What makes a teacher great?

I’ve always wondered what makes a great teacher but my answer is always different. There are a lot of different things one should take into consideration when considering what makes a great teacher. Even a good teacher I would take a lot more time in defining.

We don’t have that many great teachers in our schools systems. At least when I was at school none of my teachers ever truly showed much passion for what they were teaching. This didn’t give much enthusiasm to learn from them. I felt like I have to be here for a set amount of time, do assignments, take tests because I had no clue really what to do with my life. Learning and going to class was such a chore for me that I can definitely say that I was a bad student. I struggled with the fundamentals of learning. I didn’t want to be someone who just learned facts and figures. And it really showed to everyone and me by my end of year grades.

I never studied because I didn’t know how to! Why should I memorise all these different things when all I wanted to do was draw, paint, write my stories and just play my cello and sing. The teachers would be confined to following a lesson plan and I guess structure is a good thing, but if it’s boring, the structure I find is not useful. The “structure” of the school system is not conducive to teaching and enriching the “artist student” in me or anyone who calls themselves an artist.

Structure in a plain learning environment impedes creative minded people. Structure without fun and enthusiasm kills the persons ability to learn or thrive. Getting good grades are also a struggle so these highly creative people don’t do so well compared to other learners who thrive in a “memorising” learning environment. But does that mean that the memorising students are actually learning anything or are they just brainwashing themselves to conform to a structured system where they are easily controlled and then are able to be the only ones that thrive in school and then in society later.

Considering those points, does that make a great teacher? How well you can teach memorisation to a classroom of students? It doesn’t prepare them for higher learning were common sense and critical thinking are important. So, am I only to come to a conclusion that great teachers won’t appear until I am ready to start higher learning? Why should anyone have to wait until they turn 18 years old to have a good teacher? Does that mean that the overall person that has formed after 20 years of learning before going to university or trade learning, hasn’t and isn’t performing to their fullest potential? Are they even at their fullest potential?

Then what makes a good teacher? Maybe, what makes a good teacher is someone who sees the individual, sees how they learn, what they’re good at and what their true potential is and then actively encourages the student to pursue a life of learning where all they are doing is learning more and more of what they are good at and encouraging creativity, bravery, courage to follow through. I think that is what makes a great teacher. So, hello teachers, where have you been hiding?