182 Teaching Minds In summary, a good teacher does the following: e never tells a student anything that the teacher thinks is true e never allows himself to be the ultimate judge of his own students’ success e teaches practice first, theory second (if he must teach theory at all) e does not come up with lists of knowledge that every student must know e doesn’t teach anything unless he can easily explain the use of learning it e assigns no homework unless that homework is to produce something e groups students according to their interests and abilities, not their ages e ensures that any reward to a student is intrinsic e teaches students things they actually may need to know after they leave school e helps students come up with their own explanations when they have made a mistake e never assumes that a student is listening to what he is saying e never assumes that students will do what he asked them to do if what he asked does not relate to a goal they truly hold e never allows “pleasing the teacher” to be the goal of the student e understands that students won’t do what he tells them if they don’t e understand what is being asked of them e earns the respect of students by demonstrating abilities ¢ motivates students to do better and does not help them to do better e understands that his job is to get students to do something e understands that experience, not teachers, changes belief systems e confuses students e does not expect credit for good teaching HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023928