By Rebekah Swank | Contributor
Taylor's statement of purpose begins with "Whole Person Focused." We attend a liberal arts school, where students have the responsibility to take a range of courses unrelated to their majors.
I have enjoyed many of the classes on the core requirements list. My instructors have, for the most part, been enthusiastic when teaching basic material and have given me a greater appreciation for subjects I might otherwise have brushed off (I'm looking at you, geography).
But sometimes even the best professors roll their eyes about teaching general education courses. Department members recognize this "someone's got to do it" sentiment in their colleagues, but what they may not realize is that the attitude rubs off on anyone who takes the class.
I know many students who finish general education requirements with a bad taste in their mouths because a professor felt that teaching the course was beneath them and taught with an apathetic or demeaning attitude.
I understand that students in these classes often come in unwilling to learn and that teachers in higher education are used to working with those who truly care about the subject matter. But how can students be enthusiastic when the professor doesn't show them that the subject is worth loving?
It's worth noting that many professors did not always have a great appreciation for the subject they currently teach. Someone-a parent, teacher or mentor-had to encourage them to give the subject a try. I am an English education major, but I did not want to write or study literature for most of my pre-college years. Neither did I appreciate the importance of teaching or believe I could impact the world of education. These are now areas that I enjoy and intend to pursue for the rest of my life.
I learned to love everything that now matters to me because someone had the patience to guide me through the discipline required to gain skill and experience.
It saddens me when students outside of my major do not learn to write because they took a fundamental writing course with a professor who did not want to teach it. For the rest of their four years, these students either accept low grades on their papers or seek extra help every time they have to draft a major assignment-worse, they cringe at the thought of expressing original ideas on paper.
I have also met students who dislike subjects because certain teachers left them feeling stupid or inferior for not coming into the course with an advanced understanding of the content. I would remind such teachers that these students need the class in the first place exactly because they do not have an advanced understanding.
If you work at an institution that claims to value learning in all areas for all people, and if you hold a title that communicates your devotion to a field and belief in its importance, then you have a responsibility to uphold those values even when it is not convenient for you.
Even if you've been hired to teach a class you don't enjoy, teaching it with enthusiasm will show peers and students that you value the subject, and it will encourage them to do the same. Remember that had you yourself not started with the basics, you would not be in your field today.
Consider that your actions affect the life of every student you teach, if only in a small way. You are not standing in an empty classroom lecturing to the wall; you are speaking to hearts and minds. What you say, and how you say it, will leave a mark.
