Anchor

This week has probably been the hardest week I’ve had in a long time. Four tests, five projects, a hundred pages of studying terms I can’t even pronounce, and the urge to put all of them off and do nothing. I’m up to my neck in projects, tests, and research studying but no one said life was easy. I think when times are tough and you are being tested physically and mentally on a regular basis it’s important to have something to hold on to that renews your determination to come up on top otherwise we crumble.

Why are we doing this? There are plenty of others jobs out there, why this one? We could have taken an easier journey, the one most traveled.

We knew to challenges, or we do now, so what do we do with it?

What is it that will keep us moving forward when we face the first sign of resistance? This is just the first wave, they get bigger as we move forward.

Many of us know or have an obscure notion of why we chose this path. It’s important to never forget it. And it needs to be a good reason, a strong one to stand against the cold winds that blow hard on our faces as we climb this mountain.

They say being a teacher is not a job it is an art. It is not reading from the approved text and blandly reading it word for word hoping the students will just “get it.” Plutarch says that “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited.” We are to be the match that lights the fire.

It wasn’t until recently after these questions came to my mind that I found that thing that we hold onto when times get tough. For everyone it is different, for some it is their love of children, others it is a sense of duty, mine is a bit different. Mine is fear, a fear for the future and the future generations. It has become common for many students to accept ideas and teachings without question. I watched a hidden video of a class at the University of California where a student stood up and said to the professor “just tell me what to believe and I’ll believe it even if it doesn’t make sense” to which all the student shook their heads in agreement. I’ve seen similar videos before at other universities as well. Maybe it’s just me, I’m a bit paranoid sometimes, but I fear the surrender of our free will and individuality. But I hold on to this and it helps me when days are hard to know why I’m here and why I’m doing this.

As teachers we carry one of the biggest burdens knowing that we are responsible for teaching the next generation. They will make the laws, run the businesses, and teach the generation after them in a long and unending cycle. We carry this burden. There are days when I frown when I see some of these people in schools we call teachers and then there days when I see our own class and the students in it who will become teachers and smile.