I HAVE always believed that a good teacher explains well, a superior teacher demonstrates best and that a great teacher inspires caringly. Some even say that teachers are like holy angels, who lead flocks out of darkness. But I wonder if teachers are really helping angels.
Last Saturday, I had an unplanned lunch with my co-teachers who are also my very good friends. I guess joyful gatherings happen at the most unexpected time without preparations. During our conversations, I find our silly topics making so much sense and for a moment, I have realized how therapeutic it is to just find time to chit-chat with friends whom you share the same work with and share the same challenges. We were inspired more when we realized what toxic teachers are and how we try to avoid being such.
Bad mouths co-teachers to please students. Some teachers gossip about other teachers to compensate for their incompetence. They try to secretly tell students about their co-worker's weaknesses to cover up their inadequacies. They also have tendencies of presenting to the public their achievements like research, publications, awards etc. that he or she may seem an asset in the institution.
Displays a negative attitude to other ideas and opinions. These are teachers who are not comfortable to teachers with brilliant ideas. They are those who gets frustrated when a project proposal is highly commended, and the knowledge did not come from them. They will try to discredit co-teachers new ideas and will not support because they are afraid that others might discover their abilities, removing them from limelight.
Believes he or she is better than anybody else. It is difficult when a person praises him or herself like God. These teachers are those who b
rags that they have international trainings, high scholastic records, PhD degrees and etc. These teachers feel that they need to be in a position and that they are always the right person to do intellectual tasks. They have the damn difficulty of accepting that others in some aspect are best than them.
Never admits when he or she is at fault. These are teachers who tries to hide their mistakes at all cost even sacrificing friendships and even blames others to save their faces. They have tendencies of having amnesia, they forgot co-teachers and friends who save them when they are at their lowest points. Worse is that they never want to be corrected.
Really, there are two types of teachers in the world -- true angels, and just acting like angels! But we choose to be angels by maintaining respect to our colleagues and providing unconditional love to students so they may all find their place in the world. Oh, angels make a difference!