Monday, July 20, 2009

Of teachers and parents

I've been thinking about the question of what makes a great teacher for a while now. In fact, that question is what started me on my education odyssey in the first place. Here is an interesting article on this subject called "Unlocking the Mysteries of Great Teaching" by Tamim Ansary.
Here are the key points from the article.
"Great teachers ...
make you feel special.
teach you how to learn.
inspire you with their passion.
engage your whole being.
keep you focused.
open you up to new experiences.
have no agenda.
make the complicated simple.
give clear explanations.
show you how everything ties together."
Now substitute the word parent for teacher. Need I say more? Parents are naturally well suited to being great teachers to their children, Hashem made them that way. As a side point, when searching for educational/teaching information online, the sites for teachers, can be also very useful to parents. Today when so much of our children's education has been outsourced, we have to learn to think in terms of this teacher=parent paradigm. Why shouldn't our children answer, "our parents", when asked who were their greatest teachers?

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