What is a teacher?

Initially, a teacher is someone who teaches because they have knowledge... which he/she then makes available to the learners.

Nowadays, various studies highlight the tensions that make up their daily lot: an institution that circumscribes their action by various laws and successive reforms; a school that they represent and that expects them to perform well in terms of their students' success in examinations, efficient class management and the ability to ensure the school's good reputation; parents who want to be reassured about their child's well-being and future; pupils who are attached to their marks and who demand to be constantly motivated...

The teacher then becomes a transmitter of knowledge, an educator who brings order to the social life of his/her pupils, a psychologist, sometimes or often; but also an artist who sets the mood, a visionary who opens a horizon beyond the clouds. In short, a magician, an acrobat, a person of authority, a reference point that is both firm and flexible.

Today, some people are thinking of replacing teachers with AI and asking them to master this tool.

Have we neglected the profoundly human dimension of the teacher? Have we overlooked young people's need to be in the presence of a human being who can remind them of the human connection? Could we have underestimated the value of effort on both sides, on the part of the pupils and the teacher?

The teaching profession is attracting fewer and fewer people in France. Do we need more financial, technical and safety resources? Of course we do. But we urgently need to rethink the teachers' training and provide support throughout the teachers' career. Less administration, less injunctions. More meaning, that beautiful meaning of the profession. More humanity. Because you can only give as much as you can take, because you can only be a tutor if you are planted in firm soil, because you can only teach if you are the relay of those who have passed on the torch of what must remain a freely assumed vocation.