What Makes a Good Teacher
This Friday it’s World Teacher’s Day when people around the country will celebrate the achievements of teachers in high schools and primary schools as well as in private and public schools. When I started teaching 100 years ago…actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration but not totally…there was no such thing. Teachers were expected to get on with teaching and not make a fuss about it. The idea that a teacher would be celebrated was as far-fetched as the idea you take a selfie on your phone and “post” it. Those of us teaching in the bush posted things but they were written on paper or wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. See? I told you it was a 100 years ago.
The fact that we have a designated day to celebrate teachers and the profession got me thinking about the question of “What Makes a Good Teacher”?
There has been an awful lot of stuff written and spoken about teachers and quite a lot of it hasn’t been all that complimentary. There are plenty to people out there who are quite willing to put the boot into teachers (and the profession) and to blame teachers for all of society’s ills. Not only that but many of these people hold teachers responsible for them or their offspring not achieving the lofty heights they might have aspired to or dreamt of. Very rarely do these people imagine that they themselves may be responsible for some of life’s disappointments.
“Our English teacher was hopeless”, is a not uncommon refrain. The fact that the speaker spent every English lesson doing anything but English, is the teacher’s fault, not theirs. The fact that they never got around to reading the set text was also the teacher’s fault, even if said teacher implored their class to “read the book don’t rely in crib notes” or….AI.
Teachers come in all shapes and sizes armed with as many different personalities as their charges. One of the things teachers do is recognize behaviours that bear striking resemblances to their own. These aren’t always positive but when they recognize them, they are most likely to be sympathetic and understanding. Self-knowledge is a very important part of a teacher’s armory. It enables them to not only recognize behaviours that may reflect their own journeys, but they are able to help students with very different behaviours. This is because teachers are interested in their students. They wouldn’t last in the profession if they weren’t. They are universally motivated to bring the best out of their classes. They may express this is a wide variety of ways, but the bottom line is that all teachers want to see their students do well. There isn’t a teacher who wants their class to fail. Teachers may throw their arms up in the air and run out of a class in a fit of pique, as I once did, but the ones who last in the profession pull themselves together and march back in to try again. They employ a vast range of strategies to get their classes to focus on learning. And they don’t give up. Those that do, leave.
When a student has a problem more often than not their teacher will go to extraordinary lengths to try and help them. Teachers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to work out what strategies might work for a particular student who is struggling. They don’t just stand in front of the class and spout information. More than anybody, teachers recognize that their classrooms are made up of 20 or 30 different personalities and will do what they can to offer individual support to each of them.
Why do they do this? They do it for the simple reason that they care. Teachers are unique because they care about the welfare and progress of the people they teach. That’s what keeps them going and that is what we should salute on World Teacher’s Day.