Reply #64: Yes. I agree

[JerseygirlCT]

I think the most important quality that the best teachers I encountered or my children encountered were those whose love of learning was contagious. Who spurred the same in kids - regardless sometimes of the actual curriculum.

I never did well in science in school. It was always horrifyingly boring - lots of memorization, no connection to the real world. I now have an in-law who was a teacher. She's not now, but she is, if you know what I mean. All of the kids in our family adore her (adults too), and when she talks about something: biology, astronomy, whatever - it's exciting. It's fascinating. It's the most important thing you could be listening to and learning in the world at that moment. It's largely her enthusiasm - connected to a whip smart mind and the ability to transfer that to others. But it showed me what I'd missed all those years!