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Old 2013-03-17, 16:18   Link #137
james0246
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: East Cupcake
Quote:
Originally Posted by itachi-san314 View Post
kakashi taught team 7 more than fighting. there are many examples of teamwork related lessons he taught them like the bell test, and everything about protecting comrades that kakashi learned back in the kakashi gaiden arc. he also taught them chakra control when he had naruto and sasuke running up trees and he taught naruto how to maximize shadow clones with memory transfer. His lesson to sasuke about revenge was a good one even though it didn't take.

I think people who are calling kakashi a failed teacher are forgetting that not even naruto could convince sasuke to stay and naruto is unquestionably the most persuasive character in the story. in other words, nobody could have prevented sasuke leaving. it was inevitable
Let's be realistic here, Naruto is a Shounen series, so Kakashi's core job is to get his students stronger. Whether he did or not is the sole indicator of his performance as a teacher (no matter how Kishimoto may wish to frame Kakashi). For simplicity, let's say the 'strength' Kakashi is supposed to teach is both physical prowess/power and strength of character (these are arguably the two most important aspects to focus on as a team). Using both as a lens of focus, it's readily apparent that Kakashi partially succeeded and failed in teaching physical prowess/power, and largely failed at teaching strength of character.

Specifically, besides teaching the basic chakra control technique, he did nothing for his team (no, mentioning Tora indicates nothing; save for the very brief instance with Sasuke during the first Zabuza encounter, we were never shown any teamwork ala the Ino-Shika-Chou levels of preparation or conjoined attacks). But, he did teach Sasuke some advanced techniques, and once Team 7 had been reorganized (without Kakashi at the helm) he did teach Naruto the secret of Kage Bushin (which he conceivably could have taught Naruto on their initial meeting rather than waiting two and a half years, but for whatever reason didn't). Sadly, Sakura never received any instruction from him whether as a team or as an individual. So, he did have moderate success with Sasuke, minimal success with Naruto, and no success with Sakura.

As for strength of character, I actually think he was most influential with Sakura rather than Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto came in to the team with a strong and clear sense of self as well as how to care for others. True he was a fool and he seldom worked well with others, but he came on to the team with the desire to help. The one, and arguably only teamwork/character building lesson that Kakashi taught his team (the bell lesson) was something Naruto already knew, and had even shown during the first chapter with Iruka and the next chapter with Konohamaru. So, Kakashi effectively taught Naruto nothing he didn't already know.

Sasuke is also an interesting case. He did react well to the bell test (he did learn to treat Naruto as a human rather than simply garbage), but it seemingly did nothing for his work with his team. Rather, it was Naruto and their history that was more informative and beneficial to Sasuke's development not anything Kakashi taught him early on. And later, Kakashi tried to teach Sasuke about the destructive nature of revenge, but he was completely ignored. Sasuke effectively abandoned anything Kakashi tried to teach him (however minimal), forsaking the village and his team mates.

Sakura, on the other hand, did learn quite a bit from Kakashi's lessons and words. Coming into the team, she was a conceited, selfish little princess that cared for nothing but herself and her obsession with Sasuke. The story of Part I is, in some respects, the story of her development as a human being (the story of Part I is definitely the story of Team 7's involvement and development), going from an extreme lack of any positive traits, to a caring team mate that actively wants the best for her team mates. Whether this is really something Kakashi helped instigate or not is debatable, but it is obvious that her growth is directly related to whatever Kakashi was attempting to do with his Team.

In the end, it is obvious, at least for me, that Kakashi partially failed at teaching his team how to be physical strong, and also partially failed to teach his team strength of character. Sadly, I do not believe that his minor successes can match up to his much larger failings. He was simply not a good teacher.
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