What’s the real job of a teacher? What makes a teacher great?

The job of teaching is an ever changing one. It is never the same because you never teach the same thing to the same individual. It’s a job of constant adaptation, effort and dedication.

The job of a teacher is to create a safe environment in which the student can fail safely, repeatedly and at little to no consequences. So that the student may gain confidence in his ability to learn and try and adapt. So that he may forge his identity around being a learner.

A teacher’s job is to show a student that he can learn. To show him how learning works and to prepare him for life. A teachers job is not to transfer information. Information is a commodity. Anyone can google a subject and figure out facts and figures. And whatever a teacher may think, all the information a student learns for an exam he forgets after he’s taken the exam. It simply isn’t useful. What is useful though is the philosophy of learning the student picks up in the classroom. The mindset of learning. That is what teachers must always keep in mind at the back of their heads. That is what all there actions must reflect.

The teacher is a leader. He must teach by example. If the teacher isn’t willing to adapt, how will the student? If the teacher isn’t willing to take himself off his self-made pedestal how is the student going to learn? If the teacher isn’t willing to try new things how is the student going to be willing? If the teacher doesn’t know how to learn, how can he teach the student?

The teacher’s job is to show the student how to use the information how to reason around it, but it is more importantly to teach how to learn. Nobody cares about whether you remember your history lesson from high-school or that book you were supposed to read, or how much you got or that exam. What really matters is how you think. What your mindset is. Do you have confidence in your ability to learn? Do you know you can figure stuff out? Can you fend for yourself? Or were you told to sit down, shut up, and do as your told, to do it the way it’s always been done?

Did you have a teacher who encouraged your efforts and not your results? A teacher that went above and beyond to explain something you didn’t understand? A teacher who showed you your capabilities and strengths and how you can use them? A teacher who lead by example? A teacher who made associations to everyday things? Who encouraged you to say something even though it might not be the right answer? Did he value learning over having the right answer? Did your teacher make you want to come back to his classroom?

That’s what a real teacher is supposed to do.  If you aren’t at the service of your students you aren’t a teacher. If you’re here only for a pay check you aren’t a teacher.

A teacher is here to learn and to teach you how to learn. A teacher is here to explain things simply. To make you understand and give you the foundations you’ll need for the rest of your life. At teacher is there to give you confidence in your abilities by allowing you to fail safely. And as a bonus, a teacher can teach you a couple things about his or her specialty. But that is possible only when he has taught you to learn. Otherwise he only wastes his time.

Have you ever had a great teacher? If so, name them in the comments and take the time to thank them.