C1: Teaching Requires a Purpose

by Lu Gerlach

Do you know what your purpose is?  Have you thought about it? 

As a new teacher, my purpose was to save the world one child at a time.   As a child of an educator, I knew that a solid education was the only way to get out of poverty and make it in the world. I wanted to be part of the cog that led towards change, which is why I began in special education.

About five years into teaching,  I thought I had it figured out and my purpose was to share my brilliance with the world. Then, I began the PYP Teaching with a German partner in an bilingual, interreligious, vegetarian school.  During this time, I realized that I didn’t know as nearly as much as I thought I did.   The PYP made me realize that what I thought was the correct path towards teaching children was actually creating literate illiterates (coined by Kylene Beers).   I became a first year teacher all over again.

After seven years in the PYP, I developed a firm understanding of the philosophy of the program (which we’ll unravel in subsequent episodes) and I felt like I had it together. I was one of the favorite teachers and I loved what I was doing.  My purpose was to share my passion and love for learning with my students and vice versa

After 11 years of teaching, I returned back to the United States and became a first year teacher all over again because I had to navigate between what I knew to be right and standardized testing. It was so traumatic that I wondered why I was a teacher and how long I could remain in the profession.

All of these experiences continuously made me re-evaluate my purpose.  For the longest time, I couldn’t grasp my purpose until I watched Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action. In this video, he discusses the common traits of leaders who have been successful throughout time.  They all had one thing in common, they began with the WHY.

​This was a game changer in my thought process, because I finally had a framework that aligned with my thinking.  I quickly changed this to apply to  my role as an educator

WHY - why did you become a teacher? 
HOW - how are you showing this passion every day?
WHAT - what evidence do you have to show your passion? 

When I was able to answer these questions honestly, it helped me to get back on track to my original purpose in becoming an educator.  I hope it will help you too.

See you in our next episode and remember to hold on to that passion!