The Ingredients of a Good Teacher

Throughout my education career, from kindergarten to today, I’ve had classes that I’ve loved and classes that I’ve dreaded. In retrospect I’ve determined that the deciding factor of which reaction I had to a class was the teacher. As students we tend think of teachers as being intelligent people of the mind. After several years in college, however, I’ve learned that simply being knowledgeable, or even an expert, in a topic does not equate to being a teacher. I’m sure that we’ve all had that one professor who, while very smart, seemed incapable of teaching even a simple lesson effectively, which no doubt led to an uncomfortable semester. While being intelligent is important for a teacher (especially as people who value knowledge and the opportunities it offers) I argue that intelligence is not one of the most important characteristic of a teacher.

The first characteristic that comes to mind when I think of a good teacher is patience. As a student I have always been horrible at math. I was a student that would get so frustrated over a math concept that I couldn’t understand that I would cry. Math was never going to be fun for me, but what made it bearable was when I’d have a teacher that was patient with me. I always took twice as long to understand a new concept and I almost always forgot how it worked by the time I got home. It’s not that I wasn’t trying, math simply doesn’t “click” with me. Throughout middle school and high school what made the difference between a good school year and a slow, dull crawl till summer was a patient math teacher. Being patient enough to explain over and over a concept without getting frustrated is necessary as a teacher since no two students learn at the same speed. Frustration makes it hard to think clearly and teach effectively; we owe it to our students to be patient.

The second characteristic that I believe defines a good teacher is humility. I’ve always been more attentive and active in class when the teacher is willing to talk to me as a person instead of as a student. I’m sure most of us have had that teacher that talks down to their students. I always seem to “check-out” of these teacher’s classes. Conversely, whenever a teacher took the time to get to know me and treat me like a person I rose to the challenges of their class. To this day I still remember my high school Spanish teacher who inspired me to become a teacher. I’ve never had a passion for Spanish, but she took the time to get to know me and encouraged me to work hard. She made learning fun because she didn’t treat her students as though they were on a lower level than she was on. It’s important that, as teachers, we remember that our students are individuals, and that our age or position do not make us better than they are.

As I’ve already explained, I do not believe that intelligence is an extremely important characteristic for a teacher to have. I do, however believe that a good teacher has a love of learning. In order to instill in our students an understanding of what knowledge can do for their lives we must love learning ourselves! Being simply intelligent is to have gained knowledge, but to have a love of learning is to actively seek self-improvement. This is what we want for our students, for them to actively better themselves through learning. As teachers, we must model this behavior with our own love of learning.

The fourth and final characteristic of a good teacher is also the most important: Passion. A teacher who is full of passion can invigorate even the laziest of students. I’ve witnessed a teacher fill a classroom with a contagious energy that changes their students’ demeanor, and it all stemmed from their passion for teaching. We’ve all had those teachers that are so bored and dry that they have no place in the classroom. They’ve lost their passion and in doing so have lost the ability to effectively inspire their students. While on paper our jobs as teachers will be to teach material, we must also remember that we are role models for our students. We want to create in them a respect and thirst for knowledge, and we cannot do this without a passion for what we do.

There are many qualities that pull together to make the character of a good teacher. While everyone has their own opinion on the matter, I believe that Patience, Humility, a Love of Learning, and Passion are the ingredients for an effective and inspiring teacher. To exemplify these qualities in the classroom is to transform students into lifelong learners. What more could a teacher hope to accomplish?