I’ve spent an endless amount of time reflecting on where I should be going and what I should be doing in my life. Pre-college, post-college — I think about my life in varying degrees, whether it is to reflect on how I’ve reached where I currently am or how I’m going to connect my present to my future.

I’ve sat in the library for hours, telling myself I’ll complete my homework, I’ll do what I have to do and suddenly understand where it is that I belong in this world, where I’ll be the most beneficial as a contributing member of society.

Nearing the end of these moments spent brooding about my uncertainty, I find that I always return to the people who molded my current surroundings by fluorescent lighting and unfinished homework. I consider the teachers who made my acceptance to this university possible, and I wonder why I used to sit in class and overhear conversations that negated all that those wonderful teachers did for us.

High school is high school, and in reality, some teachers do not take their jobs as seriously as they should. The deleterious high school teacher episode doesn’t end with a terrible lesson plan or ineptitude; it becomes an impact on the way the student perceives that subject, his/her day and an overall experience for that school year.

So, why discount and disrespect the ones who put every effort into ensuring a gratifying experience for each student? Why not sympathize with the teachers who provide that instrumental service of enlightenment to you? Why not sympathize with the teachers who suffer because of the reputations of the tactless teachers?

I wonder why, still in college, I hear antagonistic discussion about the people who genuinely care about his/her career as an educator. I wonder why students don’t appreciate the professors who break their backs for the classes they teach and engage in conversation and consideration. I wonder why, when telling an individual I want to possibly teach someday, that I earn a smirk and a slighting, insolent remark.

People who contentiously debate tutelage and those who provide that learning shirks away from the actual conversation that we aren’t having: Do we regard education, or even knowledge, for that matter, with the respect of the professions we’re striving for? And do we respect those who put us in a position to reach those professions?

“Those who can’t do, teach." What does that even mean?

Does it seem erroneous I’m sitting here, writing this, and you’re sitting there, reading this, and this simply existsbecause I felt the need to defend teaching as a profession?

Teaching should not need a defense. Because I know, as I live and breathe, someone somewhere is learning to read because someone is teaching him. Someone is learning to write, so he can provide thoughts on topics of his choice by some written medium someday. We are all taught. There is no reason I should even feel an inkling of a need to defend the profession that provides us all with the ability to continue to grow as scholarly beings.

Life is a game of assumptions and implications, and the assumption teaching plays a lesser role in society grows from the implication that a person’s role as an educator, wholly, does not matter. Everyone, to an extent, teaches. Everyone learns. Those who want to pursue education as his/her profession should not face ridicule or impudence.

I understand teaching isn’t for everyone, yet I don’t understand why we reduce the significance of certain professions because others are more profitable or considered to be more successful. Essentially, what is success? It’s a subjective topic matter, and to say teaching is less successful than maybe, engineering or practicing law, or any other profession, is a bit asinine.

I think we, as a nation, forget the importance of a virtuous, impassioned teacher. Professional athletes entertain, yes, but the age-old question remains: Why are they paid more than the men and women who pursue the edification of the future of our country? And why, then, does the monetary value of a position also indicate its reputation in society?

To teach is to inspire. To teach is to nurture. To teach is to counsel. Teaching is not simply teaching, but an array of occupations encompassed into one mind, one person, standing at the front of the room, urging the information taught to become as poignant as he/she is for the sake of his/her students.

Teaching equates to learning just as well. The best teachers I’ve had offered what they could to us and took our thoughts and opinions into account. To teach is to understand or, at least, to attempt to understand. To teach is to build up a human being and his mind. And years pass, we leave behind our teachers, yet we take pieces of them with us, I think. So, as we leave them and take them, we should respect them and all they have given to us.

And if you’re thinking about taking on the profession of teaching, don’t let anyone discourage you. Don’t let a terrible teacher turn you off to the idea. Don’t let your best friend, who hated her ninth grade history teacher, discourage you. Don’t let your family, who believes you won’t make very much money doing so, discourage you.

The value of a teacher does not lie in the test scores his/her students achieve throughout a year. The value of a teacher does not lie in the salary he/she makes. The value of a teacher lies in the heart of his/her knowledge – it lies in the mark he/she leaves on the student and the betterment of those students. The value of a teacher lies in the passion of the provided education.

And, someday, if I have only one student who leaves my classroom feeling some kind of better or with an expanded mind, then I’ll have done my job. If I change the life of one student, make something as simple as an impression on one student, then I’ll have done my job, and the discourteous and adverse opinions of the naysayers will never have mattered.