Imagination has a surprisingly effective role in education. While a knowledgeable teacher has much to teach you, an imaginative teacher has much for you to remember. Imagination anticipates the needs and reactions of students and introduces astonishment and stimulation and so, it is often spontaneous. Imagination has a way of playing with knowledge and is capable to making even the dullest lessons interesting. An imaginative teacher is able to illuminate material and stimulate interest in their students before they even reach the material in a lesson. Imagination paves the way for creativity and creativity in lessons create memories. However, imagination is not something in the teacher’s manual, nor can it be found in a textbook. In fact, imagination is probably never part of a lesson plan and so it is a difficult skill to develop as a teacher. Many are born with the ability to light a spark in even the most mundane material while others may loose their students to boredom when lecturing on relevant, interesting material. Does this mean we disregard imagination from our teaching tool kit? While it may be difficult to create creativity (for that task alone involves creativity), we are able to become aware of how dull are teaching habits have made the classroom. Thus, self-evaluation of teaching habits is always a key tool to develop as a teacher.  

Another fundamental tool for a teacher is compassion. Compassion is often an instinctive trait of ethics. As educators, there is nothing more satisfying than a classroom full of ethical students. Such a classroom would display respect, care and compassion for one another. Again, a teacher is the best model for students to learn from. Showing compassion for students breeds compassion among students. Compassion is also very related to discipline and authority. For a student, a teacher who disciplines without compassion is not an authority, they are simply a power. Discipline requires compassion, without it a teacher is no more than an enforcer who appears to have no regard to the student’s well being.

Perhaps the first and most fundamental principle of compassion is the acknowledgement of students as individuals. Most teachers can’t help but to get to know their class as a whole, what they are good at, what they struggle with, their likes and dislikes. However, many teachers fail to know individual students in the same way. A very practical way to do this is to quickly learn each student’s name; after all, they know yours. A teacher should also be encouraged to identify how each student differs. This can be accomplished through surveys or simply walking around talking to students before the bell rings for class.

Of course, just knowing who your students are is just a first step for a compassionate teacher. After getting to know your students, a teacher should try to place themselves in the student’s shoes. Empathy for a student’s struggle both in and out of the classroom makes your job as a teacher much more manageable. Knowing how your students learn or what areas they struggle with help reevaluate your techniques and material as a teacher and forces you to alter and improve your habits.

Realizing student’s struggles to correct your teaching is one thing, but acknowledging them as though you understand, underlines what it means to be compassionate. Telling students trigonometry is a hard subject and that you also struggled with math makes you relatable and empathetic. “A student does not care how much you know until they know how much you care”.