Teachers, are you one too?

I love teaching!

I am not a professional teacher but my wife works in the environment of teachers and I like to observe them. I see some remarkably good teachers, even some great teachers. There are also bad teachers who adversely affect their students. What makes a person a great teacher to you?

For me a couple of key elements are:

passion of the teacher.

passion generated in the student.

skill and knowledge of the teacher.

There are so many elements but to me, these are key.

Personally, for some strange reason, I love accounting. I believe I have been quite successful in helping various people who required accounting to qualify as lawyers, fellow accounting students and some MBA students involved in higher levels of the various disciplines. I have also helped quite a number of kids who were still at school.

[about to embark on CTA in accounting, before the crap hits the fan - March 2015]

Yet not one of my four girls ever wanted anything to do with accounting! Whenever they were able to drop the subject, they did so with alacrity, even if they were able to do very well in their examinations. Not good for my ego as you would well imagine. When I asked them why, they said I was too loud and excitable, besides they loved the arts more.

I also love history and politics. Luckily for me, one of my girls has also developed a great passion for it (many of my books are residing in her room). She is also remarkably good at cooking. I followed her and also studied cooking because of her passion.

I also love literature, particularly science fiction and fantasy, and a book has to be next to my bed at all times. Here too, one other daughter has developed a great passion for reading and she loves some of the same authors that I do (she firmly states that all my books will be hers when I die).

All members of my family are passionate readers.

My eldest has developed an appreciation for chess, although she cannot develop her skills too far as she is studying medicine. She picked up the love for the game from my love for the game. She still uses the piano for recreation like her sisters.

[relaxing at home...]

My youngest is a real cocky punk who refuses to show an interest in anything that I do (I hope she is pretending but I am probably delusional), I continually try to show her the new things I have uncovered in maths, but she does not even deign to look at what I have learnt on Khan’s Academy. She is really good at the subject and is doing university level maths as an extra subject while still at high school. My stated aim while learning maths is to know more than she does, but it seems to be a losing battle. I really want to make her humble but all I see is a long dark tunnel ahead of me coming second.

So teaching is a passion for me, strictly amateur though. I love learning although it has never really put any bread on the table. I was never a good student, but my girls are really disciplined at their studies. My example is the key in the lives of others, not so much what comes out of my mouth (I talk too much and that makes me a poor teacher, why don’t I listen more?)

So everyone is a teacher, whether they want to be or not. People are teaching others all the time, by word, by opinion and by deed. I now find the most interesting thing of all, is to see what is on Steemit. Disinformation is the new standard of our planet’s media, their agendas usually have truth way down on their scale of priorities. Steemit bloggers are more honest (and interesting) than what can be found in the “news” from most professional correspondents.

Do you remember the teachers who really impacted you? I remember one in particular. My first great teacher was a history teacher while a ten-year-old at Welkom Preparatory School. Mr Feirrera had only one leg and drove an old, battered car. He did not seem like an imposing figure in the community but he could hold a class of youngsters spellbound. I can even remember how the warrior king, Shaka of the Zulu tribe, was killed and how Dingaan became the new king. The way his voice rose and fell; his hand and arm movements, I will never forget. South African history now lives in my mind and imagination. Every single student in that class achieved distinctions. From him I developed a lifelong love for history, which has been passed on to one of my girls.

In South Africa, teachers are poorly paid, yet they ought to be the best paid. The future depends on the skills and passions of teachers, yet they are not valued in the community. What of other countries? Are teachers appreciated there, or not? I wonder...