Teaching: The True Art of Patience

Teaching can be a rewarding experience. It is a way to inspire young minds, and encourage thinking. A teacher's main asset is patience. A good teacher must remain patient with his or her students at all times. However, that doesn't mean the teacher should let the students get away with whatever they want to. Discipline and fairness must be used as well. A teacher with these qualities is able to understand his or her students and know how to help them succeed. A teacher with little or no patience can easily give up on a troublesome student as a way to avoid the problem. However, in doing this, the main goal of the teacher is lost. If the teacher cannot help his or her students, or cannot present the class material in a way that the students are able to understand, then that person is not well qualified to be a teacher. Only one who possesses the qualities explained above is capable of effectively imparting knowledge upon those who wish to learn it. As a martial arts instructor for a local elementary school that I once attended in my youth, I have taught many promising students the values and principles of my craft. It is a constant struggle to maintain patience during class, as grade school children can be easily distracted, but I always maintain it in order to effectively teach my students. A good teacher will always have a lasting impression on even the most difficult of students, and the fact that they will retain that knowledge is reward itself.