The Master Teacher

We often think about those traits that make one a good teacher – an intelligent mind, strong will, and unquenchable drive. While these are traits with which a teacher may be born, there is one much deeper condition that makes one a true master teacher.  A teacher must not rely on their own natural abilities but rather focus on inspiring their students.

To better understand what it means to inspire, Noah Webster’s 1828 American English Dictionary says that inspire means to communicate divine instruction to the mind, to infuse into the mind new meaning. In the definition of inspire take note that it means to communicate divine instruction.  Instruction comes through the Holy Ghost. In 2 Peter of the Holy Bible it says, holy men of God spake when they were moved by the Holy Ghost and they only spoke when the had this Spirit with them. The most important quality of being able to inspire others requires that a person rely on powers greater and more powerful than their own. Circumstances may arise when teaching that cause the spirit to leave. In those times, do not teach.

 A Thomas Jefferson Education

DeMille presents the seven keys to great teaching. An important key to teaching is for a teacher to inspire others. Inspiration often comes from hard work and from a continual effort to grow and learn. It is not stagnant. Teaching is not a set course which allows no deviation. In order for it to be inspirational, there needs to be continual learning and expansion by the teacher each and every time something is taught. Once a teacher follows a strict course, inspiration is lost and learning does not take place.

Teacher in America

A learning occasion does not happen by pleading and drawing out. Teaching rather comes from brief moments when an occasion occurs. It happens when the Spirit testifies not through words but when it reaches inside. The imparting of knowledge, no one can tell when or how this happens . . . the aim is to have two minds share one thought. Mind with mind, through the eyes, the look, the accent, and the manner, in causal expressions thrown off at the moment. Teaching does not come from a course, teacher or curriculum but from a human soul.  It is to aid children in fulfilling their purpose on earth.

This can only happen when a student allows the Spirit to enter in. In chapter fourteen verse twenty six of John in The Holy Bible, the Savior promises that the Holy Ghost will bring all things to your remembrance. These are not new thoughts, but rather a remembering of something known before but temporarily forgotten. Education is eternal.  It is like a circle that is continual without beginning or ending. As teachers, we are simply facilitating to bring to remembrance knowledge that we already know through the Spirit.  Our hearts and minds must work as one within ourselves. The head and heart make learning complete.  When we separate one from another, we become lifeless. We learn facts without feelings.

How Children Learn

It is those silent, unconscious, and intuitive processes when learning takes place. Children need to be looked at patiently, repeatedly, respectfully and to hold off making theories, judgments about them.

After John Holt had an opportunity to stop, observe and think about children, flashes of understanding come to him.  It is in those reflective moments that he knew intuitively what the child was thinking. He did not rely on his own understanding or past knowledge but relied on flashes of understanding, the Spirit, to enlighten him. He did this with patience, respect and diligence each and every time he observed a child. He did not jump to a conclusion or assumption about anything until he knew intuitively what that child was thinking. He learned intuitively or rather remembered something through the Spirit that he already knew.

Leadership and Self Deception

We learn that it is how you are feeling about a person when you are talking to them that is the message being communicated, not necessarily just the actual verbal message.

We could be teaching a lot of information with words, but if we do not feel passionate about what we are teaching, a student will be able to sense our hypocrisy and lack of Spirit that they felt while in that teacher’s presence and often not take to heart the information that is being taught. Just imagine the kind of damage being done to students in a classroom with a teacher that is just going through the motions of relaying information. On the other hand, think of the profound depth of learning that occurs when a teacher’s passion and love for them and for the subject being taught is communicated to the hearts and minds of their students.

When we think of the greatest teacher in the world, Jesus Christ, we like to look at some of the qualities that made Him the Master Teacher. In order to be a teacher like Christ, a teacher must have intelligence in BOTH his mind and heart. The teacher has sights far higher than simply teaching principles. A teacher wants to facilitate change in the lives of the students. Christ’s teaching mode was to enable a person to attain a self-knowledge about themselves. He did not tell the answers or convince them of a solution.  He simply spoke truth and if the listener had an open heart and mind, they would be able to go and do thou likewise or rather educate themselves.