The tradition in India which even now continues in the field like music is that a student should have complete faith in the Guru, and then receive the knowledge or skill in the manner prescribed by the Guru. Usually the student stayed with the Guru in Gurukul or Ashram and regarded the Guru as a second father.
In Gurukul, both his physical and emotional needs were satisfied by the Guru. This environment created both intellectual and emotional bonds between the teacher and the disciple. The city based colleges or schools changed all this and gradually more and more impersonal relations were built up.
Some educationists even talked about a contract between a teacher and a taught in which a student is to pay the teacher for the attainment of specified objectives just like any other commercial contract.
One wonders what would be the relationship between a teacher and a taught in future with the predominance of Information Technology. One possibility is that the teacher will be regarded as one of the many sources of information, an additional instrument like the TV.
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Some may argue that there is nothing wrong in treating the teacher as one of the many sources of information whereas others may feel that certain emotional human bonds should exist between the teacher and the taught. These people emphasize that the teacher is not only a source of information but he is also an influencer in moulding the personality of the child, a counselor, a facilitator.
We guess that in spite of the sophisticated hardware and electronic IT, the human need to have personal contacts with other people will not subside. In fact, it is likely to grow and in that sense an individual can have more than one teacher.
The movement of counseling, peer counseling, the possibility of making friends and communes through the electronic media would encourage and enable people to come in contact with other great minds and thereby increase number of friends out of whom some could function as teachers.