Why I Teach

A week or so ago, I recieved an email from Mark Johnson, the Director of Public Relations at Fontbonne University.  It was an email that he had sent out to all Fontbonne faculty.  Mark asked a simple question: "Why do you teach?"  Here's my answer to his question -

All of us teach others through what we say, how we act and the ways in which we live each day. Whether we intend to or not, we are influencing, instructing and, in many ways, shaping the lives of others. A few people are privileged and enabled to be involved in this endeavor in a purposeful way.

I teach because I’ve been shaped and equipped by others to teach, and when I’m teaching I sense that I’m being the person and doing the very human activity I was designed to be and equipped to do.

I been given the opportunity to teach at several different institutions during my career, and I can say without the slightest hesitation that my experiences teaching at Fontbonne have been the most enriching. Here I’ve been encouraged and supported to create learning experiences together with my students that flow out of pondering the questions of life.

Questions like those posed by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in their book, Teaching as a Subversive Activity: “What, if anything, seems to you to be worth dying for? What seems worth living for? How can ‘good’ be distinguished from ‘evil’?” Equipping and challenging others to reflect upon these sorts of questions is, to me, what teaching is all about.

I wrote those words as I reflected upon my teaching experiences the past four years at Fontbonne in St. Louis.  During these past four months teaching here at Handong, I continue to sense a renewal of my calling to teach.  The renewal comes through an on-going openness to ask myself those persistent questions and to listen to others for insights into their answers.