Monday, September 18, 2006

What, Why and Goals

I spent the day today serving the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association. I am one of the public representatives on their Discipline Committee. We heard a case today concerning the treatment of residents of a long term care facility.

Listening to the discussion around this case reminded me of many of the issues we face in education. What is the best answer to the old question - "What do you teach?" Of course the 'expected' answer is - chemistry or history or economics or math while for some of us the better answer is "students."

Perhaps the way we answer this question is related to another questions "Why do we teach?"

Do we teach because of the benefit we see accruing to our students and we have their ultimate welfare at heart? Or do we teach because of our love for our subject (chemistry, history, maths, etc.) and want to spend our time thinking about and talking about and working with the ideas that come from that content? Or do we have other - less admirable reasons - power over the less powerful or the less informed - lack of close supervision with little chance of being held strictly accountable for our actions - seemingly attractive, long holidays?

I thought about these questions today from a nurse's perspective. Why did they go into nursing? What keeps them in nursing? What incentives do they have - personally and professionally to stay up-to-date? How are they supervised? What power do their 'clients' have given the work that nurses do?

In so many professions we rely on the integrity and intelligence of the individual. Teachers and nurses, by definition, have power over their 'clients' We hope that their training, their sense of 'mission' and their ethical perspective allow them to use that power in appropriate and meaningful ways.

The 'why' question is also related to why and how we set goals for ourselves. Some of us spend no time setting goals but are very busy working towards something. Sometimes something is accomplished by these people but often their hard work meanders. If you don't know where you are going then you surely won't get there.

Some of us spend a lot of time setting goals but procrastinate when it comes to doing something to attain those goals. The frustration level is high and the accomplishment level is low.

Then there are those people that set goals for themselves (of course there are issues surrounding the setting of goals that are too ambition or perhaps not ambitious enough) and then set out energetically and enthusiastically to meet those goals.

These people are to be admired. They are the ones that can feel the accomplishment of at least moving towards a valued goal. They will meet many of their goals or at least they will know that they did their best to meet their goals.

I believe that teachers and nurses almost always set out to achieve goals that are related to making the world a better place.