Why do we teach?
Motivation, the foundation of all that has been accomplished by humans, is considered intrinsic when it is driven by natural interests and internal factors such as curiosity, love of a task, etc, without external stimulation. However, the fast pace of our current society has transcended personal needs and the value of intrinsic motivations to feed the external drive to succeed according to the merits of a technologically advanced society that thrives on competition and defines success based on competitiveness (Kover & Worrell, 2010; Santrock, 2019).
So I ask you this: What is your motivation for teaching others?
According to Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura (2014), “if we conceive of humans as intentional agents, who sometimes choose to act for the sake of intrinsic enjoyment alone, we might be able to facilitate [their] enjoyment of the activities in which they engage” (p. 196) and this applies even more so to adolescents who are traversing the complex plane of development and its emotional, not just physical, impact.