They are in the profession of important task of moduling young minds. The position of teacher can be well assumed when we say Socrates was teacher of Pleto. Pleto was teacher of Aristotle. Aristottle was teacher of Great Alexander.Valmiki and Drona were Gurus of the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata.The ideals as ststed aforesaid can only be performed by a teacher when he is a person and not just a machine delivering informations only.To put it simply, the aim of education is to help a student grow into a 'person'.A teacher should not be a prop to which the growing student clings. On the otherhand a teacher should be like a gardener, watering the plant, seeing that it gets enough light and soil to grow furher.This can be performed well if the teacher assumes the position of friend than that of a corrector.In today's parlance this is more true when children have started asserting their right to death.
A teacher should be friend, philosopher and guide specially in the era of break down of joint family system and emergence of the nuclear family. As the children are deprived of the company of grand father, grand mother, brothers and sisters, the teacher of today should fill the vacuum.