Teacher: What would be the best definition?

"The mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, the great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward

The word teacher contains the word teach, but the role of the teacher to teach can be an oversimplification of the educator's role. Teacher - Its narrow definition would just run around the confines of the school setting. It may remind you of the old gray haired man/woman talking in a child-like manner while he/she teaches you how to write the alphabet. It may be your stern looking professor who tortures you emotionally and mentally with his roaring voice and his pile of mind boggling examinations in your university. But the teacher should not always be boxed in a situation that can only be offered by the best schools. Teachers can spring out from almost every corner of the world and from every experience we are faced with.

To be a teacher takes many qualities, such as having patience, understanding, and having a sense of values while being able to recognize the changing dynamics in the world that is outside the classroom. It's not just being able to stand up in front of students and being able to teach them various subjects. Whether or not you want to realize it, what you're doing will help mold and shape them in some way in their lives. By definition in its broadest sense, a teacher for me, is a person or an experience that had left a mark in our lives. They have been examples for us as we journey through the stages of life from the moment we first opened our eyes to witness the world around us until our very last breath in our golden days.

A teacher is someone who sees what can be accomplished, not what cannot be accomplished. Teachers know that to expect their students to become lifelong learners they must be willing to do the same. A teacher also has to play a number of roles in order to be successful i.e. a friend, a mentor, a role model, a teacher, a parent etc. Hence defining a teacher is an uphill task. The definition of a teacher is to define the indefinable. Almost as wide ranging, yet individualized as asking, what is a parent? A teacher is a guide, a mentor, a confident, a friend, a disciplinarian, an informer, a provider of inspiration and imagination. A teacher is someone who knows when to intervene, and when to stand back and allow them to try for themselves. Allow them to fail and learn from their mistakes.

A teacher is more than someone who passes on knowledge. It is the interaction, the relationship, the understanding and encouragement to enable a person or child to reach the full potential. This should not be merely being able to pass tests or exams but developing fully in all areas as a rounded person who reaches and surpasses their full potential and also develops a life long love of learning and discovery.

Happy Teachers Day! To all my wonderful teachers...may Allah bless you

Note:- materials for this article is collected from various source on the web and compiled.

A.H.Baharom