Photo illustration: Tony Liong
This article is part of the Teachers' Notes series on “If you could go back and start all over again, would you still become a teacher?”
If I could repeat the time, I would still become a teacher. There is no dull moment being a teacher. There are many things to do, many students with different characters to see. Each day, teachers meet with innocent students like a blank page waiting to be written a story. It will affect our nation in the future.
Many things make the teaching profession being taken for granted. Some say it does not pay well nor popular. Teachers are often seen as a second-class profession compared with doctors, even though it is just as hard and important.
As time goes by, the teaching profession is increasingly in demand due to the lack of opening in other lines of work, while teaching opportunities have gotten bigger. However, being a teacher remains difficult. Many have resigned and changed professions because it has to be a calling. One who has the calling to become a teacher will be comfortable and enjoying this profession.
Apart from my calling, I stay in this profession because it is the most rewarding job. According to my Islamic belief, one only brings three deeds to one's grave: their continuing charity, a child who prays for them, and beneficial knowledge. Becoming a teacher allows me to get the third deed until the end of my life.
*This Note was written by WI, a primary school teacher in Jakarta.
**All articles published in the Teachers' Notes are the views of the authors. They have been edited for popular writing purposes and do not represent the views of RISE Programme in Indonesia or RISE's funders.
