摘要：The academic successes and failures of learners during their school years are closely linked to the quality of their educators. It is therefore necessary to determine what knowledge and skills the practitioners of this profession should have to effect such a tremendous influence on their clients' lives. A review of the literature serves as theoretical base for the empirical study. In the article I report on the content analysis of short essays of a group of Education students, in which they were required to either pay tribute to educators who played an important role during their school years or denounce educators who they felt should never have entered the profession. From the literature and the content analysis, it appeared that the nature of learner-education relations and the scope of an educator's academic and professional knowledge and skills determined whether a person was a good or unsatisfactory educator. South African Journal of Education Vol.24(2) 2004: 153-158
