I get two things out of the quote. The first being that teaching is not just about knowledge transfer. It is not just about the teacher being the expert and passing along what he knows to his students. It should be more of a conversation between the professor and the students. A conversation in which the professor is open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. Or at least open to new questions.

I have had too many teachers who, even if they are wrong, still try to justify and argue the fact that they are right. For them, it is all about lecturing at the student and not teaching the student.

The second thing that I get out of the quote is that the teacher has to be completely present when they are teaching. To use cliche, they cannot “just phone it in”. I have had far too many profs who do this as well.

When you think of how teaching originated, this quote does work. Teaching originally was about dialogue between the teacher and the students. You had one person who was the teacher, say Socrates, and a small group of students that would sit around him and participate in the dialogue. It was not about the teacher being right. Instead, it was about the teacher and the students exploring various ideas and subjects.

In this kind of atmosphere and with this kind of teacher, I think the above quote is highly accurate. And while it may not be a hard and fast rule, I definitely think that good teaching is more about a dialogue then it is about a lecture.