Over the years I have had numerous teachers; some were really good, some were just okay, and some were in the “I can’t wait to get out of here” category.
To me a great teacher is one who inspires the students and makes them want to do more and inspires their curiosity.
Two of the best teacher I ever had were music teachers. They demanded a lot of the students but they were also there and “had your back”.
John Blair was one of those teachers who if you did something wrong, you wanted your parents to find out first because Mr. Blair could give you a tongue lashing like you have never heard. BUT, when the brother of one of the band members died in a diving accident, Mr. Blair cancelled classes and allowed students to go to the funeral; event though it was against school rules. He was also at the services.
Mr. Blair once told the class that he did not care if we learned a single not of music; but we would learn respect. If he put a $10 bill on the piano, he expected it to be there when he came for it…and it was.
The following year I was at a new school in a new city and a new music teacher. Bill Richardson knew his music and was a real task master when it came to preparing for weekly football games. Like the football players, we spent the two weeks before school started learning how to march and how to learn to create the patterns fans would see from the stands…not an easy task. But Mr. Richardson had to deal with some bigotry issues. Those students quickly learned that their “games” wouldn’t fly and that if they wanted to stay in the band then they had better straighten up…they did. If Mr. Richardson said to be at the stadium at 7pm, we had better all be there by 6:45pm. We called it ERT – Eastern Richardson Time.
But once again, we saw another side of the task master. After the two weeks of drills, we wanted to have a party but the principal said it was against school rules. Mr. Richardson to the rescue! He told the principal that the band had been bad and they were going to have to clean up the band room as punishment. With mops, buckets, and brooms by the door; we had our party/dance.
And when we went to Orlando for a band competition, the trip included a trip to Disney World.
Both of those teachers were tough and could be very demanding, but they also encouraged the students to do better.
I also had two literature teachers who wanted to hear what we had to say about a book or story and would only give his opinion after the class. One of them encouraged alternative thoughts on a story – seeing it from a different viewpoint.
Mr Palma had several students with visual disabilities in his physics class and used a number of different methods to aid students in being able to “visualize” and understand the concepts he was discussing. His policies for test days were that we could bring a page filled with all of the equations we thought we might need; it was up to us to know which ones to use and how to use them.
Just teaching rote memorization or regurgitating what they say is far from teaching or encouraging original thought…something severely lacking in today’s educational system.