A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to His Son Teacher

A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to His Son Teacher

A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to His Son Teacher

 My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can. Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

Teach him to be gentle with people, and tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong.

A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to His Son Teacher

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to everyone, but teach him also to filters all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.

TEN MAJOR FACTORS THAT MAKE AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER

Teachers are one of the key elements in any school and effective teaching is one of the key propellers for school improvement. This review is concerned with how to define a teacher’s effectiveness and what makes an effective teacher. It draws out implications for policymakers in education and for improving classroom practice. The following qualities of effective teachers were shared again and again: The common traits for professional characteristics of good teachers are:-

1.      Emotional and Mental Stability

This is shown in the teachers’ sense of affection; security and self-respect. The emotions of the teachers have a bearing on their teaching effectiveness. Teachers that can control their emotions tend to be very effective. A teacher who loses his or her temper is showing wickedness rather than strength to children. It is indeed, fatal for the children because it could lead to their maladjustment and prevent their proper emotional, mental and behavioural development.

2.  Are unsatisfied

Good teachers are good learners. They are always eager to learn new things, expand their knowledge base, experiment with better ways to achieve success. They are lifelong learners and they produce lifelong learners. In other words, the best teachers are always students.

3. Knowledgeable of the subject
4. Good teachers possess a deep knowledge of the subject matter and are able to manipulate, simplify, and individualize this data more easily because they are a master of

5. The ability to teach and explain the lesson  in a different way

Good teachers are those that are able to teach to different learning styles. If students don’t understand a subject, they teach it in a different way. In the teaching

– learning situation, the teacher’s exposure to principles and methods of teaching will enable him to acquaint himself with a variety of methods to choose from. The ability to move from concrete to complex is a technique/skill to be learned. Wider and Deeper Views

Good teachers try to see things through their students’ eyes as well as their own. By asking wide-ranging questions, good teachers implore their students to probe things further, analyze matters more critically, and look beyond the obvious.

6. Clear Objectives

Good teachers are well-organized and have clear ideas about their daily teaching plans, assignments, and grading policies. Their structured lessons and assignments offer many opportunities for students to learn new skills. Competence in teaching is the result of a clear objective and focus.

7.   Objectivity and fairness

For great teachers, all students are equal. They work hard to be fair, empathetic, and encouraging. They maintain consistent behaviors and distance themselves from partiality. As humans, students possess an ingrained sense of fair play. Whenever they were dealt in a manner that violates what constitutes fairness in the situation, they react negatively. Any semblance of favoritism, or lack of fairness, can leave scars that last a lifetime.

8.  Positive Attitude:

Good teachers try not to be cynical or negative about their students. Instead of complaining about students’ lack of abilities and manners and teachers’ long work hours, good teachers accept all of these as challenges. They know those humiliating students or intimidating them is not in their students’—or their— best interests. They help each student find areas of interest to explore and master.

9.   Know their students

Good teachers have full comprehension of principles governing students’ stages of development and learning process on many levels. They learn all they can about their academic strengths and needs, but even more about their interests, fears, hopes, and worries. They help students learn these things about themselves.

10. Great Expectations: Without holding a grudge against underperformers, good teachers are strong, firm, and determined and always push their students to strive for their goals and to maintain high In reality, setting high standards brings out the best in students and creates in them a feeling of accomplishment.
11. Dedication to excellence: Good teachers want the best from their students and They don’t settle for poor grades, knowing it reflects upon their ability to teach just as much upon a student’s ability to excel.
12. Never has enough time: Just about all good teachers are eternally busy, and this is not because of the volume of classes they have to teach. They prefer to be busy and know that the work of good teaching expands to fill every moment they can give it. They are most in demand for committee work, they put the most work into their class preparations. They are always trying something different or else refining what they have previously
13. Share their experience with other teachers: Good teachers share what they have learned about being a good teacher with other teachers, for a good teacher wants all children, not just the ones in his class, to have the best possible experience in school. He knows that teachers as well as students can always learn from each
14. Insightful: A good teacher does not discourage original thinking, but it must be proven. At all times, the best teacher is looking for the student’s reasoning, rather than the answer. In other words, for the insightful teacher, student assessment assesses the teacher’s performance and provides ideas of what changes both need to make to
15. Listen to their students: Good teachers are accessible, available, approachable, enthusiastic, and energetic, excited and listen to their
16. Persevere and Passion for work and life: Good teachers show interest in their jobs and careers by exhibiting positive attitudes to work. They are self- motivated, punctual to school and classes, teach the students well, relate with them well and motivating The best teachers aren’t just interested in their subject, they are passionate about it. They are also passionate about many other things. They approach tasks with a sense of challenge rather than routine. They are human, certainly, but they make students to persevere and feel that there is always a reason to keep going. Things will get better no matter how much difficult and impossible they appear to be at that moment.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Professional training and academic training should be embedded concurrently to maintain a high degree of versatility in the teaching-learning process. It is these qualities that place good teachers above other teachers in different fields. Of course, not every teacher is going to be a skillful teacher for every child and a child spends only about 15 percent of the year in school, which means that regardless of the quality of the teacher, a supportive home environment is essential to excellent learning.

Overall, the central objective of a teacher’s assistance to the students is to equip them with the knowledge and skills that would enable them to solve their problems and live successful life in society. We have new opportunities to become better teachers every day; good teachers are the ones who seize more opportunities than they miss. Everyone knows that it is difficult to define and practice good teaching, but at the same time, we must realize that no society can progress without it.

A Letter from Abraham Lincoln to His Son Teacher

References

Marie F. H, (2000) ‘What Makes A Good Teacher?’ SABES/World Education, Volume 12 Boston, MA,

Obi,T.E.C. (2008). The School Environment and the Child. School of Education. The National Open University of Nigeria. Victoria Island, Lagos

Shinshima, I.G (2003) Essentials of Science and Technology in Society. PLs Print Ltd. 59 Onitsha Road, Sabon Gari, Kano-Nigeria.

Suydam, M. (1983). Teaching effectiveness. Arithmetic Teacher, 31(2), 3.

Richardson, A.G. & Arundell, A. (1989). Characteristics of the Effective Teacher as Perceived by Pupils and Teachers: A Caribbean case study. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 311 013).

Young, M. (1990). Characteristics of High Potential and At-risk teachers. Action in Teacher Education. 11(4), 35-39.