If you want to be part of a movement that can truly change the world, that will give you challenges you cannot possibly anticipate, that will test your patience, stretch your intellect, and make you laugh as often as it will make you cry - be a teacher. 

If you want to take the teaching profession to where it was at one time when it attracted the best and the brightest in far higher numbers than it does today, when it had respect, prestige, and veterans as mentors to the next generation - be a teacher.

If you want to stop the hemorrhaging of talented young men and women who decide to try teaching only to leave the profession after five years - be a teacher.

If you want to give of yourself, be a part of the future, bring people together, and inspire others the way your favorite teacher inspired you - be a teacher.

If you aren’t afraid of challenges, if you’re willing to fight for better pay, better working conditions in all schools, and a national commitment to youngsters - be a teacher.

If you want to serve and to do so with dignity, to heed a call to public service for your community and its families, if you see education as a calling or vocation as well as a career - be a teacher.

Later this week, I’ll run through a few other reasons why teaching can be such a rewarding profession…