Bad student or bad teacher?

Watched 'The Karate Kid' this afternoon and one thing Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) said struck me.

"There is no such thing as a 'bad student', only 'bad teacher'."
-Mr. Han

This was very much like what Mr. Jeffrey Goh shared at a talk for NIE Student-Teachers (who're graduating from NIE soon to become Beginning Teachers) earlier today.
He kept stressing how our attitudes affect everything we do; and the very fact that we are teachers meant that our attitudes would radiate and influence many more people, beyond what we could possibly imagine.

Anyway, back to the movie...
Watching 'The Karate Kid' showed me the kind of damage a 'bad' teacher could do.
It also showed me how every child wants to please his teacher, even if it meant doing something that didn't feel right; the kid would do it, in a bid to gain acceptance or even recognition from his teacher.



I still remember what a colleague once told me, "All children are nice, all they want is to please their teachers regardless or what they do. They can misbehave, but all they wish is for us to notice when they do something good and for us to praise that. No child is bad."
I always bear this in mind when I teach, and I always try my best to see that glimmer in my children.
I believe that all my children are diamonds in their own ways, just waiting for the right teacher to come by and polish them up so they shine ever so brightly.
I hope, that I can be that 'right' teacher for some of them... :)