Why teach?

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” --Socrates

In my research on why people choose to teach, I of course came across the usual reasons; to give back to the community, the joy of helping a child, the need for authority, the freedom to move around from place to place, and the ability to be creative in the classroom. There are selfish reasons (that I disagree with if they are the main reason) and there are selfless reasons (that I see to really drive motivating teachers) Destination Teaching.
I also found a few interesting reasons for teaching that I knew but didn't really think about. One is to learn. Of course, why hadn't I thought of that before. Of course we are teaching material to students, but I guarantee that when you start off, you do not know every detail of every lesson you are going to be teaching. Our own learning goes even farther than the subject matter as well. We learn different ways of teaching a subject, what works for one student and what works for another. We learn about the students, about different special needs, disorders or learning disabilities, about different cultures. Furthermore, we learn from the students, about pop culture, what today's youth do for fun, and even about ourselves.
There are a bunch of little reasons that when put together with a passion for helping children, can really make the job. (Top 10 Reasons to become a teacher) The different challenges you will face each year as all new students pour into your classroom, seeing that look of "ohh now I get it" on the face of a student, the humor you can bring or the students bring each day, and of course, having the summers off.

Also in my research I came across a few surprising things.
One was an interesting comment that sparked my memory of the quote I began with.

I would say there is no teaching, there is just communication, communication as an evolutionary flow, and you can choose a setting. (Pandalous)

It always intrigues me when someone comes out with something like this. Is what we call teaching really just a means of communication? I would say in a way, yes. We are communicating information to the students are we not? So what is the difference between teaching and communication or as Socrates would put it, about creating thoughts in someone's mind? Another person on the same discussion or debate said that we are really all teaching one another (which goes back to what I said before and learning while teaching). The original blogger explained that in order for 'teachers' to communicate information, they must lessen the authority of the 'learners.' It was then debated that good teachers try to keep the authority away from themselves and almost distribute it equally amongst everyone. I don't know how much I really believe either of these because I believe the information teachers have to communicate to students is of a higher level, more technical and or generally of more importance than the information communicated from student to teacher. I do like the idea of referring to teaching as a form of communication however.

I just have one last comment I came upon that I would like to share. Now prepare yourself, this was shocking to me when I read it on about.com:

After 5 years of sassing, cussing, lazy, disrespectful, violent, lying, stealing, cheating, bullying children I can't think of a single reason. The joy of helping a child learn? You have got to be kidding. My days are spent trying to keep their nonstop bickering from erupting into fist fights. The handful of kids who want to learn never get a chance. I become a teacher to teach! I had such hope when I started. I thought that I could make a difference in a child's life. I worked myself into the ground trying every way I could to motivate the kids, lots of positive reenforcement, carefully planned out lessons with absolutly no result. There is a reason why over half the teachers leave befor their first five years are up. If you want a job that will break your heart, your spirt and your health, then teach This is my last year in hell.

—Guest Burned out

I thought I could influence future generations. After 30 years, all that's happened is those generations have all come from the shallow end of the gene pool, dumbed down education to the least common denominator. It makes me ill to remember how much I loved teaching when I started and was allowed to teach. Now, I'm just their "keeper", their "warden". I'm unable to do any teaching when my middle school students talk about their parole officers and 90 hrs. of community service. Yeah, they really want to learn! Just not what we teach in school...

—Guest Lingospan

I was shocked to read these people are teaching and hating every moment of it and having trouble keeping things in control. Unfortunately I do not know where these posts came from, what types of schools or anything really. In regards to the first comment I wonder if her the author's expectations were too high of if he chose too young or too old of an age to work with. Maybe his carefully planned out activities were too planned out. It makes me wonder about the personality of the teacher and what he means by "each and every way I could to motivate the kids."
As for the second one, again, I don't know where he is coming from but the fact that he thinks of himself as a warden or keeper and talks about their parole officers leads me to think that he chose a school with kids that are have gotten themselves into trouble. This goes back to choosing the right grade and type of students to work with. Maybe these kids were just too much work for this teacher to handle, though there are teachers out there who can and will work with these students and even enjoy it.