A role model is a person who inspires and encourages us to strive for greatness, live to our fullest potential and see the best in ourselves. A role model is someone we admire and someone we aspire to be like. We learn through them, through their commitment to excellence and through their ability to make us realize our own personal growth. We look to them for advice and guidance.
A role model can be anybody: a parent, a sibling, a friend — but some of our most influential and life-changing role models are teachers. According to Lisa Nash teachers are one of the many that must be of good character. Moral virtues, such as fairness and honesty, and to adhere to professional codes of conducts is something that has to happen for a teacher to be considered as a positive model.
Teacher is one of the child’s ideal, it is very important for a teacher to have qualities which impress the child and the qualities which he can imitate and thus become good.
A role model is, therefore, one who has some sterling qualities of head and heart which the child gets impress by. The influence of a teacher is very deep, far reaching and of course permanent. Thus, the parents expect much from the teacher for the teacher is in charge of what they want the children to become.
The parents want their children to become is that to, to develop the quality of honesty. The teacher must then be very honest in all her behavior with the children she is handling. Thus, an ideal teacher must be very honest and transparent in all her dealings with the children and with her colleagues.
The next quality that we would like to find in an ideal teacher is that, he should be very affectionate to all the children in his care. The love they get at this stage of life is what makes them lovable and affectionate adults. Love has got to be inculcated in the children as, it is love only that makes life worth living. So it is very necessary for an ideal teacher to be loving and caring, then only he in turn infuses the finer quality of begetting love in the children in his charge.
A loving teacher is forever remembered and loved by students, who just admire him for his fountain of love, and they start believing that there could be no one more affectionate than their teacher of the past days.
The students believe that their teacher is a fountain-head of all knowledge. This belief of the children must be kept alive by the teacher which is possible, only if he continues to learn together with his teaching assignments. A good teacher is the one who is also a good learner. Besides, if a teacher does not happen to know a particular thing, he should never pose as if he knows it. The teacher must know that, the children do not take much time to assess the stuff or the capacity of a teacher. It is not that the teacher must know everything on the face of this earth but, the moot point is that, he should not bluff the children into believing that his knowledge is absolutely complete. For an ideal teacher it is advisable to tell the children that he will find out the answer to their query, instead of giving them any wrong information. If he does this, the children will admire him for his honesty, and will not be disappointed in his lack of knowledge, for, they also, know that a teacher is also, besides being a teacher for them, a human being with limitations. This will unwittingly inculcate in the children a habit of accepting their own drawbacks and not nearly justifying whatever they do or say.
Another very important quality for an ideal teacher is that very understanding in respect of the behavior of the children. Though the teacher and the children are a generation apart, it would be great quality in a teacher if he could understand the woes of the children, and to help them out of their seemingly little problems, and also feel for them. With this attitude of friendship with the children, the teacher will win the confidence and they will always discuss their problems with him and they will also take him as their confidante. For this, the teacher has to put himself in the shoes of the children, understand their feelings, and he will be loved for this. In turn, his wards will also learn the art of helping their younger siblings or friends in solving their problems.
With all the above mentioned qualities in a teacher, the teacher will be an ideal teacher; he will be one who will leave an indelible mark on the minds of the young children in his charge. They will turn out to be exact replicas of their teacher. Thus, it is very important for the teacher to be a picture of what he would like the children to be. The impact of a teacher can be easily felt when we see the present deterioration in the younger generation. This is because our teachers are lacking in almost all the qualities required for an ideal teacher, and so, their wards are also lacking in all good qualities of head heart. A good teacher helps the students to develop all the great qualities of civilized human beings. An ideal teacher is thus one who leaves a permanent impact on the children he grooms, and they remember him for his great qualities at different times of their lives. A student is a mirror which reflects the learning and knowledge of a teacher; this must be kept in mind by a teacher.
Much of what students learn from their greatest teachers is not detailed on a syllabus. Teachers who help children grow as people are responsible for imparting some of life’s most important lessons. As a teacher, you will show your students how to become independent and form their own relationships; you will carefully guide them and intervene when necessary. School is as much a place of social learning as academic learning, and this is true, not only in our early years of education, but all the way through college. Though a teacher’s influence on the social sphere of school lessens as students mature, those early lessons still have an effect on how they will interact with others in the future.
Teachers are founts of experience. They have already been where their students are going, undergone what they will go through and are in a position to pass along lessons, not only regarding subject matter, but lessons on life.
Teachers not only watch their students grow — they help them grow.
By: Diana L. Enriquez | Teacher III | Bagumbayan Elementary School | Pilar, Bataan
