The Council

“In terms of student achievement, the teacher is a more significant factor than any other kind of school resource.” (US National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future)

“In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.” (Lee Iacocca)

“Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbor was.” (Helen Keller)

“I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. All reforms which rest simply upon the law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile… But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move… Education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience.” (John Dewey)

There are many reasons why people choose teaching as a career. These include:

• To make a difference in the lives of young people;
• To combine creativity and intellectual challenge;
• To make a worthwhile social contribution;
• To share their passion for learning, especially in a particular area;
• Personal fulfilment and a sense of achievement.

Teach… and make a difference. http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/