Teaching may be granted or bestowed on individuals in many different ways but the true skill of transferring knowledge is in one's core personality. Capturing one's attention and curiosity and successfully transferring knowledge over an extended period of time is god's gift not given to many. In my uneducated opinion, this gift radiates whether the teacher is addressing grade schoolers or combat ready soldiers. I have met and known a few and the one common trait they all seemed to share was that they wanted to be teachers for as long as they could remember.
Awesome post. Totally agree.
My ex was a 5th grade teacher in a bad area of Dallas. She asked me to come and present to her grade for career day. I refused until they promised to let me present 2-3 hours. Before that day, I kept getting warnings from her friends about how bad the kids were and how much they were going to punish me.
In my spare time at work, I made a bunch of silicon microchips that each had their school name, year and grade.
The day I presented, I went through physics slowly while showing them real life chips that I had made for them.
These kids that were reportedly bad and going to cause me problems were silent and respectful for the entire 3 hours.
They weren't bad kids. They were mesmerized. I'm usually a cynical jerk, but I'll admit that experience was humbling to participate in.