The better we understand why we teach, the more profoundly we can do so.
Few of us teach for a single reason or for the same reasons from day to day or even minute to minute. We are mix of motivations, one moment gladdened by a struggling student’s understanding and the next musing on our paycheck. Few of us are constant in our motivations, and we should be hesitant to describe ourselves so, because what we tell ourselves constrains what we can see.
Understanding one’s motivation requires getting specific. What precisely do you get from teaching?
For many, teaching is an exchange. We expect something back. Our compensation often includes money, though the pay may be more of an enabling force than a motivation. Or it may be both.
For some, the exchange is about the student, and we expect them to pay us in some way, perhaps with something non-material such as respect, diligence, or service.
Some see themselves as part of a gift economy, in which they teach today and someone gives them back something tomorrow. Traditionally, a gift economy requires a community in which exchanging favors is part of the culture, but I know people who practice this way in the hopes of creating this economy in a larger world. What do they get from this? Perhaps a feeling of being part of cultural change.
Teaching evokes a sense of purpose or higher calling in many of us, which I explore in Teaching as Service.
Nearly all parents teach, intensely, and for many years. Teaching often echoes the parent-child relationship, which I touch on in Teaching as Parenting. Teaching children and family has a multitude of potential motivations. What are yours?
For some, teaching is paying off a debt. We were taught something of value and we pass it on. Perhaps we also gain the sense of being part of a tradition.
We may teach to make our struggles, won and lost, mean more. I touch on this in Teaching as Redemption.
Few teach without enjoying the attention and companionship the work provides. Because this is mostly with our students, there are potential tangles. I examine this in When the Student Worships the Teacher.
For some of us, teaching is how we see ourselves, how we understand our place in the world. I touch on this in What is a Teacher?
Do you see yourself in this overview? What do you get from teaching? What do you want? Desire – fulfilled or not – affects this work. When you teach deeply, a clear understanding of what moves you is essential to the kind and quality of teaching you can do.
Once we start looking at what we want from teaching, we will see it change, because we change and the world changes. Look today, but also look again tomorrow, and again after that.
My offered practice: Name something you get from teaching that you want to get. Name something you want to get that you do not get. Now reverse it: Name something you do get but that you do not want, and another thing that you both do not get and do not want. This is an simplistic labeling practice, and not to be taken too seriously, but try it for just this moment, and then again, another day, for another moment. The practice is to learn to look, not to conclude.
