Unit Seventeen Teaching Profession

To choose a profession is not an easy thing. It means that one should finally decide what trade or profession one should choose as the main line of one’s lifetime, a trade or profession that is really close to one’s heart and interests. There are many interesting and useful professions in our country. One can become a doctor or a teacher, an engineer or an economist, a pilot or an artist. As for me I made up my mind to become a teacher. Now more than ever before I am sure my decision is correct. I love children and think it’s so good to help them to learn what they didn’t know before. And besides, bringing up good children is a very important task.

Teaching is a very difficult job of great responsibility and most specific character. A good teacher is not only a communicator of knowledge but a model of competence. He forms attitudes to his subject and attitudes to learning. A teacher takes an active part in shaping of a child's character, fostering honesty, kindness, loyalty, cooperation and respect for ideals.

A good teacher must control his temper without shutting his eyes to faults requiring correction. His instruction must be free from affection, his industry great, his demands on class continuous, but not extravagant. He must be ready to answer questions and to put them unasked to those who sit silent. Teaching is difficult because it is an art, and no art is ever easy.

To my mind five years of study at the university will give me a great deal of information necessary for a teacher. My love to children will be combined with the knowledge I shall receive. It would not be quite enough for me to succeed in my work. I think that a good teacher must keep on learning all his life. But I am not afraid of all these difficulties.

Reading Texts a school teacher

In truth, Tatyana Hikiforova was not aware of all the difficulties involved in working with children when having finished the tenth form; she decided to enter a Teacher Training Institute.

The four years of study gave her a great deal of information necessary for the primary school teacher. When she received her teacher's diploma she thought things would be easy. Her love of children combined with the knowledge she had received would be quite enough for her to succeed in her work.

A little dark-haired boy of even in form "A" couldn't answer the simplest question. She understood that he was extremely shy and this was developing into a trait of his character.

How to give him the necessary confidence? Every lesson is 45 minutes and there are 40 pupils to a class: quiet, boisterous, lazy, industrious, all equally demanding attention.

Today children usually can read a little when they start school. But this boy did not even know all the letter of the alphabet and was afraid the other children would make fun of him. This was the cause of his shyness. It took a lot of tact, skill and knowledge to instill confidence in him.

The work was difficult at the beginning, and it is still difficult. Teaching is always difficult because it is an art, and no art is ever easy.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is Tatyana Hikiforova?

2. What institute did she graduate from?

3. She became a primary school teacher, didn't she?

4. How many pupils were there in her first form?

5. Were all the pupils quiet and industrious?

6. Teaching is always difficult isn't it?

7. Why is it difficult?

Correct the wrong statements using the phrase-openings "I am afraid…, you are mistaken…, on the contrary…".

1. Tatyana Nikiforova knew a lot about the difficulties involved in working with children when she entered the Teacher Training Institute.

2. When she received her teacher's diploma she thought that her work would be difficult.

3. She began to work in the fifth form.

4. All the pupils in form "A" were quiet and industrious.

5. The little boy who sat by the window could real well and answer all her questions.

6. Teaching is always easy.

7. Tatyana Nikiforova says that with time her work will become a matter of routine.

8. Today children usually can't read when they start school.