Education can be unspeakable. I am pleased when they call me later for book suggestions. I am even more pleased when I open the mail to find a letter telling me of books I should read. Thus, my teaching philosophy emphasizes that, when accomplished well, neither teaching nor learning ends. Certainly mine have not.
Teaching is also about vocation.
Only in that matrix can understanding occur. The teacher tries to surprise students, explode their too limited patterns of expectation, raise the counterexamples that direct their attention in new ways. When breakthroughs happen frequently, education is a joy. In 1992, I won the faculty teaching award. I immediately went out and spent part of the money on a briefcase.