So, you want to be a Teacher. Born2Teach tells another side of the story! Everything they never tell you as you pursue your degree. Life's Lessons are certainly NOT taught in the classroom! Born2Teach is all about unselfishly Learning and Sharing. From and with your students. And they from and with you. THAT is what makes Teaching a worthwhile profession, despite the many challenges and frustrations you'll surely encounter. Born2Teach is must-reading for Teachers, Administrators, Student Teachers, College Education Students, Parents, and the general population looking for a few good laughs along the way. Enjoy the ride!
LINKS: $5.99 iBook, $14.95 AudioBook
Excerpt from the Forward
In a world where people's lives are continually being reduced to numbers, Born2Teach is a song to the wiggleyness of life. It is a story about finding one's bliss and following it through the labyrinth of academic disdain for human complexity, and finding that not all business models are based entirely upon the single bottom line of financial profit. As you read, you will be reminded of the interconnectedness of life and lives. How, despite the American emphasis on the myth of individualism, we do not exist in a vacuum. Rather, we are influenced by family and friends, society and its organizations, and by our loves and loss in helping us find our way to address the elemental questions of what it means to experience life.
If you ever had the great good fortune to experience a TEACHER, than you know how life enhancing that can be. And, you recognize how rare an opportunity that is. You see, there is a difference between a teacher and a TEACHER, and this is the story of a TEACHER. Defining the difference is sort of like describing Jazz. As Louis Armstrong said: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know." But as you read this book, I think you'll know. Being a teacher, an authentic TEACHER, someone who nurtures new growth like a concerned gardener rather than teaches for the test, requires more than just mastery of some skill set, and in this day and age it has virtually become missionary work. Even more so if the teacher in question is inclined towards authentic humanistic ideals and questions the priorities of the academy by suggesting that the emperor has no clothes. To be taught by a TEACHER who treats you as someone with equal value, who speaks to you as a person to a person, who may have a head start down the road but doesn't tell you what the destination should be, someone who encourages the explored life versus the pre packaged, is a gift I have been blessed to experience. Born2Teach is a torch song of one man's love for his wife and family, for his students, for TEACHING, and ultimately for all the terrible beauty that life has to offer.
Proverb: "Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." Take your time and enjoy your walk through the door.
William Mancuso, Professor of Art, Ohio Northern University