If you think teaching is an easy career, think again

Have you ever looked at your lecturer and said to yourself: “That’s easy.”?

Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your grades and thought of your teacher as irrational?

I did. And for a long long time, I’ve been always thinking that: Teaching is something you will do when you fail to do other stuffs. But I was wrong, completely wrong, terribly wrong, ridiculously wrong. Teaching should be the most difficult career out of all other careers.

So I was invited to a Finnish class “Ruoka ja joumat kuturuliset” (name unknown) today to introduce the idea that I presented at Encounters15 conference. The class was divided into four groups, each of 4-5 students and they would take turn to come to my table and get introduced. I included in the presentation a short introduction about Six Hat Thinking technique and asked each group to use the approach to assess my idea. The result was positive and pretty close to my research conclusion. But anyway, I would tell you guys why I claim Teaching is the most worthy career choice:

1 It’s super difficult to inspire people 

Remember the last time you motivate someone into completion of what they’re afraid to do? It’s so rewarding, I know, cos I’ve been always interested in self-development and community events that results in multiple effects. But inspiration works is something I would do when I feel good, and I don’t feel like that all the time (I mean it’s really hard in this weather). Teaching, on the other hand, requires a lot of self-motivation and a strong desire to inspire people to do a good job. If I can be more precise: Teaching is hard, but teaching in Finland can even be harder.

2 It requires so much patience.

Okay so I told you that the class I attended today was divided into groups right? So I had to present my idea 4 times to 4 different groups of people. There were bright faces, curious looks which really stimulate my presentation, and I become so excited to talk about my idea. But, there’s always a but, there were also indifferent faces, emotionless eyes staring at my mouth which made me just want to stop everything and flip the table.

Is that you?

Now I’m pretty sure some of you are relating to yourself, even I myself sometimes showed that face (okay not sometimes). Just imagine lecturers have to put up with these faces ALL the time cos it’s impossible to make EVERYONE interested in what you said. That’s why I said every teacher must possess a gigantic capability to be patient, if there’s such a way to say 😛

3 Highest chance to get a throat inflammation, throat cancer, or whatever diseases relate to your throat

You would always tend to speak very loudly because the class is not silent all the time. Another valid reason to be loud is it  partly represents your energy. I don’t think anybody would be interested in a lesson where the teacher is whispering with herself. So after the second group today, I felt a flame burning through every inch of my throat. Just not my career.

Be nice to your teacher next time, they tried LOL

Helsinki, 04.2015