High Standards

I work at a daycare, and while I may not exactly consider myself a “teacher," numerous preschoolers frequently refer to me by that title.  For this reason, I began reading Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory with added amounts of personal interest.  I appreciate that he sticks to such (almost impossibly) high standards for those who would instruct the youth.  From what I've read in different blog posts, it seems that his requirements concerning virtue and goodness in particular are being seriously scrutinized…and probably rightfully so.  But I actually appreciate that he is so concerned with how the teacher’s morals could potentially impact the well-being of the students (...even if I’m not so sure what to do with some other comments and claims he makes in the process of outlining these rules).

But his standards are indeed steep.  Upon reading his lengthy list of requirements for the outstanding instructor, I find myself wondering whether Quintilian actually believed his rules could be achieved.  Could he have intended to describe a nigh-on unattainable ideal to which all teachers and orators should still aspire?  The same question crosses my mind concerning Cicero’s De Oratore.     
 

As I once heard said in high school… “Only those who try to do more than they possibly could do all that they possibly can.”

That type of advice (especially when unsolicited) tends to make me swell with irritation as well as making a number of snarky remarks come to mind.  Yet if I imagine Cicero and Quintilian writing with the intention of their advice being assimilated into that point of view, I find that I am far more willing to consider what they have to say.  I also find myself significantly less prone to completely stop paying attention because the standards seem so unrealistic.