SCHOOLS: Witness to the spark

Why do we teach? This is a question teachers often ask themselves, especially when grades are due, tinsel is strewn down hallways, and there is an assembly interrupting 5th hour. Is it for the opportunity to impact our future leaders? Is it because of the schedule? Or is it in search of the spark?

As a single mom, I have to admit that I felt as if the stars had aligned when I finished my teaching degree and I landed my first job teaching. As a high school teacher, when my son reaches elementary age, I will be off work in time to volunteer in my son’s classroom on a regular basis. We will share the same weekends, holidays, and breaks. But even with this amazing “alignment of stars”, I still do not feel that the schedule of a teacher is the reason that I teach.

I have always enjoyed being around kids of all ages. I love their energy. I can only hope that someday I can feel like I impacted the leaders of our future. Teachers have students pass through their classroom each year, and most of us may never know where the majority of these students end up after our chance time with them. We hope that they follow their dreams and try to make our world a better place, and if we teachers are lucky, some of them will update us with their accomplishments along the way. But most of them won’t and we may never get the opportunity to know if we made a difference. Unlike the builder, we don’t see the finished product, or like the accountant, we aren’t able to pencil in the final percentage gained or lost. We teach our students the skills and show them the tools that they will need to pursue their dreams and build and invest in their future, but I do not think that this is the true reason that keeps us coming back year after year.

We teach for the future because I believe that teachers live in the moment. Teachers around the world have experienced that “ah-ha” moment when a student grasps a topic. It is something that is simultaneously visual and invisible. That moment when one of our students, who have been following us, down what feels to them like a rabbit hole, suddenly understands where the hole leads. When this happens, the student literally lights up, energy and excitement radiants from their position in the classroom. That is the spark, the “ah-ha” moment. We crave that spark.

These are the moments that we, as teachers, hold onto. These moments are proof of progress, proof that we have made even a small difference. We may never hear from these students after they graduate, but we will forever have those memories of when we witnessed the spark and they realized a potential.

This is why we teach- not the schedule, not the influence. No, we teach because we know that we will get to share the spark of ah ah with them, not in the future but here, right now.

Sabrina Johns is a teacher at Burchell High School.