Know Thyself

How does one go about leading others to become leaders?  It takes conscientious observation and quite a bit of caring for those other than yourself, but it also takes knowing exactly who you are.  Technically we're all subject to change so you can't "exactly" know yourself, but to know you're aims, your perogatives and to know your flaws is a necessity.  Students know when you're being truthful with yourself, when you look in the metaphysical mirror and see no distortion.  It's an odd nack of youth to be able to intrinsically identify such things.  As a postive rolemodel, you can move others in a positive direction.

Too many teachers today buddy up with students trying to gain some form of lost youth.  Don't get me wrong, I totally respect opening up and relating to students, but there are certain levels that don't need to be crossed.  Undermining the classroom dynamic makes students misdirected and allocates for a casual outlook on learning.  The teacher should use the connections created between student and teacher as a bridge to invoke and engage the student towards enjoying learning. 

Once a few students begin to enjoy learning despite the stigma and the teasing from other students, it will hopefully incite the rest of the class to do so as well.  To try their hardest to learn the material just for the sake of their own understanding.  Who would enjoy going through life not knowing or being unaware while the rest of the world was striving for something more?  Lead by example and hopefully the rest falls into place.