As a teacher, my goal is to equip each of my students with the skills necessary to comprehend, analyze, form sophisticated opinions and, finally, question what they are learning. I believe creating curiosity is essential to the learning process; this allows students to engage the material in a critical fashion, and enables its continual consumption even outside of the classroom. Therefore, it is important as a professor to use teaching as a mechanism not just to convey information, but also to create interest in the subject matter. I believe in treating teaching as a performance; similar to a pro-athlete, maintaining one’s energy and enthusiasm when on stage generates more interested and eager audiences. Enthusiastic teaching allows students to become intrigued at not only the fashion in which the material is delivered, but also in its inherent substance.
As students leave my classroom, my hope is they depart being more critical thinkers of the world around them. I enjoy teaching courses in comparative and global affairs because of the awareness I am able to provide students of a world-wide existence which operates quite differently from what they are accustomed to. This prompts students to not only compare between what they know and what they have learned, but ultimately compels them to be critical consumers of what they once accepted as ‘normal,’ or a way of life. As an educator, being able to witness this transformation justifies my choice of profession. Creating critical, informed consumers of knowledge ultimately leads to the healthy development, and maturation of the entire student and overall citizen. This is why I teach.
