Pleasure in teaching and learning is crucial, especially with younger students. Joy and pleasure is the quickest, most direct way to the mind. It is a form of intellectual play, enjoyed by those who have mastered a subject, as well as those are in the process of learning it. As a teacher, we must grow to understand that the majority of students seek, above all else, pleasure. Children’s attention is in the pursuit of fun, while a teacher’s fun is in the pursuit of student’s attention. Therefore, a student will strive to have fun and with any hope, he/she will acquire knowledge along the way. A teacher, on the other hand, will strive to convey knowledge and will, along that journey as well as the outcome, experience pleasure. It is there where knowledge most efficiently takes place.

There is no doubt that a teacher will share the pleasures of funny jokes, social circles and togetherness with the students but overall, that is not where a teacher should seek pleasure. Ultimately, pleasure arises in the teacher’s knowledge that their students have actually learned information from them. Seeing your students grow and accomplish tasks they struggled with previously is the enjoyment and essence of teaching. This observation may be difficult to see along the way but when reflecting on a student’s growth, a teacher won’t have to look much further than beginning of the year assignments to see the ways in which the student has matured.

In his book, The Elements of Teaching, James Banner creates a near perfect teacher by including all the elements he believes a good teacher should have. Of course, how do you compose a checklist for the “ideal teacher” if every teacher is different in the age, school and course they teach? Luckily the elements Banner introduces are not technical elements or the “how-to” s of teaching. Banner’s elements are strictly in character. Much of that character is something teacher’s are born with or accumulate along the way; however, many of the elements are against our natural inclination. The characteristics that Banner lists are not the fundamentals that should be learnt by a teacher, but instead are the fundamentals that should be kept in check by a teacher. These are the traits that we know about yet occasionally fail to see how they relate to our students or how we even reflect them. Teachers must consistently evaluate whether authority, ethics, order etc. are priorities in your teaching and if so, how are they being reflected in your classroom.

I would argue that this “perfect teacher” that Banner paints is unattainable, unrealistic to achieve. As to which, many close colleagues would reply “exactly”. These characteristics are what we strive for with each day, with each student, with each class, knowing that the next day may not entail the same circumstances. And though we may never attain full control of order, compassion, imagination etc., we continue to seek it, knowing that we are growing in our perfection of teaching.