Lesson 3

 TEACHING AS A VOCATION AND MISSION

Teaching: Mission and/or Job?

by Anna Sandberg

If you are doing it only because you are paid, it's a job;
If you are doing it not only for the pay but also for service, it's a mission;
If you quit because your boss or colleague criticized you, it's a job;
If you keep on teaching out of love, it's a mission;
If you teach because it does not interfere with your other activities,
it's a job;
If you are committed to teaching even if it means letting go of other activities,
it's a mission;
If you quit because no one praises or thanks you for what you do, it's a job;
If you remain teaching even though nobody recognizes your efforts,
it's a mission;
It's hard to get excited about a teaching job;
It's almost impossible not to be excited about a mission;
If our concern is success, it's a job
If our concern in teaching is success plus faithfulness in our job,
teaching is a mission
An average school is filled by teachers doing their teaching job;
A great school is filled by teachers involved in a mission of teaching.

Teaching as a Vocation
Vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare” which means to call. Based on
the etymology of the word, vocation, therefore means a call. If there is a call, there
must be a caller and someone who is called. There must also be a response.

Some never dreamt to become teachers but turned out to become great
teachers. From the eyes of believers, it was God who called them to take up teaching
just as God called Abraham, Moses and Mary. Like some of the students, these
biblical figures did not understand the events surrounding their call. But in their
great faith they answered YES. The fact that you have enrolled in teaching signifies
that you positively responded to the call to teach, right? May this YES remain YES
and become even firmer through the years. Believe it that through teaching, as a
vocation you can do the best for others, for your fellowmen in the name of service.
Teaching as a Mission

Teaching is also a mission. The word mission comes from the Latin word
“misio” which means “to send.” The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines
mission as “task assigned.” You are sent to accomplish an assigned task.

You are called to be a teacher and you are sent into the world to accomplish
something, to teach. You are sent to accomplish an assigned task, you proclaim
“mission accomplished”. Therefore teaching is your mission, the task entrusted to
you in this world. Your four years of pre-service will equip you with knowledge, skills
and attitudes to become effective teacher. You’ve got to prepare yourself. Don’t
take your studies for granted. You’ve embarked in a mission that calls for a
continuing professional education. As the saying goes “once a teacher, forever a
student.” Your unique and most significant contribution to the humanization of life
is in the field where you are prepared for teaching.

What exactly is the mission to teach? Is it merely to teach the child the
fundamental skills or basics r’s of reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and right conduct? Is it
to help the child master the basic skills so he/she can continue acquiring higher-
level skills in order to become a productive member of society? Is it a deposit of
facts and other information into the “empty minds” of students to be withdrawn
during quizzes and tests?

To teach is to do all of these and more. To teach is to influence every child

entrusted in your care to become better and happier that makes life become more
meaningful. To teach is to help the child become more human.

Teaching as a mission can also be defined as developing the total personality

of the learner by equipping him/her with the functional knowledge, appropriate
values and attitudes and skills useful to himself/herself and society in order to attain
his/her ultimate goal for which he/she was created.

What a great privilege of being a teacher. Your products are persons with
immortal souls. You don’t only teach to develop good citizens on earth but citizens
in heaven! After accomplishing every mission can we say “Mission Accomplished!”
when we meet our “Superior” face to face?
 The Humanizing Mission of Teaching

Dear Teacher:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp.

My eyes saw what no man should witness:
-Gas chambers built by learned engineers.
-Children poisoned by educated physicians.
-Infants killed by trained nurses.
-Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college
graduates.

So I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become human.
Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled
psychopaths, and *Eichmanns.

Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve

to make our children more human.

(Eichman – An Austrian who became the Nazi official who administered the concentration camps where
millions of Jews were murdered during World War II, 1936-1945.)

Teaching and Thinking

Teaching and thinking are paramount to the mission. However, it’s not just
teaching students the content; it’s helping students think deeply about the content
that is most impactful. Teachers are invested in, and passionate about, their
content. They seize upon opportunities to impart knowledge to and share their
passion for the discipline with their students. They plan activities and exercises to
help students apply the content in a real world context. They also comb the Internet,
attend conferences, and read professional literature to enhance their expertise.
They do all of these to ensure students have a deep and rich pool of knowledge in
which to swim.

Processing all of this new information often causes moments of cognitive

dissonance for many students. Teachers engage in discussions that require students
to reflect, analyze, and synthesize information in a larger context. As students begin
to value and organize this new information, old schemes of thinking are challenged,
deepened, or replaced. The freefalling emotionality of thinking can create
uncertainty and discomfort for students. As Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest
work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.” However, it is
that cognitive dissonance which supports a deepening of students’ thinking.
Affording students opportunities to think deeply about the information shared in
college classrooms greatly contributes to the mission of helping students find
successes in their personal and professional pursuits. Certainly, teaching students to
think deeply about their course content is arguably one of the most important
contributions teachers make. However, there is another contribution that has the
potential to impact students’ lives in a real and significant way—relationship
building.

Building Relationships with Students

When teachers create quality relationships with their students, it becomes a

bridge between the faculty member and student to confer, collaborate, and
communicate. For example, it provides a path for teachers to support students’
disposition development for learning and life. It helps teachers advocate for
students’ needs, and creates a space to learn who their students are— backgrounds,
cultures, and personalities.

It can also cushion the impact when teachers engage in difficult conversations
with students, or serve as a catalyst when the former want to recognize students
who have distinguished themselves in an exceptional way. Through the relationships
that teachers create with their students, various avenues open and honest
conversations emerge about the student’s needs, struggles, successes, and triumphs.
It also allows for teachers and students to strategize together how best to bolster
the successes and address challenges.

Modeling relationship-building strategies contributes to the mission of helping

students find successes in all aspects of their lives. Students can use the strategies
they learn from teacher as a skill later in life to build relationships with others. As
a part of the contribution, it is important for the teacher to model and equip
students with not only the content knowledge of their discipline, but also the skills
to see other perspectives and seek opportunities to help others find success, as they
have. Building healthy and meaningful relationships with students provides powerful
opportunities to impact their lives, and hopefully, the students will pay it forward.

In conclusion, helping students think deeply and building quality relationships

are certainly not the only contributions teachers can make to the mission. But, they
do stand as two pillars rooted in the foundation of the mission to teach and influence
lives. As teachers remind themselves of this purpose, they must also remember and
reflect on the contributions they make to the mission, the many students whose lives
are impacted, and the unique gifts they offer. Remembering the contributions to
the mission of teaching can be energizing and uplifting, and may help answer that
question, “What am I doing here?” Hopefully, the answer is, “I am here to teach and
influence the life and successful professional and personal pursuits of the students I
work with every day!”
Teaching and a life of Meaning

Teaching gives a life of meaning or a purpose-driven life. Spend life

passionately in teaching, the noblest profession. Dr. Josette T. Biyo, the first Asian
teacher to win the Intel Excellence in Teaching Award in an international
competition, said in a speech delivered before a selected group of teachers,
superintendents, DepEd officials and consultants, to wit:

Teaching may not be a lucrative position. It can not guarantee

financial security. It even means investing your personal time, energy
and resources. Sometimes it means disappointments, heartaches and pains.
But touching the hearts of people and opening the minds of children can give
you joy and contentment which money couldn’t buy. These are the moments I
teach for. These are the moments I live for.

There may be times, when you will feel like giving up (many leave teaching
after 3 or 5 years for varied reasons). Remember you responded to the call to teach
and that you have accepted the mission to teach. May you be found faithful to your
vocation and mission until the end.

The “Pwede na” Mentality: Enemy of Excellent Mission Preparation and

Accomplishment

For the professional teacher who looks at teaching as his/her mission, he/she
will do everything to arm himself/herself for an excellent accomplishment of that
mission. The striving for excellent accomplishment sometimes brings us to our
“pwede na” mentality, which is inimical to excellence. This mentality is expressed
in other ways like “talagang ganyan ‘yan. “wala na tayong magagawa,” “di na
mahalata,” “ di ko na ‘yan sagot,” “dagdag trabaho/gastos lang yan”-all indicators
of defeatism and resignation to mediocrity. If we stick to this complacent mentality,
excellent mission accomplishment eludes us. In the world of work whether here or
abroad, only the best and the brightest make it. (At this time, you must have heard
that with the rigid selection of teacher applicants done by DepEd, only a few make
it!) The mortality rate in the Licensure Examination for Teachers for these past years
is a glaring evidence that excellence is very much wanting for our teacher education
graduates. If we remain true to our calling and mission as a professional teacher, we
have no choice but to take the endless and the “less traveled road” to excellence.