Great Teachers

“Some of the most important men in history have been teachers,” the historians wrote. As a fitting tribute to their magnificent and exemplary teachings, this essay was written. The learning being featured will unfailingly throw light upon the message upheld herein. It is to show how they influenced the myriad of followers and believers who likewise were looked up to as “fountains and treasure-houses of knowledge and virtues.”

Among the group of brilliant talkers and keen thinkers are:

1.   Socrates

Socrates came from a working class family. He wore workingman’s clothes and walked barefoot. He was a mason and stone carver by trade. He talked to people in street corners and gymnasiums like a coach who taught others how to run and wrestle better. He said he trained people to think. He used ordinary conversations as his method of teaching and not one with memorable epigrams and eloquent paragraphs. One of his descendants was St. Ignatius Loyola who adopted his manners.

Socrates was ugly but with good manners. He was able to convince the cleverest and toughest minds. His methods were: first, a modest declaration of his ignorance, which flattered the others; second, his adaptability, which showed him which side on which each man could be approached; and third, his unfailing good humor which allowed him to keep the conversation going.

2.   Plato

Socrates was indeed a good teacher for her had good pupils. The greatest was Plato who founded a college, named Academy. He pursued the studies on which Socrates had launched him. He wrote books all his life, every one in the form of conversations and dominated by Socrates. There has rarely a finer tribute to any teacher by any pupil.

He taught more systematically by establishing a college rather than teach in the streets; for he preferred to deliver lectures to selected pupils rather than fall into spontaneous conversations. He was a nobleman, rich and gifted. He chose his listeners because he felt it if impossible to teach everyone. He was the founder of what is now our examination system. He has made hundreds of good pupils through his book which are supreme masterpieces of the teacher’s art. According to him “a good education consists in giving to the body and the soul all the beauty and perfection of which they are capable.”

To be continued…