4. Are Great Teachers Born or Made?

In this article, the author is talking about a book that has been released recently called Building a Better Teacher. The book uses various analogies and metaphors make the point that teaching is technically demanding and complex. In short, the book states that teaching can be taught. The author explains that pop culture "promotes the idea that good teachers possess a kind of magical, ineffable charisma." Many writers like Doug Lemov and Magdalene Lampert, have tried to banish this belief from society. In Building a Better Teacher , Kate Green argues that teaching is a gift, but you must also work to perfect it, almost like how athletes practice. Green also states that teaching requires tenacity and instinct. This is good news because it means that all teachers can become better, but that self-improvement requires learning and some people are better at learning than others. The author of the article wraps it up with this: "Better training could certainly make many mediocre teachers competent, but it’s less likely to make competent teachers extraordinary."

Nick Romeo, the author of this article, captures the readers attention in the introduction with a metaphor written by Kate Green, comparing teaching to driving airplanes. He then states that teaching can be taught and supports his statement with countless examples, from other teaching books and explaining the how wrong pop culture is about good teachers. His purpose with this article was to tell his audience that teaching is a combination of self-improvement and talent. His tone is serious and convincing, and we can tell that his audience is of older age due to his complex sentences and fancy-sounding words. Nick was able to both summarize Green's book and defend her statement with this article. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/are-great-teachers-born-or-made/375656/