Why teach?

I'm often asked, particularly while still jobhunting, why I want to be a teacher.

I could tell you one side of the truth. I could feed off the cliché about how I always wanted to a be a teacher. And, apart from a small stint which led to a desire to be a vet (what can I say? I was the animal hospital generation), it's true. I have always wanted to teach. I was the child who lined her stuffed toys up and took registers. I controlled groups of children during free choice at school. I can't recall ever wanting to be anything else, at least without the influence of Rolf Harris.

However, I can pin my true desire to teach, that lightbulb moment, to one single incident on a school experience. In the middle of a maths lesson, one child in my focus group looked directly at me and asked one simple question;

"What does the number 5 taste like?"

Children are naturally divergent thinkers. They don't just think outside the box, they haven't even developed a box yet. Society does that to them, it builds their box. It's strangely tragic. It's that divergent thinking that I love in children. If I could invite the public to come and sit in my classroom, to talk to my class about what they think about the world and where they think society is heading, I would. Recently, I've discussed the logistics of keeping bear cubs as pets, why dogs don't eat pizza and what would happen if people could literally steal the things you drew. If we all listened to children more, perhaps the world would be a more peaceful, harmonious place.

I think a big part of what is needed in the world is the bravery to ask what a number tastes like. And that is why I'm a teacher.

Oh, and five tastes like strawberries and meringue. Much like eton mess.