True Teachers.

Athletics. Music. Martial Arts. Academic subjects. Fine Arts.

Any student can be good at anything, if they commit. An inspired student will do the reps, push thru obstacles, ignore boredom, seek out the experts, do additional work, hang in when they micro-fail.

By contrast, the student who is not inspired will focus on determining the exact minimum level of effort required to skate by. Then, they wait it out, waiting to, hopefully, pass the test, and move on.

Meanwhile, parents and faculty hope that,  somehow,  these uninspired students, through a miraculous effort of transferring of TECHNIQUE by the teacher, will somehow develop proficiency.

The problem is this: the absolute lowest level of teaching is the teaching of TECHNIQUE.

So, what does the TRUE teacher do?  The true teacher is one who can inspire students to COMMIT.

The true teacher, one who can inspire students to commit, has to be skilled in teaching, not the TECHNIQUE of the subject matter; rather, they must be skilled in teaching the WHY of the subject matter.

‘WHY learn the formula?’ ‘WHY run the laps?’ ‘WHY read every article you can get your hands on?’  ‘WHY persist in the face of obstacles?’

The inspired student will figure it out on their own (often in spite of the teacher’s efforts) if they are fully persuaded in the ‘WHY’ of what they are doing.

Question: ‘Can we train and produce this type of true teacher?’