I encountered the following item on an application for an educational leadership position: Explain what you believe are the major characteristics of an outstanding teacher.
Here is my response:
Outstanding teachers are artists, scientists, and craftsmen.
Their art is in their ability to envision the beautiful sculpture while it is still an untouched block of stone (sometimes full of cracks and ragged edges) and to interact with the stone in a way that acknowledges its uniqueness and potential; their science is in their ability to measure the stone’s proportions and properties and then use the resulting data to 1) decide which tools and techniques to apply, and 2) change tools and/or adjust techniques along the way as necessary; and their craftsmanship is in their ability to synthesize their own knowledge of subject matter, curriculum, and instructional strategies to figure out exactly where, how, and at what rate to chip away at that block of stone until the envisioned form begins to appear.
I believe all teachers are part artist, part scientist, and part craftsman, and the outstanding teacher possesses, in fairly equal and strong proportions, the critical traits of all three.
