The Difference Between Teachers & Educators

Many believe that these two words – teachers and educators – are actually synonyms; that they are essentially the same thing. But there can be a marked difference between the two. A teacher can be anybody who taught you a skill or a host of skills, like a friend who explained something about how to care for your African violet, or a coworker who showed you a new protocol at work. An educator, though, is someone whose career or whole being is thrown into the task, who can focus on the end game, what the finished product should look like, and build a plan to get there through various minute and meaningful steps.

 

It’s often been said that our parents are our first teachers. In truth, they sometimes are our first educators as well. They have a long game plan, a vision of what the finished product should be. They want to mold their charge, inculcate values and discipline, parameters and customs, traditions and temperament. But they are also wary of pushing, prodding, or grafting their personhood onto their child. Like the African violet, the child must be carefully nurtured so that it can grow into its own glory. They know that showing is better than telling, and living values is a better way to educate than lecturing about them. For these early educators, patience precedes potential. Our early educators want us to be the best version of whatever we would become, while still leaving room for growth and chance, heartache and healing alike. That is tricky business for the educator. But the reward of an education, roundly given, is a self-actualized, self-reliant, mature individual.

 

We are educators. We learn and we grow along with you, too. We want to leave a lasting impression, to help you create those ‘ah-ha’ moments and to nurture your growth so you create your own.