order for the next to enhance upon it.
The profession of teaching in today's world (up until a at least the university level) is constricted to lesson plans and cirriculum. The real essence of passing personal experience from one person to the next is very rare in this sort of mandated atmosphere. Very few "professional" teachers are able to attain this (Mr. Speer comes to mind).
I don't feel like I explained myself very well here - in the difference between "professional" teaching and personal teaching. But it seems like in your post that you assume that these things are one in the same. Everyone can teach, and everyone should teach, but that doesn't mean that everyone could participate in society's idea of the "teacher". The profession is rather convoluted in this sense.
Bro C,
By reading your comment on this blog it is clear to me that you misunderstood or didn't actually read through MD's entire post. He clearly states the difference between the "professional" side of teaching and the amateur nature that most everyone participates in from time to time. Like here, "Even if you aren't pursuing a career in education, you can still teach others. You can still contribute to society and engage in the most noble act there is - teaching." He also gives another statement towards the end of his post, "How would life in these areas be different if they had the same educational systems and the same kinds of teachers that we do? Bottomline is: Go out and teach. Regardless of what your chosen career is, or what you do, teach others and contribute to the foundation that is education - there is no higher calling."
Also, Albert Einstein an Da Vinci were not self taught, Einstein didn’t finish high school but graduated from a secondary school and then was enrolled in the ETH (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) and graduated with a degree in physics. From there he pursued a career in teaching and academics. That is where he was able to write his theories and teach them to others. Hmm…How ironic. Da Vinci was also educated by others, in his early teenage years he was sent to study under a man named Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio who was a master artist and craftsman. In Verrocchio’s workshop all apprentices were taught anatomy, basic engineering, chemistry, and of course many craftsman techniques. The only thing that Da Vinci self taught himself was latin which then brought him to study under a mathmatician called Luca Pacioli. From there Da Vinci’s status as a master artist allowed him to dissect human bodies to learn more about anatomy and also let him create his own theories in engineering and other sciences. Again ironicly the two men you named used their genius to teach others. Both men also had their own pupils and apprentices.
I think that before you go and spout out that teaching (any kind of teaching professional and amateur) is not the basis of everything you should do your research. You will find that teaching even if it is not professional does in fact create the leaders and icons that children and adults alike still learn from today.
Well, the post opens as explaining that there is no more important profession than teaching. And explains how without this profession, we would be left with chaos:
"I'll say it as clear as day: there isn't a more important profession in the history of mankind than that of an educator."
The profession of teaching wasn't "created" until the rise of the university (with the exception of religious schools, which contributed to teaching a relatively minute population). Man must be able to innovate, else his learned knowledge be cast to the crows.
And yes, Einstein and Da Vinci were not "self-taught" - I think I explained this poorly at first. What I was trying to get across is that their revolutionary ideas, inventions and theories were not the direct result of their learning, but come from the human ability to imagine. Who taught Da Vinci about how to create a gyrocopter? Who taught Albert Einstein the basis of nuclear fission and time relativity?
I would like to pose a possible answer to the original questions. I would say that a proffesion or act that is of equal or greater importance is the student. First and foremost before one can teach they must aspire to learn. They are the student and as the student learns they can then teach. Even teachers are students of those they teach. To use Plato's cave analogy one can support the claim. The first person to question why they are staring at the shadow plays on the wall and not exploring what is truly happening outside the cave, is a student. They have the primal drive to learn and explore. Once they are outside the cave it is then there moral obligation to convince the others to come out as well (they have become the teacher). So, one could say that the "student" is of great importance as well. In a most abstract sense we are all students.
It is in this sense that the student is the most important "proffesion" but the "teacher" is the most dutiful and morally applaudable.
Also, students and teachers are not entities limited to the social world. (I must also say that do not want to turn this into a "chicken or the egg" debate. I am saying that the student most likely arises first and is essential to becoming the teacher.) Even in the logical extreme of the individual both a teacher and student can exist. From a neurological perspective we are students as we observe and record the world that we experience, then mechanisms for encoding information replay the new information over and over thus in a way teaching the body how to react. We can teach ourselves how to move faster or handle challenging situations better. However whether or not this form of the student/teacher relationship can be applied to this topic is a different matter but can still be posed as a question.
Dont forget that many other professions are also "teaching" in the meta sense including writing, and (good) leadership.
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