What makes a good creative writing teacher. If there was a way to make a perfect teacher what would he/she look like?
I would want a NY Best seller, who doesn't hate on you because of your preferred genre that offers some new piece of insight that a book cannot tell me.
I think any good teacher, reagrdless of the subject, is someone who not only gets you excited about it, but who finds out your particular niche or hot topic buttons and pushes those.
Edited to add:
I used to teach a variety of subjects and sports back in the day. One of the things I taught, and still do, was horse riding. I didn't teach to BHS rules. I didn't care how the rider 'looked' on a horse, I only cared that they were getting the best possible out of their horse. Sometimes that meant the rider looked like a sack of potatoes while the horse looked like it was floating on air. I don't care much for the 'polish' that comes with horse riding and prefer instead the ability of the rider to get the best out of their horse.
I got pulled once during a lesson by my boss because my pupils were racing each other figure of eight through arena over fences, narrowly missing each other while I stood in the middle and screamed 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' at them.
Four of them are now Young Rider champions in their respective disciples and one is a serious contender for Rio.
Clearly I was doing something right, even when, according to all logic, history and expectation, I was doing something 'wrong'
I mention this because, as you are all probably aware, I have not been an Olympic rider, nor have I any desire to be so. But does my lack of Olympic experience negate me from being able to teach my pupils to reach that level? No.
One thing I learned very early on with horses is that not everyone actually wants to go to the Olympics.
And the same thing applies to all areas of life. Not everyone wants to run the company they work for, not every weekend rally driver wants to be in Formula 1, not every hairdresser wants to be Nicky Clarke. People don't always want to be 'THE BEST' - mostly they just want to be 'The best they can be' which is entirely different.
I say this because one thing I have found over the years is that 'coaching' and 'teaching' are two different things.
A teacher can teach you all the practicalities and logic and structure to INFORM.
But a coach relies on passion, instinct and predication to INCITE PASSION.
A good teacher/ coach can master both.