Teachers are the architect of a nation. Their ranks are dignified in the social hierarchy just after our parents. They are an asset to the society. Their function is within and outside the classroom, mainly teaching, inspiring, guiding and directing individuals and preparing them for the society through the inculcation of social values. Besides the intellectual and professional qualities, a teacher must be a person of good heart. Their emotions must be balanced and personality should be characterized by the highest sentiment qualifying them to touch the inner corner of the student’s mind. Jean Jacques Rousseau, the architect of modernism in education pointed out that a teacher in the scheme of education should be a friend and philosopher. Students are like wet clay, an ideal teacher would act as the potter who would mould and shape them by giving their most precious ornament that is knowledge. Other than that a teacher would be a person with a liberal mind, who would not be biased towards the student. Their helping hand should be extended to every pupil strong or weak.

Every student in their life comes across so many teachers all different from one another but there is always that one teacher with whom we strike a different chord and that is where we find our ideal teacher. The one we think would be a little different from others, the one we start to share all our weaknesses with, the one who would carve out the best version of ourselves. To quote C.S. Lewis, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts”. That is how an ideal teacher should be who would irrigate the minds of the students with seeds of knowledge.
The ideal education cannot be imparted without the help of an ideal teacher. Teachers like them are always wanted in every society. It is their job to eradicate the darkness, the ignorance from the student’s mind and to fill that void with enlightenment. They should always motivate and encourage the students to be vocal about their thoughts and feelings. Moreover, in this era of erosion of values, an ideal teacher would be an example before the students for the conservation of values and for the creation of new values.

In this period of rapid transformation and enhancement, an ideal teacher should be progressive and have an egalitarian outlook to tread upon the advancing arena of civilization. They must not be doctrinaire, narrow minded and orthodox. Their ability to experiment on new circumstances, their selfless approach, their robustness and zeal and meticulous behavior will make them a worthy educator. Now here comes this one interrogation: Is a teacher born or made? The retort to this question is like the following: teaching ability is an inherited ability no doubt, but if given right training one can carve out the best teacher out of the ordinary. So, this argument can be resolved by saying that a teacher is both born and made.