The Teacher: A Model for the Whole Society
Pupils watch their teacher closely every single day. Without noticing it, they pick up how the teacher speaks, walks, dresses and treats other people. Pupils are not the only ones watching, though. Parents, neighbours and the whole community look up to the teacher as well. So a teacher is a model not only for pupils and the school but for the whole society, and a teacher should keep working to become that kind of person.
A teacher is a respected person who contributes to the community, the nation and human civilisation. The children in today's classroom become tomorrow's doctors, farmers, engineers, traders and leaders. Only someone who is cultured, well mannered and rich in good personal qualities can guide others in this way. The personal qualities of a good teacher can be set out in nine points.
Personal qualities: the features of a teacher's own body, speech, mind, temperament and conduct that make the teacher a good person and a model for pupils.
- Good health
- An attractive physical personality
- Pleasant speech
- Interest and enthusiasm
- Patience and tolerance
- Love and sympathy
- Self-confidence and strong willpower
- Being moral and of good character
- Originality
Good Health
A good teacher needs good health. A healthy mind depends on a healthy body. When a person is healthy, their physical, mental and emotional growth stays in balance, and they can carry out any task properly.
Picture a teacher's day. There are hours of standing, speaking loudly enough for the back row to hear, marking exercise books and joining in games. A teacher who is tired or unwell cannot do all this with full attention. Health and intelligence also support each other. A healthy person tends to think clearly, and a person who thinks clearly knows how to stay healthy. That is why a good teacher must stay healthy.
An Attractive Physical Personality
Because a teacher is a model for pupils and the community, the teacher's physical personality should be attractive too. Looking attractive at first sight is not simply something a person is born with. Every person should be able to build their own personality.
Personality: the overall impression a person gives, built from their cleanliness, dress, smiling face, physical energy, habits and behaviour.
When pupils see a teacher arrive on time, neatly dressed and smiling, they become lively too. A teacher who drags in wearing untidy clothes and a frown makes the whole room feel heavy. So a teacher should always be eager, energetic and attractive.
An attractive personality is not about expensive clothes or a face you were born with. Simple but clean clothes, a smiling face, energy and good habits let anyone build one.
Pleasant Speech
Pleasant speech is a quality of every good person, and for a teacher it is essential. A teacher should speak to pupils and parents gently and kindly, and should be in the habit of speaking with self-control, choosing words with care even when annoyed.
A lesson delivered in one flat tone sends a class to sleep. When telling a story, asking a question or stressing a key point, a teacher should raise and lower the voice to suit the moment. To a pupil who has not done the homework, "You will never improve" shuts a door, while "Let us sit down and do it together tomorrow" opens one. A good teacher always teaches in warm and kind language.
Interest and Enthusiasm
Another personal quality a teacher needs is interest and enthusiasm. If a teacher has no interest in the profession and no enthusiasm for it, the teaching itself cannot be lively. To motivate pupils, spark new curiosity in them and make them creative, the teacher must be enthusiastic first.
If a teacher walks into class lazy and hopeless, the lesson cannot come alive, and the pupils soon start yawning. Enthusiasm spreads from person to person. When a science teacher shows a small experiment with real delight, pupils begin asking "Why did that happen?" on their own. So a teacher should always be an enthusiastic person, busy with new creative work and curious to find things out.
Patience and Tolerance
The pupils in a class are not all at the same level socially, economically or intellectually. Even pupils of the same age differ widely. Bringing such different pupils into the same lesson can raise many problems, and in that situation a teacher must stay patient and tolerant. This is one of the teacher's personal qualities.
Some pupils understand something the first time they hear it, while others need the same idea explained several times. If one way does not work, the teacher should be able to explain it another way. A pupil who cannot grasp "one quarter" from the board may see it at once when a roti is cut into four equal pieces and one piece is held up. Teaching calmly, without anger or hurry, is what a good teacher does.
Love and Sympathy
A teacher should be able to give love, affection and sympathy. Such a teacher teaches pupils in a warm and caring way. In return, pupils see the teacher as someone who wishes them well. They respect the teacher, listen to what the teacher says and do the work they are given.
Pupils feel free to ask about what they have not understood only when the relationship between teacher and pupil is loving and friendly. In a frightened classroom, pupils sit silent even when they are lost, and what they missed stays missed right up to the exam. So there must be no atmosphere of fear between teacher and pupils. The teacher should make it possible for pupils to share their ideas without hesitation, and for that the teacher needs love and sympathy.
Fear makes pupils silent; kindness makes them ask. A pupil who asks is a pupil who learns.
Self-Confidence and Strong Willpower
A teacher must have full confidence in the subject. If the teacher sounds unsure, saying "maybe it is this, or maybe that", doubt and confusion grow in the pupils' minds. When a teacher lacks self-confidence, the teaching in that classroom cannot be effective.
Along with confidence, a teacher needs strong willpower. Willpower makes a person creative, forward-looking and open to change, and it gives them the drive to start new things. A teacher with this drive helps pupils feel motivated to study. A teacher who has little willpower cannot wake others up to act. So confidence in one's subject, together with the firm resolve that "something must be done", is an important quality of a good teacher.
Being Moral and of Good Character
Every society is held together by its own values and customs. A teacher must be moral and of good character within those values. Standing firm on the values that exist for the good of society, and working honestly in one's own field, is the duty of a good teacher.
A teacher is also a guide for society, so good character is a must. Nobody believes a teacher who tells pupils "Always tell the truth" and then arrives late with a made-up excuse. Only when a teacher has all of the qualities below will pupils copy that conduct and grow into good people themselves.
- Moral: telling right from wrong and choosing what is right
- Of good character: doing what one says
- Dedication to work: carrying out one's duties faithfully
- Diligence: working steadily and hard
- Love of justice: standing up for what is fair and true
- Impartiality: treating every pupil the same, without favouritism
Originality
Originality: the quality in each person that sets them apart from others. For a teacher, originality means being able to work out for oneself which classroom activity will be effective at a given time.
A teacher needs this kind of originality. During the rice-planting season, for example, a maths teacher might have pupils measure the length and breadth of a terrace near the school and work out its area. Nobody handed the teacher that idea; the teacher thought of it by looking at the season and the place, and that is originality.
Originality makes a teacher creative, and a teacher's fresh ideas rub off on the pupils, who start thinking in their own ways too. That is why originality belongs among the qualities a teacher must have.
The Nine Qualities at a Glance
| Quality | Why a teacher needs it |
| Good health | A healthy body keeps the mind healthy, so every task is done well |
| Attractive physical personality | Cleanliness, dress, a smiling face and energy make pupils lively too |
| Pleasant speech | Gentle, controlled words with a varied voice reach the pupil's heart |
| Interest and enthusiasm | An eager teacher sparks curiosity and creativity in pupils |
| Patience and tolerance | Pupils at different levels can be taught again, in different ways |
| Love and sympathy | Without fear, pupils ask and share ideas freely |
| Self-confidence and strong willpower | Pupils are free of doubt and feel motivated |
| Moral and of good character | Pupils copy the teacher's good conduct |
| Originality | The teacher can think up activities that suit the moment |
These nine qualities do not stand alone. A healthy teacher finds it easier to be enthusiastic, an enthusiastic teacher thinks up original ideas, and a caring teacher finds patience. Only together do they make a good teacher.
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