What’s the most important task of a teacher?

What’s the most important task of a teacher?

To teach, you say?

No, it isn’t.

I’ve had many teachers over the last 12 years trying to “teach” me something. Out of the thousands and thousands of lectures I’ve taken, I’d argue 90% of them were a waste of time. Why?

Because the teachers would try to teach me to commit something to memory, rather than teaching me the practical use of what I was learning.

As I look back on the last 13 years of my life I’ve been studying, one thing becomes apparent:

Unsurprisingly, I found I’m the most skillful in the things I enjoyed doing/learning in my spare time. However, the interesting question is — how did I get interested in them in the first place? It turns out the answer is good teachers & mentors.

The most exciting subjects can be turned boring by a bad teacher.

And the best teachers can turn a boring subject into a fun one.

It is every teacher’s main responsibility to make their subject as appealing to their students as possible.

Not only do excited students learn faster, are more attentive and less messy during lessons — they also are likelier to spend spare time learning about the subject. I believe creating and nurturing this kind of curiosity and will to learn creates happy and knowledgeable individuals.

Shouldn’t that be the goal of education in the first place?

So, what’s the most important task of a teacher?

A teacher’s most important task is to make as many students as possible feel excited about their subject.

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