by E.S. Fuller

Created on: December 18, 2010

To be a teacher takes many qualities, such as having patience, understanding, and having a sense of values while being able to recognize the changing dynamics in the world that is outside the classroom. It's not just being able to stand up in front of students and being able to teach them various subjects. Whether or not you want to realize it, what you're doing will help mold and shape them in some way in their lives. People remember their favorite teacher, regardless of where they go in life—based on a particular moment or circumstance.

But a teacher is more than a role model. Nor is one just a disciplinarian—just simply there to make sure that students are to stay behaved. It is this reason that he or she is not just someone that a student listens to for about six or seven hours a day.

A teacher is everything from a lawyer, in being able to reason and settle arguments, to a being able to deal with problems as a psychologist, to being a doctor, just in case a kid happens to get hurt. Let's face it, he or she will do things that most of us cringe at, because we realize that we wouldn't want to take up the importance of that task.

Whether that child is a teen or a 5-year old, that teacher still has to understand that kids are smarter and more intelligent than their innocence seems to shows, so you cannot accept them at face value. It's not so much as being the “cool” one, as some students would really like to have, but being able to say the things that they wouldn't like to hear. That's why no one gets any preferential treatment.

A teacher means so many things to everyone, but they are the ones that stand out in any community for so many reasons. It is not a glamorous job, and yes, I am the first to say that they should get paid more. However, if anyone makes the point of giving a few hours of their day to do something that they love, that speak volumes. If it meant that as a child, I had to tolerate certain subjects and instruction I hated, only to realize that later it was for my benefit later on in my life, then I can only express appreciation toward that-especially when that is coming from someone that loves their career enough to share it with others. This is what being a teacher is.

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