The English teacher as a Weeping Willow
In my opinion, the most important characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] of an English teacher are firmness (the unwavering trunk) and adaptability (the flowing crown). Granted, many will claim that traits such as being “friendly,” “characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?],” “native” and/or “well-prepared” are the skeleton key to being a good teacher, but I feel that none of these isolated features on their own can surpass the paired power of the characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] determination and/or the willingness to undergo a transformation in order to bring one about in another.
Each and every student is a complex human being who responds differently to characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] personalities, situations and methods. The same thing can be said about groups of students, which are often a hodge-podge of ages, needs, wants, abilities and levels. To complicate things even more, un-centered, passive or characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] students (and teachers) can easily over-adapt when confronted with contrary classmates (or students) causing the first to yield too much to the characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?]. Then too, third-parties such as school administrators, human resource directors, the Ministry of Education and even the students’ own alter egos can impose further restrictions and impediments on teachers causing them to characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] to less than satisfactory means to achieve their ends.
In other words, in order for education to take place and for students to actually learn English, both students and teachers must characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] to a transformation (the adapting) to each other without giving up too much of themselves (the perseverance). Adapting to particular situations can be difficult and time-consuming and therefore the characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] cause of much suffering (the weeping). However, the upshot of this is that this commitment to a personal transformation actually really helps one to better learn the subject at characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?], in this case English.
Bear in mind that there is no such thing as a satisfactory superficial education, at least in my experience. According to William Glasser, the psychiatrist who founded Reality characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?], “We learn 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we both hear and see, 70% of what is discussed, 80% of what we experience personally, 95% of what we teach to someone else.”
That is, the more we are committed to being transformed by a matter the better we learn it. Also, a characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] of this is that an unwillingness to get very deep into a subject is often symptomatic of a chronic failure to learn a subject such as English well.
To sum it up, the Weeping Willow is the analogy that best characterizescommitcorollarydiversedynamichandlatterlong-termresortrootTherapytraitswishy-washy[?] for me what being a good teacher is all about. Furthermore, these characteristics of a good teacher also apply to being a good student. In fact, I think that the best teachers should love learning, but that is a matter that would best be left for another article.