My Career as a Good Teacher

There are several factors which help the creation of good teachers.

Understanding the concept of channeling.
As a teacher sometimes you just pass through information. You did not create the information - you did not modify it - you enabled the clean and direct transmission of facts to an audience.

Understanding the concept of editing
As a teacher sometimes you edit the information as it is transmitted to your audience. Some parts of the information are left out - this is called editing by omission.  Some parts of the information are changed - this is called editing by alteration.

Understanding the concept of creation.
Sometimes there are original ideas or new mixtures of facts or concepts applied to other applications.
As a teacher sometimes you can pass on an original idea or concept or application.

As a teacher you should know when you are channeling, editing or creating the information that is being transmitted to your audience.

As additions to the concepts of channeling, editing or creating a good teacher also:
-Understands the difference between truth and lies.
-Understands the concepts of fact or fiction.
-Understands the similarities and differences between science and faith.

Teachers are role models
A good teacher knows that they are being watched under different powers of the microscope.  A good teacher can teach best by example. "Do what I do" is a more effective statement than "do what I say".

A good teacher has morals, ethics and boundaries.
A good teacher knows when/how to use morals, ethics and boundaries to protect themselves, their school, fellow teachers and students. A good teacher can find themselves in hell.

There are criminals who become teachers - so that they can commit crimes. There are people with mental health conditions who become teachers so that they can behave compulsively with victims.  There are addicts who become teachers to further their addictions.  There are people with alternative agendas who become teachers to further their agenda not the education system or the students. 

There are students (and their parents, grandparents, siblings) who are criminals, addicts, have mental health conditions or have different agendas.

There are politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats, consultants and administrators who with self-serving agendas can undermine and completly destroy the purpose of education.

There are times when a good teacher teaches in hell and must resist the distractions and temptations of self-interest.

A good teacher can produce more good teachers.

A good teacher knows that even small good things can add up over time. A good teacher knows that the lessons and examples over time help students. Most teachers never see the results of their good lessons and examples - they happen years or decades later. A good teacher must sacrifice the self-gratification of instantaneous results and have faith that their good efforts eventually produce good outcomes. A good teacher helps build new good teachers. Together good teachers help build a better future.

All saints have been teachers. 

Our thanks to JR McBride of ESL in Canada