Why do we teach?
by Mary Carlisle

Twice during my experience of last spring's ABEABC conference in Kamloops the question of why we teach came up first at the lunch on Saturday where we wrote our ideas onto bright yellow sheets on the tables and again in the Learning Circles workshop. It's a thought-provoking question, and at the end of a day at the end of a week at the end of a semester or academic year, we may indeed wonder, Why do I teach? Judging from the ideas given at the conference, it seems clear that we aren't doing the work of an ABE instructor just to collect a pay cheque or qualify for a pension.

At the conference the sampling of answers from the lunchtime activity fell generally into two categories. The first category is, not surprisingly, the satisfaction gained from seeing students acquire the necessary academic skills that are the stepping stone to better education and employment. An instructor wrote about seeing a single mother with children complete her GED and obtain a job which enabled her to support herself and her family. Another mentioned seeing students complete high school and then consider further education. The student who starts with low literacy levels and proceeds to complete high school give a special sense of satisfaction to the instructors involved along the way.

The largest group of answers related to the satisfaction gained from witnessing learners' growth in confidence and self-esteem, even when this is not the result of significant gains in formal education and employability. Sometimes this increase in confidence pays off when a learner acts on her own or others' behalf to gain some immediate and tangible benefit. The increase in selfesteem and expanded confidence allows students to take on tasks they would never have considered before going to school. Managing their own money and banking are a common example of applying math skills once confidence is bolstered.

Another reward for instructors is the change in their students' feelings about learning. Excitement over success in learning, joy at acquiring new skills that they had felt incapable of gaining, and their reduced anxiety as they became comfortable with math were all mentioned as part of the payoff for teaching ABE. Related to this was watching students demonstrate interpersonal skills such as expressing ideas and opinions to each other, a necessary part of the creation of a sense of community.

The other group of reasons which was particularly true of Learning Circle workshop participants was in the category of furthering social justice. People spoke of their own backgrounds, the struggles they had experienced and their wish to help others who faced the same struggles. A tone of respect for themselves and their families suggested a deep personal commitment to their work with students who dealt with problems such as poverty, substance abuse, lack of education, and poor English skills. These instructors saw their work in ABE as an outlet for their commitment to supporting others who struggled with issues that they, or their families, had faced.

In answer to the question, "Why do we teach?" instructors gave clear reasons for doing so. Researchers who study the personality and character traits of people drawn to different occupations could doubtless come up with a profile of ABE instructors and attribute a variety of motives to us, some of which we would likely dispute. My own speculation is that we teach ABE for many different reasons, some falling in each of the above categories, and some originating outside of our conscious mind completely.

Mary Carlisle has been teaching ABE and ESL in college, school district, and community programs in the Lower Mainland for a number of years. She has become a regular at the Annual Conferences of the ABEABC.

Groundwork · Vol. 22 No. 1 · Fall 2000 · page 3