Nobody ever got a Nobel Prize for teaching achievements. True, many academics have come in for high honours, but always for something other than their work in the classroom a book, an economic treatise, a ground-breaking scientific experiment. School teachers, as opposed to university professors, are particularly under-recognized. Given the evidence that our very first brush with education leaves a permanent stamp on our characters, that teacher could be molding a future Abraham Lincoln or a Madame Curie. More likely, though, she is molding a whole class of the type of responsible citizens upon whom the wellbeing of our society depends.
Teaching is a creative act, never more so than in primary and secondary schools.
Good teachers, like good artists, have their own individual styles of performing. They also respect the individuality of their students in the realization that everybody learns through his or her own perceptions. The story is told of a legendary teacher who was asked at the start of the term what his course matter would be. It would be a wonderful world if every teacher deeply understood each and every child and put that understanding into effect, but that would be asking too much of human nature. The world would be equally wonderful if every youngster came to school to learn.