Teacher vs. student
April 15th, 2007What is the difference between a teacher and a student? Answer: a teacher is someone who has finished learning. Of course this is not strictly and generally true, but I do believe there is some merit to this thesis. Teachers should feel confident with the material they are teaching and thus feel no incentive for further study, at least not for the material they are teaching. Teachers have a rounded message and a clear vision of the field in question, whereas students do not want to impose their view on others but want to know the view of others. Exploring the views of others is an essential part of the learning process. Furthermore, a teacher must be convinced that his teachings are worth the effort to bring them across. Generally it takes far less time to absorb clearly presented ideas then it takes to present ideas clearly. That is why I currently still feel myself being more of a student than a teacher: though I like to help people understand ideas that I have mastered, I prefer learning new ideas of others. When people explicitly show interest I am very willing to explain them what I know about the subject, but teaching more at less at random seems to be a waste of energy considering that I could have gained far more by learning something new myself. This is why I doubt the future consistence in updating and even existence itself of this blog: it takes a lot of effort to put ideas into words and when it is more or less randomly directed there is very little pay-of for the effort. As long as I feel far more a student than a teacher, I believe this blog stands little chance of long term survival.