[Read the article on SheTakesOntheWorld.com.]
by Jennie S. Bev
Do we teach for others or for our own self? Professional teachers might consider their vocation a privilege to help shaping students’ worldview and character. If you’re a coach, a mentor, or a trainer, then you are a teacher too, naturally. And all teachers teach for both others and themselves.
That’s what I love about teaching.
To be able to teach, we must continuously upgrade our skills, knowledge, and things outside the field that are related to the topics we teach. As a teacher, we also observe others who are our students, our subjects of teaching, and ourselves as a purveyor of messages and an idea generator.
Teaching is also a form of self-therapy. While the acting profession is hypothesized as the chosen profession for those with overconfidence and having a tinge of narcissistic tendency, those who teach for a living may be trying hard to prove that we are worthy to others. Teaching also means re-learning every time we convey our knowledge to the students (or coachees or trainers). This process is a reaffirmation of what we have, thus it reinforces our subconscious need for recognition.