Characteristics of a good teacher

My good friend and above all beloved teacher, Azahari Ismail shared this piece of work with me that I thought I'd post for everyone to enjoy. The piece entitled “13 Semi-visible and invisible desirable characteristics of a good teacher” was an assignment submitted for a Testing and Evaluation class and carried the date December 12, 1975. For posterity, the piece is rewritten in its originality without any amendments and is posted with permission from the author.

……. Class distraction …………. 7121975
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13 Semi-visible and invisible desirable characteristics of a good teacher*



1. Has the minimum functional desire to teach.

2. Has a thorough knowledge of the subject matter taught and likes it.

3. Has the ability to shift the students’ state of learning at least from
negative to neutral and knows the difference between the two.

4. Has the ability to disengage the students’ yawning mechanism at least for a one hour period.

5. Has the ability to maintain the behavior of a complete human being
while in the classroom.

6. Has the ability to communicate in different but proper wave-lengths.

7. Has the ability to lead and remains in front while leading.

8. Has the ability to maintain the mirror image of oneself while engaged in a
personal conversation in front of a mirror.

9. Has the ability to translate imaginations into proper actions.

10. Has the courage to accept the fact that the world is unstructured.

11. An observant, interested and dedicated learner.

12. A product of the college of education out of choice but not circumstances.

13. Has the ability to continue teaching while other job offers are pouring in.

-Azahari Ismail-

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*Lack of any or all these characetristics does not necessarily deprive anybody from being a marginal teacher regardless of sex.

az/july '75

RATING OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Here is a light-hearted portrayal of human performance that I enjoyed. The tongue-in-cheek assessment of five human abilities was rated as outstanding, excellent, average, fair and poor. The rating was attributed to a certain Dave Barret and his group at the University of Florida in 1974. The rating was then reproduced by Azahari Ismail in 1978. I hope you find the appraisal as entertaining and enlightening as I did when I first encountered it.

Quality
Leaps tall buildings in a single bound
Must take a running start to leap over tall buildings
Can leap over short buildings only
Crashes into building when attempting to leap
Cannot recognize building at all

Timeliness
Is faster than a speeding bullet
Is as fast as a speeding bullet
Not quite as fast as a speeding bullet
Would you believe a slow bullet
Wounds self with bullet when attempting to shoot

Initiative
Is stronger than a locomotive
Is stronger than a bull elephant
Is stronger than a bull
Shoots the bull
Smells like a bull

Adaptability
Walks on water consistently
Walks on water in emergencies
Washes with water
Drinks water
Passes water in emergencies

Communication
Talks with god
Talks with the angels
Talks to himself
Argues with himself
Loses arguments with himself