Communication and Persuasion in English Teaching

     English has always been my knack, and teaching has recently solidified itself as my niche. As a result, I have chosen to enter the English teaching field. As I often say, "I am attending college so that I can spend the rest of my life in a high school."

     There is something appealing about the kairos connected to teaching in a high school. Maybe that's why I want to go back.
Time: Early morning to mid-afternoon (The opening hours of the day are the intellect's playground). Date: Every day throughout autumn, winter, and spring (The teacher can easily develop relationships with students when they are together on a daily basis; also, the teacher must maintain a consistent yet creative rhetorical style in order to gain students' trust and interest.)
Place: Every type of classroom, ranging from stuffy and dimly lit to open and bright. (The teacher's position, the desks' arrangement, and the art on the walls can affect persuasive appeal. My seventh grade English teacher sat at her desk the entire year, which disengaged the class, whereas my twelfth grade teacher walked around the circular desk formation, which kept us engaged and alert.)
Katie Johnson also wrote about further times and places for communication through the internet.

    I have not yet chosen whether I would prefer to teach in a middle-school or in a high-school. Each group possesses specific psychological profiles that affect the way a teacher might employ rhetorical skills. Middle-school students are childish, simple, and immature. They base their view of a teacher's ethos not upon his or her academic achievements but upon the teacher's charisma and compassion. They thrive on pathos-directed appeals. Often they misunderstand logical arguments, or at least need guidance in order to comprehend them. On the other hand, high-school students are in the process of maturing, making complex decisions, and preparing for the future. They perceive strong ethos in a teacher who is intelligent and professional, yet relatable. High schoolers want their teachers to be their friends and their guides. Further analysis of the attributes of each group of students would prove helpful in determining the most effective uses of rhetoric in the classroom.

     While the students are most often the audience, communication in this field is not limited to the teacher-to-student sphere. Teachers also interact with administration personnel, parents, and fellow staff members. Each of these groups holds at lease one value in common: literacy. The desire to teach young people how to read and write effectively drives teachers to do what they do. Teachers employ all three branches of oratory in order to teach good literacy. They make judicial speeches whether they are defending the importance of a great classic or the validity of a grade. They teach how to write epideictic essays to analyze literature. And they take advantage of deliberative oratory when they need to convince the class to read Crime and Punishment over fall break.

When I began college, I realized that I was not nearly as well-read as many of my peers. But I do share their view that literacy is important to society. I want to teach English not only because the atmosphere, the students, and the challenge excites me, but because I want to teach something inspiring, and English inspired me.