I figure there would be three overall focus-areas into which a teacher might invest their time/interest (when: the teacher actually gives a damn about teaching or being a teacher):
- Students: an interest in fomenting the growth and development of the students themselves, qua people, as distinct from their education in the subjects(s) at hand
- Subject(s): an interest in fomenting the teacher's own growth and development in the subject(s) at hand, as distinct from teaching it to students
- Teaching: an interest in developing or practicing teaching-itself, taken as a personal skill of value by the teacher, as distinct from any given subject(s) being taught.
I further imagine that over any given period for any given teacher, two or all three of these interests are to some extent or another, at various points to different degrees, each actively driving their behavior overall as both educators and individuals.
Necessary Triage?
But it would seem to me that at some point -- if not at many points along the way -- a teacher would face the need to prioritize -- if not triage as in selectively drop/devalue some of -- these values as manifest in their work-life. For instance, favor the personal development of the student over their education. Or favor their own personal interest in the subject(s) -- if not the practice of teaching itself -- over that of their student's personal and/or educational developments.
Personality Influence
I further imagine that in such times, the teacher's particular individual personality disposes them to develop one particular prioritization pattern, with whatever particular angle-of-favor? (which raises the tangential wonder of: would corollary patterns emerge across mbti types as such? I suspect so)
The Quandary
Anyhow, to me this whole idea presents itself as what I call "the teacher's dilemma" because to me it raises a (pseudo-)ethical -- perhaps simply personal value-system(?) -- quandary: what is the proper orientaton of a teacher as such? Who and/or what ought they value primarily? If not overall then at times where only one value can be obtained/preserved?
The Unsustainable Ideal?
Now ideally, we can imagine that a teacher's pursuit of all three value-types are integrated in that their actions/work-life-style has it such that two if not all three values are accomplished in concert through fused-purpose actions/behaviors; so that, in general, all three are hit without the focus on any one of them in particular, but rather upon all three in gestalt. But this seems rather unrealistically ideal to sustain indefinately and/or without challenge if not interruption. At best, I'd say such an integrated teacher would still at some point (if not many along the way) face a moment of crisis, during which their value-system becomes unraveled and priorities come to the fore, perforce limited options or some such. And so here we'd have the default personality-disposition coming out, if not explicit, deliberate "what-if?" contingency planning taking over. That is: in reality, the prioritization cannot be entirely avoided. Its there either implicitly or explicitly, called upon often or otherwise.
Which returns me to the quandary -- which is the proper, primary value of a teacher? And/or what is the proper order or synthesis of these values? For the individual sakes of both teacher and any/all student(s)?
(Reason why I'd never be a teacher -- much as I might like to be one, imaginatively -- even if the opportunity was handed to me free and clear: How to resolve this dilemma?)
Thoughts?
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