College English
Unit 3
Why I Teach
by Peter G. Beidler
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Pre-reading
Background
Information
&
Introduction
While-reading
Language points
Text
Post-reading
Exercises
 Becoming a teacher in the U.S.
 A student who is preparing to become a teacher must study
liberal arts subjects (such as mathematics, English, and history);
courses in the particular subject or subjects he expects to teach;
and professional education courses (usually including
educational psychology, methods of teaching, and the
philosophy and history of education). Almost all schools require
practice teaching, in which the student teacher, under the
supervision of an experienced classroom teacher, participates in
actual classroom procedures.
 Every elementary and secondary public school teacher in the
U.S. must have a teacher's certificate (a license indicating that
the holder is qualified to teach) granted by the government of the
state in which he wishes to teach. Most of the states require four
years of college for elementary teaching certificates; all the
states require at least four years of college for secondary
certificates.
 College and university teachers are not required to take
education courses or to obtain teaching certificates. However, a
doctor's degree in a field of specialization is almost a necessity
for a teaching career in most institutions of higher learning.
 Emerson, Thoreau and Huxley
 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882), American philosopher and
writer. His essays had a strong influence on both American and
European readers and writers in their study of man's relation to
life. In a speech entitled "The American Scholar", he called upon
American students to "Know Thyself" and "Study Nature". In the
essay "Self-Reliance" he stresses the importance of sturdy
independence in thought and action. Among his major works are
his Journals.
 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author and
naturalist. After graduation from Harvard College in 1837, he
started a school that was perhaps the first in America to
introduce field trips for nature study. In 1845 he built a small
cabin at Walden Pond with his own hands and lived there until
1847, spending 27 cents a week for food to supplement the
vegetables he raised. In 1854, he published his masterpiece
Walden; or, Life in the Woods. In Walden, Thoreau records his
life in the woods and describes freshly and vividly the changing
seasons and other natural events and scenes that he observed.
Thoreau had kept a journal since 1837, and this journal formed
the basis for several books published after his death.
 Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), English novelist and essayist. In his
later works he expressed concern that the pursuit of material
possessions was taking place at the expense of individual
freedom and a respect for nature. He satirized such trends in
Brave New World (1932), a novel set in a future world where
individuality is deliberately stifled. In Island (1962), on the other
hand, he presents his utopia, a libertarian community living in
close harmony with its natural environment.
 Mr. Beidler, the author of this article, asked his 15
students to read these three writers because the
students might learn something from them about man's
relation to nature and how to be self-reliant in a
technological society. And his students kept diaries
(journals) just as Emerson and Thoreau did.
INTRDUCTION
 1. Introductory Remarks
 Teaching has been considered an undesirable
profession port of Education world. Education may be
respected and highly valued, but teachers are not.
Their pay and prestige are low in most countries. They
work long hours both during the day and in the evening
and their hard work often goes unnoticed and
unappreciated.
 Yet, there have always been people who love the
teaching profession and choose teaching as their lifelong career. Here, Mr. Beidler, Professor of English at
Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, U. S.A., who was
named 1983's Professor of the Year by the Council for
Advancement and Support of Education, gives his
reasons why he teaches.
 2. Warm-up Activity
 In this article, Mr. Beidler gives his reasons for
choosing teaching as his career. Ask the students to go
over the text very quickly and find out those reasons.
The following is a suggested list for the teacher's
reference.
 —the pace of the academic calendar
 —variety (teaching is built on change)
 —the freedom to be his own boss (the freedom to do
things his own way)
 —the opportunity to keep on learning
 —the opportunity to teach his students to play their
roles in the real world
 —the opportunity to share with his students the happiness of
their success
 —the joy of seeing his students grow and change in front of his
eyes
 —the power to help his students grow and change
 —the love teaching offers the love of learning, of books and
ideas and the love a teacher feels for rare students
 —the feeling of remaining young while teaching
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Language Points
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1…I didn’t want to be considered for an administrative position:
…I didn’t want to be a candidate for an administrative position, such as
the President or vice-president of a university, the dean o college ,the
chair-man of a department, etc.
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 2 He was puzzled that I did not want…:money and power.:
 A university administrator, as a rule ,earns more money and has more
power than an average professor and most Americans would be only too
pleaded to get a “step up” towards these goals. That’s why the author’s
friend was puzzled : make unable to answer , solve or understand; fill
with doubt and confusion
Examples:
—we were all puzzled by his recent behavior.
—I’m puzzled why he declined our incitation.
—The woman’s illness puzzled the doctor; he couldn’t find the cause.
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3 Certainly I don’t teach because teaching is easy for me.:
Certainly I teach not because teaching is easy for me.
4 Teaching is the most difficult of the various ways I have attempted
to earn my living: mechanic, carpenter, writer.：
I have tried many other ways to make a living. I have worked as a
mechanic, a carpenter, a writer, and now I am working as a teacher. Of
all these professions, teaching is the most difficult for me.
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5 For me, teaching is a red-eye, sweaty-palm, sinking-stomach
profession.:
Teaching is a profession that makes my eyes red for lack of sleep, my
palms sweaty because of nervousness and my stomach sinking because I
often feel so disappointed with my lectures.
Here.” stomach” means “spirit, heart”. A person’s stomach sinks when he
is upset, disappointed.
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Profession: job that needs formal qualifications after training, e.g. law,
medicine, teaching, acting.
Examples:
--As a sophomore, I still don’t know what profession would suit me best.
--Jeanne has decided on law as her profession. She wants to become a
civil rights lawyer and help the poor.
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6 stay up: not go to bed
Examples:
--He stays up reading and writing until midnight every day.
--I’ll be home late, but please don’t stay up for me.
7. sure that I will be found out for the fool that I am:
for I’m sure that the students will find out what I really am: a fool
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8 convince: cause (sb.) to believe; persuade (sb.)
Examples:
--It took me a long time to convince him that he could learn English as
well as anyone else in the class.
--The Union officer was convinced (sure) that Aunt Bettie was not
going to report his presence to the Confederate army.
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9 … because I have knowledge I feel compelled to share:
… because I have knowledge (that) I feel compelled to share (with my
students).
Compel: make (sb.) do sth. by or as if by force
Examples:
-- Having found himself out of gas, the driver was compelled to walk
several miles to the nearest village.
-- He was compelled by illness to drop out of school.
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10 Sometimes I am amazed that … in class!:
Here, the author claims, with mock modesty, that he is sometimes
surprised to see his students bothering to take notes in his lessons.
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11 I teach because I like the pace of the academic calendar.:
“The academic calendar” means “the calendar used in an institution of
education”—a list of important events during the school year, such as
when school terms begin, when exams are administered and when
commencement is held.
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In the United States, all teachers are eligible for three vacations with
pay: the summer vacation (usu. from mid-May to the end of August),
the winter vacation (about 4 weeks around Christmas) and the spring
break (a week in mid-March).
During these vacations, they can do whatever they want to do whether it
is relevant to their profession or not. And many teachers take advantage
of the vacations to write or to do some research work..
Language points
12 opportunity: favorable occasion or chance
Examples:
—Do come to our party tomorrow evening ! It will give you an
opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people.
—This conference offers us a good opportunity to learn from one
another .
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13 When the material is the same .I change —and , more
important , my students change.:
Even if I use the same textbook I have used before, I always teach in a
different way as I may have new ideas about the subject .And above
all, each year I have new students who are different from the ones I
have taught before and therefore I have to change my way of teaching
accordingly to meet their needs.
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14 to learn one’s lesson(s):
To learn something useful from the mistake(s) one has made
Example:
—He had learned his lesson ,and wouldn’t repeat the mistake.
—I have learned my lesson from the accident and won’t drive too fast again.
15 stimulate: excite (the body or mind); cause to become more
active ,energetic, etc.
Example:
—The teacher’s praise stimulated Tom to study even harder
—Exercise stimulates the circulation of the blood .
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16 freshman: a student in the first year of college
Sophomore: a student in the second year of college
Junior: a student in the third year of college
Senior: a student in the fourth year of college
17 failure: lack of success; failing; instance of failing
Examples:
— Without your timely help ,our plan would have ended in failure
— We have many failures before finding the right method of teaching.
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18 to ask question that students must struggle to answer:
To ask difficult, thought-provoking questions which the students must
think hard about before they can answer.
19 The world is full of right answers to bad questions:
Here “bad questions” means “meaningless questions or simple questions”
that everyone can answer easily.
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20 I teach because I enjoy finding ways of getting myself and my
students out of the ivory tower and into the real world. :
Institutions like universities and colleges are often referred to as “ivory
towers” where professors and their students study only book knowledge
and have little to do with the practice of everyday life. What the author
tries to do is to help the students go out of ivory tower and into real world,
learn to solve practical problems and prepare themselves for the life they
will encounter after graduation.
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21 loan: something lent, especially a sum of money
Examples:
—It’s more and more difficult to get a bank loan now .
—The world Bank has promised to make a further loan of $2 million for this
project.
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22 distribute: divide among several or many ;give or send out
Examples:
—people there often complain that wealth is not evenly distributed in their
society.
—New information is quickly distributed to millions of people all over the
world by means of the Internet.
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23 variety: state of varying ;a number of different kinds
Examples:
—My job lacks variety; I am doing the same things all the time.
—The Shanghai Museum has a wide variety of objects on display.
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24 challenge: something new and exciting or difficult which requires
great effort and determination
Examples:
—His new job as the department chairman is a real challenge to him .
—This job is too dull; I want one with more challenge.
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25 leave out: fail to mention or include
Examples:
—You left out an important detail in your report of the accident.
—Be sure not to leave anyone out in your invitation.
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26 who labored at her dissertation:
who worked very hard on her dissertation
27 learned journals:
periodicals presenting research papers in a particular academic field
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28 …with an occasional nudge from me:
…with, now and then, some encouragement (or suggestions)
from me occasional: happening form time; not regular
Examples:
—your writing is quite good except for a few occasional mistakes in
spelling or grammar
—In these islands there are occasional earthquakes , but not very
violent ones.
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29 But I was there when …:
But what was really rewarding was to be there when…
30 …who stared as an engineering student, then switched to English:
…who began as an engineering student and then changed his subject to English
switch (to) :turn form one subject or activity to another
Examples:
-In Japan, Lu Xun started as a medical student but then switched to literature.
-As the demand for tape-recorders has fallen off the factory has switched to the production of
color TV sets.
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31 …because he decided he liked people better than things:
A student of English studies mainly literature, which reflects man’s
life and thought, while an engineering student concerns himself
mainly with the making of things.
32 urban: of a town or city
Examples:
I prefer to work in an urban environment, where there are good libraries and cultural
facilities.
In the past ten years or so, China’s urban population has been increasing very rapidly.
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33 a cleaning woman who knows more by intuition than most of us
learn by analysis:
a cleaning woman whose intuition enables her to make more correct
judgments than most of us can do with all that we have learned by analysis.
Intuition: ability to understand or realize sth. without reasoning
Examples:
-Intuition told me that something was wrong with our plan.
- The old hunter knew by intuition that the deer would soon be there.
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34 Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when
the clay begins to breathe.:
According to the Bible, man was created by God out of clay. When
God breathed the breath of life into the clay, it became alive and the
creation of man was completed. Here the author compares the job of a
teacher to the work of God. He implies that the teacher helps the
student become a real man or woman.
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35 a “promotion” out of teaching:
a “promotion” form a teaching position to an administrative
position
36 What is the point of being rich? : What’s the use of being rich?
Point: use; purpose
Examples:
-What’s the point of /in talking to her again? She’s already made up her mind.
- Now that Father has made the final decision, there is no point in arguing further.
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37 I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to
point out a pathway.:
I have the power to give my students a gentle push in the right direction,
to arouse their interest and curiosity, to recommend good books, to point
out the way to greater achievements.
38 What other power matters?: What other power is important to
me?
That is to say, I need no other power apart from the power to nudge, to
fan sparks….
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39 ….that rare student who walks into a teacher’s life ,and begin to breathe:
….that exceptionally good student becomes part of a teacher’s life and begins to grow
and change in front of him.
Rare: unusual; uncommon; unusually good
Examples:
---On the rare occasions when he spoke, his voice sounded very nervous.
---One of my uncle’s hobbies is collecting rare books.
40 Perhaps love is the wrong word; magic might be better.:
Perhaps the word “love” is not sufficient to describe what teaching
offers; it might be better to use the word “magic”
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41 …being around people who are beginning to breath, I
occasionally find myself catching my breath with them:
… when I see that my students are beginning to grow and change in
front of me, I from time to time find myself growing and changing with
them too, as if new life were being breathed into my body.
The more frequent use of “to catch one’s breath” is to mean “to stop
breathing for an instant with surprise and delight". The author plays with
both ideas at the same time.
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While reading activity: Text
Text
Translation
Translation
1. Many American students apply for government loans to pay for
their education/tuition.
2. Besides reading materials, the use of films and videotapes can
stimulate students’ interest in a subject.
3. The attorney/lawyer tried to convince the jury of his client’s
innocence.
4. Medical scientists have been working on finding a cure for AIDS
since the early 1980s.
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Translation
5. I have sent off my resume to several corporations, but haven’t yet
received a reply.
6. Many people wish for an opportunity to study abroad; only a few,
however, have this chance.
7. We came to the meeting full of expectations, yet we left very
disappointed.
8. Although the professor explained this point in great detail, many
students still failed to understand.
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