What is a Teacher?

To a mind of flint, the teacher must be iron, and strike sparks.

To the empty pitcher, the teacher becomes a well.

To the fallow mind, a planter of seeds.

To the cluttered mind, a gardener to weed, shape,

and clear a space for growing.

To the lens, the teacher is light, and to the mind of light, a lens.

To the sleeper, the teacher is the wake-up call of birds at sunrise.

To clay, the teacher is potter, sculptor, and trainer in self-shaping.

To the wanderer, the teacher is a knowing guide.

To the developed mind, the teacher is colleague, listener, friend.

To all, the teacher is a mirror that shows not only the self

but the path and its choices,

the task and its demands--the difficulties, the joys.

To all and from all, the teacher is a learner, a person-

-and a prism through which the ordinary continuously

reveals itself to be miraculous.

by Gerald Grow
Division of Journalism
Florida A&M University