Abstract:
If teaching is to be regarded as a joyous activity, there are several initial biases that must be accepted. The first of these is the insistence that learning is a pleasurable endeavor, despite all of its hardships and despite the discipline necessary to achieve it . We are curious beings, we humans. We want to know! Our capacity for stifling this innate drive for knowledge is strong, but it is not omnipotent. Second, learning and teaching (the two are inextricably related) involve a combination of freedom and discipline. At times one of these characteristics will dominate over the other, depending upon circumstance, personality, and subject matter; but there will remain an unresolved tension between freedom and discipline. That is why there exists the eternal debate over the easy teacher verus the hard teacher, the one who requires much in terms of freedom and the other who requires much in terms of discipline. Third, there is no one way to teach. Pluralism in our attitudes toward teaching and learning is essential. Both of the above mentioned teachers have their virtues. Finally, teaching is a vocation in the classic sense of that word: vocatio means "calling." Those who are called to teach, and know it, are fortunate indeed. They are, to paraphrase Stendhal, fortunate to have a passion for a profession.
Keywords:
joy of teaching, reward of teaching
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