The Difference Between a Good Teacher and a Bad Teacher

The Good, the Bad, and the Teachers

“Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact.” —Carl Sagan

Did you know? America used to produce a 5-cent bill... A hummingbird weighs less than a penny... A jellyfish is 95% water... Giraffes have no vocal cords... The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly... There are 293 ways to make change to a dollar... You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206... Apple seeds contain cyanide and it only takes 1 cup of seeds to kill an adult... You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather... And the ellipsis is the most overused punctuation mark in English...

If any of that has sparked even a little bit of interest in you for even a jiffy (A jiffy is the time it takes for light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum, about 33.35 picoseconds), then your inner desire to learn has not been fully quenched. That means you've made it through the rigors of public, or private, education mostly intact; however, many do not unfortunately. From young ages into college years, it sometimes only takes a single bad teacher to neutralize the constantly absorbing, sponge-like mind we enter this world with. Extinguishing our burning desire, as a human, to gain knowledge. Experiencing a bad teacher is all it takes to stop something that may have interested us, such as creative writing, history, or math, and we would never give those subjects a second chance, closing a door to our life that may have otherwise been opened further.

For starters, what is a teacher? Well, a teacher is one of the single most importa...

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...ve the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer" (Rilke p. 34-35)

A teacher can make or break a student, and as a teacher, you will greatly impact someone's life for the better or for the worse. So teach with all your might. Teach with the same patience, respect, and enthusiasm as you would wish upon yourself. And remember, “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” ― Albert Einstein

Works Cited

Palmer, Parker. (1999). "The Grace of Great Things: Reclaiming the Sacred in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning." In The Heart of Knowing: Spirituality in Education. Ed. Stephen Glazer. NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

Rilke, Rainer Maria, Franz Xaver Kappus, and Stephen Mitchell. Letters to a Young Poet. p 34- 35 New York: Vintage, 1986. Print.