2007-07-21 05:08:35 · 9 answers · asked by kickinupfunf 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
When he stops being a learner he has very little to teach. The true teacher must remain ever a student.
2007-07-21 05:12:42 · answer #1 · answered by Captain Atom 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
There is no teacher without a learner and no learner without knowledge to seek. As knowledge is constantly expanding and evolving, the teacher must also seek out new knowledge.
There is a chain that will always be. Teacher 1 is the student of Teacher 2 who learns something from teacher 3. One can never be a true teacher without also being a student.
As there are many fields of knowledge and wisdom, often the student and teacher roles will reverse many times. Bob may be teaching Mary about mathematics, but Mary may in turn be teaching Bob about art at the same time.
No matter the subject, the field of knowledge is every increasing. Also, no man can master ALL subjects. Due to this fact, the ONLY way that a teacher can RETAIN intellectual integrity is to also continue to seek new and more up-to-date knowledge.
2007-07-21 12:30:43 · answer #2 · answered by Matthew Stewart 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Knowledge is plastic. It changes as our understanding changes. The true teacher has to keep up, or teach lies. Some of my favorite jokes are college jokes. They are hilarious to me, but also contain a grain of truth.
What do you call a student who never leaves College?
Professor
What's the difference between a terrorist and a fully tenured College Professor?
You can negotiate with a terrorist!
What do you call a person who graduates from College?
Unemployed!
In our society, you can break every job down into two roles. You are either the student, or the teacher. If you are researching something for example, you are the student - even if you are teaching yourself! If you are in sales, you are educating the customer and therefore assuming the role of teacher. The only thing that a teacher in a school really does for you that is of any lasting value, is to teach you how to assume both of these roles effectively. Albert Einstein defined genius as the ability to explain very complicated concepts to ordinary people. It isn't enough to know something. You have to be able to communicate it. You also have to be able to understand, accept, and assimilate information as it is being presented to you. The true teacher models and mentors to allow you to assume both of these roles comfortably!
2007-07-21 12:29:37 · answer #3 · answered by MUDD 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You already have a lot better answers than this one. But I'll give it anyway.
We humans have a strong preference for being teachers, as opposed to being learners. That preference is as firmly entrenched in most teachers, as it is in those who'd call themselves 'learners'.
The usual result is that learners try to graduate themselves as quickly as possible into the more desirable condition of teacher.
A study of philosophy QA will reveal a microcosm of this behavior.
As for teachers as learners, it's certainly the ideal. It's even an ideal teachers recognize and tip their hats to outwardly.
But being a teacher who remains a learner is a lot tougher gig than being a learner with a sustained openness to learning.
We naturally lie to ourselves, we humans. And the lies we like best involve how enlightened we are, how accomplished, how intelligent, how worthy of admiration.
Those lies are water over the flames of learning.
But the better a teacher is, even if he hasn't yet wrapped his mind into a blanket of lies, the more the learners are prone to help him along in the effort of strait-jacketing his mind.
Learners venerate the best teacher. They follow him around to assist him in his self-deceptions, just in case he wasn't able to do it for himself.
And learners look on at other learners venerating the great teacher, and they yearn for that veneration to help them close off their own minds to learning.
Strange folk, we humans. Tough gig, life.
2007-07-21 13:16:19 · answer #4 · answered by Jack P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Integrity is always questionable, but your question is very much the case. I have so much to learn, so many skills that I do not have and so many new ideas to discover. We all do.
We are all teacher in that our interactions with others shre information or knowledge with one another. Anyone who claims to be knowledgeable has likely lost the ability or desire to learn more.
I could return to university and spend 4 years learning about geography or geology and a great variety of subjects.
2007-07-21 13:12:28 · answer #5 · answered by guru 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If one defines learning as expansion of one's prospective growth, then ultimate mastery is not attained until the teacher learns from experiencing the lessons of discipleship, firsthand.
Integrity and humility - these are in great teachers.
But they grow only in learners.
2007-07-21 12:29:16 · answer #6 · answered by omnisource 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a "Catch 22" situation. When you are the teacher, you cannot be the learner and vice versa.
2007-07-21 12:13:20 · answer #7 · answered by kitto 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
A teacher is one who helps others discover what is within them already, if you go by the root meaning of "educate" which comes from the Latin 'ex ducere' meaning "bring out" or "extract". Obviously there will be things within him also which have not yet been brought out.
2007-07-21 12:18:58 · answer #8 · answered by penjoy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When a soul has nothing more to learn he becomes GOD.
2007-07-21 21:28:12 · answer #9 · answered by Beneplacitum 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋