Martinez 1

Cristian Martinez Vega

Dr. Carmen Garcia-Caceres

EDUC 1301

4 September 2015

Notes on Chapter 1: Why Teach?

An exploration of the questions raised from teaching as a profession and why someone

should take education courses is the starting point of this chapter. The introduction begins listing

the three most common reasons for taking education courses such as being: citizens concerned of

their communities as well as their responsibility of being good members of these, parents who

want to make the right choices for their children’s education, or prospective teachers that need to

comprehend the career they want to pursuit. Thus, the third group mention is by far the most

importantly addressed for the purposes of this book. Exanimating the motivation of teachers to

do their profession, this chapter intends to make the student reflect about the teaching profession,

so in the future they would not regret having gone through some other career or disliking the

choice as soon as their experience the real teacher’s life aside from the courses in college.

Although the National Education Association study conducted from 1971 to 2006 shows that the

main motivation for teachers is to work with young people, there is more than one motivational

factors to become a teacher.

Teaching rewards are classified into extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, in which the first one

deals with external gratification such as prices, prestige or power whereas the second is more

about fulfillment and personal satisfaction. Most of the times teachers present unbalanced

amounts of this two types of rewards. Some of the extrinsic rewards rarely cited by teachers are:

Salaries, the benefits and salaries of a teacher had been improving recently despite the fact that

Martinez 2

they will always be related to the economy of one area to another; status, the social position of a

professional teacher has also been improving in recent years by the majority of the public

opinion; power, for teachers this type of extrinsic reward does not deals with economic power

but which the fact that teachers are the greatest influence for the student’s life; and work

schedule, teachers are not only capable to manage how they would schedule their work with

flexibility but also are not required be on their work sites at all time as opposed to other careers.

On the other hand, the intrinsic rewards of a teacher are for those who experience the internal

psychic or spiritual satisfaction from this profession. Examples of this type of rewards include:

students, this reward goes back to the fact that most teachers are motivated to become teachers

because they enjoy working with young by daily having conversational exchanges and even just

by motivating their students; the significance of a social service contribution, most teachers have

a true satisfaction just by their sense of doing really important for the community; working with

other fellow teachers, the sense of isolation reported by many teachers is changing through this

years since most of them consider their interaction as the most valuable intrinsic reward, not to

mention that the feelings of competition are little compared to other professions; the work itself,

some teachers consider the simply act of doing what they love as the most important intrinsic

reward.

Nonetheless, the decision of becoming a teacher should be an intelligent choice due to the

changing of the traditional “one way teaching” to a more adaptive education that responds to the

diverse needs and learning regards of each student. From this perspective, future teachers should

consider four sources of experiences to ensure their decision. First, real encounters with actual

school situations that will enable college students the opportunities to feel the various roles of a

teacher within the school, which is usually as part of their collage preparation in teacher

Martinez 3

education. Second, becoming familiar with vicarious experiences through learning achieves from

study of education material and observation such as films, book, television etc. Third, asking for

guidance from more experienced teachers is a wise way to be advised and counsel in this career

choice. Fourth, most importantly is the reflection in the conscious decision of following this

career by analyzing the value of the previous experiences and being sure to always receive the

most of each of those experiences.

Once again in regards of what should be a motivation to become a teacher, this book

describes two cases about different reasons to going for the teaching profession. In case one the

scientist Julia Tucker became teacher by the desire to teach a particular subject matter. From this

stand point a teacher needs to always keep an eye on the student needs and understand the

importance of helping to develop skills, attitudes and specially the love for learning. This type of

teacher should take care of not being overpowering or insistent in their love for the subject.

Furthermore, the teacher should never fall short in any content of the class or overemphasize a

preference for certain topics within the subject. In case two the desire to aid in the renewal of the

society lead the history teacher Fred Harvey to take the Curriculum II class. For this teachers,

their goal must be to prepare their students to become good citizens. However, the definition of a

good citizen should never be consider as docile and obedient but to “educate for freedom” and

teach the good citizen to do what there are supposed to.

Although, the decision of becoming a teacher or why it is right for you is mostly

personal, it is also wise to consider the opinions about teachers. The public considers that our

educational system is receiving major attention from social critics and politicians. 62% of a

group of persons believes that it is teachers the one who provide the most benefit to the society.

43% considers that teachers are the most influential factor in student’s learning. Teachers are

Martinez 4

also the most believable professionals when they address social issues and public opinion

according to the National Credibility Index. 32% of the students think that the teachers are the

best contributors of society’s well-being. Administrators said that new teachers are motivates and

energetic, and 98% of the superintendents and principals agreed. New teachers are for the most

part called to the work by their vocation. 86% of the new teachers claim that this profession

should only be for those who have the sense of being called for. The majority of them are

confident that they made the right career choice. For teachers that consider themselves in their

right profession for them have the psychic reward of being involved in a crucially important

work for the rest of their life.