A person can enjoy teaching as a profession when he

Concept: In teaching aptitude, the satisfaction a teacher draws from the profession is treated as intrinsic to the teaching relationship rather than as a by-product of position. The governing idea is that lasting professional enjoyment comes from what learners freely give back to a teacher — recognition of competence, conduct and concern — because that return is produced by the act of teaching itself and is renewed every time teaching is done well. Attributes that sit outside the teaching act (authority attached to the post, credentials measured against colleagues, standing with the administration) can accompany a teaching job without ever making the work of teaching rewarding.

Application: The stem asks for the condition under which teaching is enjoyed as a profession — that is, sustainably and from within the work itself. Among the conditions stated, the respect a teacher commands from students is the only one produced inside the teacher–learner encounter and by the teacher's own professional worth. It therefore feeds back into the teaching: teach well and the regard grows, and that regard in turn makes the daily work satisfying. So a person can enjoy teaching as a profession when he commands respect from students.

Contrast — what each stated condition actually rests on:

• Authority exercised over the class is positional: it comes with the post and rests on the learners' compliance, so it can be held even where the teacher is not valued.

• Comparative qualification is measured against fellow staff rather than against the demands of the classroom; it changes when the staff changes, not when the teaching improves.

• Closeness to higher authorities is standing inside the administration; it moves with transfers and changes of office-holder and never touches the teaching relationship.

• Respect from students is produced by the teaching itself and grows with it, which is why it is the condition that sustains enjoyment of the profession.

Result: a person can enjoy teaching as a profession when he commands respect from students.