| Some Criteria For Evaluating Teachers Check your own attitude! Are you willing to work to learn. If not, good teacher or bad will have the same effect on you. If you are willing to work, does the teacher demand of you all that you are willing to do when you tell him or her that you want to learn more? Are You Motivated? Remember: Motives are emotions that move you. If your motivation comes from someone other than yourself, then think long and hard about what that says about you. Think long and hard about how far being motivated by others is going to take you. Does the teacher meet your motives? Does your teacher lead you to see dimensions of your motives that you did not previously see? In other words, how eager are you to go to class? How eager are you to do additional reading? Do you make use of the course's reserved books in the library? Do you browse related books and periodicals?
Do you respect, perhaps even admire your teacher? Don't worry about liking your teacher; there are lots of people that you like but you really don't want to imitate them or be like them. So, the question is, do you want to imitate your teacher? Do you want to know what he or she knows? Do you want to express and use your knowledge as he or she does? Do you find yourself talking about the subject matter and related matters the way he or she does?
Are you open to change? The surest sign of learning is change of relevant behavior. How do we know we have learned to ride a bike, for example? We ride the bike! Relevant to the subject matter that your teacher is teaching, do you find your behavior changing? Have you acquired a new behavior? Have you acquired a new way of thinking about things?
Do you talk about this teacher? What you say and how you say whatever you say are not as relevant as the fact that you talk about him or her. If you talk about a teacher, that teacher is having an effect on you. That teacher is having much more of an effect on you than the teachers you don't talk about. The teacher you talk about is a good teacher. Think about it.
Good teachers don't always teach what is good. Hitler and Mussolini were good teachers; they taught entire nations how to behave. However, they were not good men and they did not teach what is good. The ultimate criterion of a good teacher, then, is this. When you describe this teacher to friends and relatives, especially your parents, when you narrate and explain what the teacher is teaching you, what is the response of your friends, relatives, parents? Do they nod or smile approvingly? Do they comment approvingly? Do they congratulate you on your good luck? Do they want to meet him or her? Does their response make you feel better about yourself than you felt maybe a moment or so previously?
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