Learning v. Teaching

Learners and teachers are the same, essentially, just modify your own perspective. The Greek word for teacher and learner is the same, after all. Or so I've been told. Learners have a need for more information, or a skill, that they percieve that only the teacher can provide (Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass, probably Ralph Waldo Emerson would disagree, based on their educational progression, but I digress). On an individual basis, A learner has a goal in mind. A teacher is sought to help the learner reach that goal. Mass public schooling essentially works in reverse. The goal there is not for the learner to learn what he wants, but to be shaped into something the society at large percieves that it needs to maintain cohesion. Learning is a process that is determined by the needs of the individual. Learners are people engaging in that process. Teachers are there to provide the requisite skills or information that a learner believes neccessary to reach a goal for themselves.