Good teachers still have a lot to learn

Many people see teachers as pillars of light shining through the darkness of the uneducated masses. They are sometimes looked at as the superheroes that draw our children out of that darkness and mold them into knowledgeable young adults.

Teachers are certainly those things, but they are not infallible and they do not know everything. The best teachers are themselves good students. They can and do learn what parts of their teaching methods are working for some students and not others.

Good teachers are adaptable and flexible, not fixed in their ways. They take constructive feedback from parents and students and use that information to find new more effective ways of teaching.
There multiple different ways of teaching a given thing. For example, some people learn better by listening, some learn better by watching and some, most in fact, learn better by doing. Learning a thing by doing a thing is called experiential learning. Now if a teacher uses experiential learning as their primary method, they will have more successes with that method than by any other. However, if some of the students of that teacher learn better by memorizing details that they hear, those students will do poorly unless the teacher is aware of that and makes that part of his or her lessons as well.

Also a good teacher is willing to accept the possibility of being wrong from time to time. After all, we are all human(supposedly) and do sometimes make mistakes. I remember multiple times while growing up, finding errors in my text books or on tests. Some teachers stubbornly defended whatever it was the printed word said, no matter how stupid or ridiculous it was. And it made them look just as stupid and ridiculous. Others admitted right off when an error was made and made every effort to make others aware of it so that the correct information would be available in the future.

What you may not realize is that we are all teachers and students. Every person you know or will ever know can be both teacher and student to you. There are things that you can learn from everyone alive, rich and poor, noble and peasant, elder and younger. Every man woman and child on this planet is a vast storehouse of knowledge and experiences. And you can fill your cup with that knowledge just as you can fill their cups with what you know.

But are you a good student? Are you a good teacher? Are you fixed and rigid in your ways? Is what tradition you is right all that you are willing to accept? Are you willing to admit when you are wrong? Are you open to new experiences and new ways of thinking? Are you able to take constructive feed back? Do you have a good message for others? Can you see how your knowledge and experiences could be valuable to others? If there is a better way than the one(s) you have been following do you want to know what it is and will you let others show it to you?