Great Teachers

(Part 3 of 3)

Here’s the last part of our discussion on the great teachers.

Other fine teachers during the 19th and 20th centuries belong to two groups. The first group who dominated the audience with forceful gestures and commanding tones taught by explaining the text. They allowed questions which established confidence in continuing an analysis of lessons with increasing difficulty. They are dynamic teachers who command the respect rather than attract affection.

The second type are the persuaders and charmers. They possess the qualities that make them admirable and lovable. They are with a beautiful face, gracefully used gestures that express genuine wish to convey a thought, and a sincere love for the subject and people.

Above both those types were able, through the richness of their personality, exhibited the qualities of both. They had no special technique but communicated their greatness. They were distinguished lecturers, spoke with energy, conviction and wealth of ideas. Woodrow Wilson was a noble and commanding man, known as the greatest teacher of the century. For the presidency of Princeton to the presidency of the American Union, he became the “teacher of the world.”

There are hundreds and thousands more. Their names could fill this book. Through the centuries, wonderful teachers built up, developed and transmitted thoroughly-organized and well-planned methodologies that give the young an unusual sense of purpose and an abiding interest in learning. Their pupils remembered them with gratitude and honor. The best of them possessed “largeness of heart,” stimulating and irresistibly charming.

Lastly, this foregoing essay intends to mirror the remarkable qualities of great teachers in history that produced equally famous pupils who later spread their teachings to innumerable descendants of the profession. By underscoring the pupils’ reactions, feelings and motivations created, the aims included in this section shall have been achieved. For it clearly portrayed that by their unique ways of teaching and more importantly, through the prominent personalities they projected and behavior exemplified, the elements of teaching that are discussed herein are elucidated well enough.