Ep. 17 – Three Essential Qualities of a Good Teacher

This is Episode 17 of the Consortium Podcast, an academic audio blog of Kepler Education.

Since parents are responsible for their child’s education, it’s helpful if parents both know how to be good teachers and how to identify good teachers for their children when it’s appropriate to hire one. In his book, The Truth of Things: Liberal Arts and the Recovery of Reality, Marion Montgomery notes,

“The good teacher must accept as a starting point an alumni association of parents who generally cannot make a distinction between intellectual accomplishment and moral goodness. Then he must, soundly and according to his intellectual principles, insist upon judging intellect.”

In other words, a good teacher knows the end and scope of his vocation and does his work with excellence regardless of the democratic impulses that tend to interfere with that good work.

In this episode, Scott and Joffre discuss these three essential but often overlooked qualities of a good teacher.