The best teachers have no interest in being loved. Does that surprise you? Do you think that a teacher should want to be liked by his pupils? But that is not a teacher’s duty. Teachers teach. Easy lessons, hard lessons, the things that make a student stretch out beyond his comfort zone to grasp. A teacher pushes. Students do not always like being pushed.
Teachers are willing to endure ill-favor if it means the ones they teach are able to grow. Whether the elementary teacher who hushes whispered chatter and silences cell phones, the music instructor who demands the apprentice practice hours a night without fail, or the drill sergeant who shouts in cadets’ faces to strengthen their nerves, the best teachers do not mistake pleasantness for effectiveness.
Pleasant feelings are fleeting. Lessons well-learned are forever. A teacher who truly cares is one who places little value on popularity, and everything on the education of their students. Teachers lay a foundation in the minds of the taught. They ensure that deep roots are sunk, and that knowledge and experience grow ever higher. They nurture the student’s mind, and they test it. They see far beyond today’s temporary comforts. They see their student as they could be in ten, twenty, thirty years’ time.
What makes a teacher great? The desire and ability to make others great.
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Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.
“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?
Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“
Jake W. Powell 