It Is Not About When but About How (Reflection#9)

In order for teachers being effective, they have to be prepared and know their profession first of all. I think that teachers nowadays are well prepared because they have to take courses and several tests before they can take control over a classroom. Also, they have to learn about psychology and how to manage different situations inside the classroom today like teaching a diverse class where there are students not from one culture but from several cultures. In addition, with the power of technology which includes computers and audiovisual material, it has become easier for teachers to transmit the learning message to the students. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, teachers were a little more diverse than now. There were formal teachers like now who taught students in a school environment, but there were also other less professional teachers who were equally important for the development of those civilizations. For example, parents played an important role as teachers of the culture, religious believes, and moral values to their children. Also, because occupations were mostly hereditary to keep the tradition and guarantee a successor on the family, regular people had to teach their occupations to the next generation. For example, a farmer had to teach his apprentice how to take care of a farm properly, and a craftsman had to teach his apprentice how to produce beautiful ceramic. Because professional teachers did not teach about occupations, the less professional teachers were important in order to maintain the order and the legacy of the culture as well. But, professional or not, what is true about Egyptian and Mesopotamian teachers is that they taught well their students and successors. For example, the workers in the pyramids had to teach others what they knew in order to finish the construction because pyramids took hundreds of years to build, and one generation was not enough to finish it. Teaching children effectively was the only way that those civilizations could keep their traditions over time and earn their great splendor. It is my opinion that teacher effectiveness in a classroom depends on the level of knowledge and preparation that teacher has and the available material to impart the lesson, but it has nothing to do with the period in history the teacher exists. As long as the message is transmitted effectively to the students, the teacher has made his or her purpose.