Unit Three:Why I Teach

Every teacher probably asks himself time and again: What are the reasons for choosing teaching as a career? Do the rewards teaching outweigh the trying comments? Answering these questions is not a simple task. Let's see what the author says.
Why I Teach

Peter G. Beidler
Why do you teach? My friend asked the question when I told him that I didn't want to be considered for an administrative position. He was puzzled that I did not want what was obviously a "step up" toward what all Americans are taught to want when they grow up: money and power.
Certainly I don't teach because teaching is easy for me. Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted to earn my living: mechanic, carpenter, writer. For me, teaching is a red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinking-stomach profession. Red-eye, because I never feel ready to teach no matter how late I stay up preparing. Sweaty-palm, because I'm always nervous before I enter the classroom, sure that I will be found out for the fool that I am. Sinking-stomach, because I leave the classroom an hour later convinced that I was even more boring than usual.
Nor do I teach because I think I know answers, or because I have knowledge I feel compelled to share. Sometimes I am amazed that my students actually take notes on what I say in class!
Why, then, do I teach?
I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar. June, July, and August offer an opportunity for reflection, research and writing.
I teach because teaching is a profession built on change. When the material is the same, I change —— and, more important, my students change.
I teach because I like the freedom to make my own mistakes, to learn my own lessons, to stimulate myself and my students. As a teacher, I'm my own boss. If I want my freshmen to learn to write by creating their own textbook, who is to say I can't? Such courses may be huge failures, but we can all learn from failures.
I teach because I like to ask questions that students must struggle to answer. The world is full of right answers to bad questions. While teaching, I sometimes find good questions.
I teach because I enjoy finding ways of getting myself and my students out of the ivory tower and into the real world. I once taught a course called "Self-Reliance in a Technological Society." My 15 students read Emerson, Thoreau, and Huxley. They kept diaries. They wrote term papers.
But we also set up a corporation, borrowed money, purchased a run-down house and practiced self-reliance by renovating it. At the end of the semester, we would the house, repaid our loan, paid or taxes, and distributed the profits among the group.
So teaching gives me pace, and variety, and challenge, and the opportunity to keep on learning.
I have left out, however, the most important reasons why I teach.
One is Vicky. My first doctoral student, Vicky was an energetic student who labored at her dissertation on a little-known 14th century poet. She wrote articles and sent them off to learned journals. She did it all herself, with an occasional nudge from me. But I was there when she finished her dissertation, learned that her articles were accepted, got a job and won a fellowship to Harvard working on a book developing ideas she'd first had as my student.
Another reason is George, who started as an engineering student, then switched to English because he decided he liked people better than things.
There is Jeanne, who left college, but was brought back by her classmates because they wanted her to see the end of the self-reliance house project. I was here when she came back. I was there when she told me that she later became interested in the urban poor and went on to become a civil rights lawyer.
There is Jacqui, a cleaning woman who knows more by intuition than most of us learn by analysis. Jacqui has decided to finish high school and go to college.
These are the real reasons I teach, these people who grow and change in front of me. Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe.
A "promotion" out of teaching would give me money and power. But I have money. I get paid to do what I enjoy: reading, talking with people, and asking question like, "What is the point of being rich?"
And I have power. I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to point out a pathway. What other power matters?
But teaching offers something besides money and power: it offers love. Not only the love of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love that a teacher feels for that rare student who walks into a teacher's life and begins to breathe. Perhaps love is the wrong word: magic might be better.
I teach because, being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself catching my breath with them.

NEW WORDS
administrative
a. of the management of affairs 行政的，管理的

administration
n. 管理（部門），行政（機關）

puzzle
vt. fill with doubt and confusion 使迷惑

step (-) up
n. promotion; increase in size, speed, etc.
mechanic
n. skilled workman, esp. one who uses or repairs machines and tools 機械工；機修工

sweaty
a. covered with sweat, sweating

palm
a. 手掌

profession
n. occupation, esp. one requiring special training, such as law, medicine, or teaching

convince
vt. make (sb.) feel certain; cause (sb.) to realize

compel
vt. force (sb. or sth. to do sth.)

pace
n. rate or speed of development, or in walking, etc. 速度；步速

calendar
n. 日程表，日歷

opportunity
n. favourable occasion or chance

reflection
n. careful thinking; consideration 深思；考慮

reflect vi.

stimulate
vt. encourage; excite 刺激；激勵

freshman
n. student in his first year at a college or university

failure
n. a person, attempt, or thing that fails; lack of success

ivory
n. 象牙

ivory tower
n. place or condition of retreat from the world of action into a world of ideas and dreams 象牙塔

self-reliance
n. ability to do things and make decisions by oneself 依靠自己；自力更生

reliance
n. trust, confidence; dependence 信賴；信心；依靠

technological
a. of or related to technology 技術的

corporation
n. (AmE) 有限公司

run-down
a. old and broken or in bad condition

renovate
vt. restore (old buildings, oil paintings, etc.) to a former, better state 修復，修整

semester
n. (AmE) either of the two periods into which a school year is divided; term 學期

repay
vt. pay back (money, etc.)

loan
n. sth. lent, esp. a sum of money 借出的東西；貸款

distribute
vt. divide among several or many; give or send out 分發；分送

distribution n.

variety
n. difference in quality, type or character; a number of or a collection of different things 變化，多樣化；種種

challenge
n. the quality of demanding competitive action, interest, or though 挑戰

doctoral
a. having to do with the university degree of doctor 博士的

energetic
a. vigorous 精力充沛

dissertation
n. （學位）論文

poet
n. one who writes poetry

learned
a. showing or requiring much knowledge 博學的

journal
n. magazine or daily newspaper 雜志；日報

occasional
a. happening from time to time, not regular 偶爾的，間或的

nudge
n. (fig.) words, actions or feeling that stimulate 啟示
vt. push or touch slightly, esp. with the elbow to attract attention; (fig.) stimulate

fellowship
n. position or a sum of money granted to a person for advanced study or research 研究員職位；研究員薪金

switch
vt. change or shift; turn

urban
a. of a town or city

civil rights
n. the rights of a citizen without regard to his race, religion, sex, etc. 公民權

lawyer
n. person who practises law 律師

intuition
n. (power of) the immediate understanding of truths, events, facts without reasoning 直覺

analysis
n. the separation of a substance into parts for careful examination and study 分析

creation
n. act of creating; sth. created 創造（物）

clay
n. 粘士

point
n. main idea or purpose 要點；意義，目的

pathway
n. path

rare
a. unusually good; distinctive 稀有的；杰出的

magic
n. mysterious charm; strange influence or power; art of obtaining mysterious results by tricks 魔力；魔術

PHRASES & EXPRESSIONS
stay up
not go to bed until after the usual time 不睡覺，熬夜 take notes
記筆記

build on
base on; use as a base for further development

keep a diary
記日記

leave out
fail to mention or include; omit

send off
post; dispatch

work at/ on
give one's attention to doing or trying to do

catch one's breath
rest and get back one's normal breath, as after running; stop breathing for a moment from surprise, fear, shock, etc.

PROPER NAMES
Emerson
愛默生（姓氏及男子名）

Thoreau
梭洛（姓氏） Huxley
赫胥黎（姓氏）

Vicky
維基（女子名，Victoria 的昵稱）

Harvard
哈佛（美國大學名）

Jeanne
珍妮（女子名）

Jacqui
杰基（女子名，Jacqueline的昵稱）