Why I Teach

Four years ago, I received the opportunity to begin teaching at Georgia Gwinnett College. I had been looking for opportunities to teach for a few years, and I thought it would never happen, but out of the blue, I got an e-mail from the Associate Dean at GGC asking me if I wanted to teach. I jumped at the chance, it was a dream come true.

I’ll admit, at first, it was a much bigger struggle than I had anticipated. I’ve always had a great admiration for teachers, but now that admiration is even higher, what they do day in and day out is amazing. I had taught courses before, but always to professionals, who had some idea of the topic. Now I was teaching accounting, basically a foreign language, to students just trying to understand business. The hours I have had to spend have been tremendous, reviewing the topics each week, and trying to figure out how to paint a picture that is understandable for someone who has no earthly idea of what the heck a debit or credit is and what that matters anyway.

My approach is to try to educate more than evaluate. As I tell each class, I assume everyone is an A student, you have to prove me wrong. My main goal or focus is to educate them, not just about accounting, but about business and some of the great things, and maybe not so great things, that happen in business. I tell stories, lots of stories, because seriously, accounting is not that interesting. It is vital, it’s important to run a business, but it’s just not that exciting. I try to make the class as fun and interesting as possible, but I’m sure my students would tell you, I fail in many cases. But, just like them, I’m a work in process, so that’s OK, I need to keep working at it until I find a solution.

OK, so the questions come every semester from students, why do you teach? Great question! I’m the Chief Financial Officer at WIKA Instrument, and I definitely have plenty to do, plenty of responsibility, and to be quite honest, I make plenty of money if there is such a thing. So, why do I teach? It probably comes down to the following reasons:

It's Not the Money! – That should be the first caveat I guess. The money is far from great, and I’m not complaining and I don’t blame GGC. In fact, last year, when they were going through some budget issues, I told them if they needed to or wanted to cut my pay, I had no problem with that. Practically, they probably can’t do that due to rules in place, but money isn’t the issue. I spend a great deal of time tutoring, which I don’t get paid for, because I love to tutor. My belief is that students who come to tutoring really want to learn, so that is where I get the greatest amount of enjoyment or fun. Don’t get me wrong, the extra money is nice, but that is far from the reason why I do this.

It Makes Me Better at My "Real" Job – Over the last few years, as I’ve taught, and learned how to teach, I’ve had a huge benefit from this at my job at WIKA. I’ve had many people tell me that my presentations at work are much better than they’ve been before. It’s really quite simple. At college, I’m trying to explain accounting and business topics to students who in many cases, have never had any experience in business. I have to push myself to figure out how to help them understand these topics. If I can figure out how to help them understand business topics, when they haven’t ever seen them before, how much easier would it be for me to explain these same type of topics to people who have at least some understanding of business? It has made a huge difference.

My Students are Incredible in so Many Ways – Many years ago, I golfed on weekends. Then our twin sons, Patrick and Sean, were born, and my wife Laurel said, “you can either work less or quit golfing”. I quit golfing of course (by the way, Laurel loves that story, so I tell it often). I remember when I did golf, I really wasn’t very good, but each round, I’d have at least a few shots that made me think I could get really good at this, and it would bring me back each week, remembering that one shot that you put within a few feet of the pin, or that one drive that was perfectly placed in the fairway.

Every class is different. Every class has its own personality. Every class presents its own set of challenges for how to teach them. No class is the same, no semester is the same. I’ll be clear, I’ve had some classes that were very frustrating. I’ve had some that were incredibly hard working and did great. I’ve had some that were mediocre academically, but I loved them for their personality. Every semester is exciting for what each class brings. I get so much enjoyment from each class, they energize me, they challenge me to be better at what I do, they are fun to be around.

Each semester, it’s always interesting to watch how the class develops. I’ve had some unbelievable students, who push the limits, come close or even get perfect scores on tests. It’s so much fun to get to grading tests, when you are seeing if some of those students will reach that pinnacle, a perfect score. I’ve also had some that really struggled with the course material, accounting isn’t for everyone, but they persevere through. Through hard work, through a great deal of struggles, they push themselves to attain a C or even a B, even though accounting isn’t a discipline that they understand that well.

I’m really not sure which of these students excites me more. I love the really smart ones, who push themselves to get perfect scores, to attain the highest levels. I also love the ones who don’t understand accounting, but are willing to do whatever they can to understand it as best they can, enough, to at least get a passing grade. I had one student once, who through tears, said to me, “I’m really not stupid.” And she wasn’t, but accounting was a completely foreign language to her. She worked her butt off, and yes, she passed with a C.

My Students Make Me a Better Person – I remember a sermon once when our minister talked about two young people who had been in psychiatric hospitals that he was working with. His main point was that these two students did so much for him, provided so much inspiration to him, he wasn’t really sure what he did for them, but they did so much for him. That is basically how I feel about my students. I’m really not sure what I do for them, but I know what they do for me. They challenge me to be a better person. They continually push me to be better as a teacher, and as a person.

I’ve always wanted to do great things, mainly for God, but also for my community. I finally figured out or heard from God when I was finally really listening, I will never do great things. But, as Mother Teresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” My hope is that I am reaching some of my students, even if it’s just one, or a handful, I hope I’m reaching them and helping them grow in their lives and their careers.

It’s easy as an old person, like me, to look down on the “younger generation”, but we have so much that we can learn from them. Each day, I learn something. I learn about how to teach better. I learn how to treat people better. I learn about the struggles that young people are going through today. I learn about me, and how I can be a better me. Each semester, I hope and pray they ask me back, they give me the opportunity to teach again, to be around this great group of students again. I love the surprise each semester brings, the excitement of a new class, the thrill of a new group of personalities.

So why do I teach? Just like with so many things in life, you set out to do something for others, and eventually you find, the one who gets the greatest benefit, is you.