The Ideal Teacher

Who is an ideal teacher?

Not so long time ago, when I was still in my elementary years I used to think an ideal teacher is infallible. This notion apparently belongs to the old school of thought as teachers are humans too. Teachers make mistakes. In fact, they constantly do. I found this out when I myself have become a teacher.

So, if not through a mistake- meter, how then should we define an ideal teacher?

                                                                          

Nikos Kazantzakis suggests that ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.

Such illustration of Kazantzakis may sound so poetic yet it encapsulates what one should expect from a teacher.

Kazantzakis associated teachers to bridges for the following reasons: First, bridges are made for connecting lands. Similarly, teachers are for connecting lives. Teachers are equipped not only to educate but to prepare their students to be well- rounded social beings. For whatever knowledge or information a teacher may impart to his students, the best is still on human relations because life is after- all about connecting lives specially now that the world has become so small with the advent of the social media such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

Second, bridges serve as easy access point to the civilized world. Teachers, on the other hand, are primarily the source of knowledge and information. And they lead their students towards a more “civilized society.”

Third, bridges serve as a path towards one’s destination whereas; teachers guide their students towards their goals- towards the realization of their dreams.

               

They teach. They instruct. They educate. They model. They facilitate. How-ever they do it, teachers mould their students.

 

 

And as Kazantzakis said, one may become an ideal teacher when he inspires his students to build bridges on their own. His success depends on how much his seed has multiplied. How many lives he has touched and not really on how many mathematical or scientific problems he had taught his students to solve.