Why Do We Teach?

I can't say I'll keep it up, but I think that at least once a week I'd like to link to another blogger whose topic intrigues me. The idea came to me while visiting Bud The Teacher's post about a recent post I wrote.
The first installment comes from The Reflective Teacher's post on why we teach. Nobodyknows writes, "We are here to contribute to the greater good. We do necessary work." Good question.
For me, at least this year, the answer has been tough to come by. I haven't enjoyed my assignment as much as I did last year. I've felt disconnected as a result. But thanks to Nobodyknows I've gained back a bit of the first year (last year for me) purpose. We do contribute to the greater good. It reminded me of the speech I had to give for admittance to the School of Education at Northwest University (formerly college).
I figured everyone would give one of those fluffy speeches, and I wanted to stand out (go figure). So my speech followed a parallel structure of "I don't want to teach..." and then I'd give that reason and counter with the positive--the negative start to each point almost cost me a spot with one of the cheery elemetary education professors.
The two points that I do remember were "I don't want to teach for the money because we all know that there isn't much," and "I don't want to teach for the glory because we all know that there isn't much of that either." I did however want to teach because of the greater good that is served; because of the great teachers like Ms. Stack, Mr. Wood, Mr. Wilson, and Ms. Traut; because of the great professors like Dr. Pecota, Dr. Elmes, Professor Young, and Professor Pope.