Making sense of teaching by starting with why

I haven’t read the book so this isn’t a review or commentary on the book but rather a reflection on the idea of starting with why, which just so happens to be the title of a book as well.

When people ask what do you do, you teach.
When people ask what do you teach, you teach elementary or high school, English or French, or Math, or History.

But it’s not often that I’m asked why I teach. Maybe if we went with the why more often we’d make more sense out of teaching.

Why do you teach?

To create mathematicians? Why?
To help kids raise their test scores? Why?
To get kids to write? Read? Why?
To get kids to sit in a row, quietly taking notes? Why?
To get kids to question? Why?
To learn about human relationship? Why?

Why do you teach? And when did you figure that out?

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