Teaching Students Not Lessons

In my LDS Institute class, whenever a student apologizes for asking a question that leads to a long discussion my teacher responds by saying, "Teaching students is more important than teaching lessons."

As teachers we teach students.  We need to not get caught up in teaching lessons.  We use lessons to teach students.  Students are active beings who hunger for knowledge and we should focus on teaching them and helping them learn.  In the textbook, Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom ,by Carol Tomlinson, there is a chapter about using curriculum and instruction to address students' needs.  One quote that I like from the book is, "We rarely succeed in teaching subjects unless we teach human beings as well" (p. 57).  

As I am teaching in my classroom trying to help each student achieve the core standards I need to maintain my focus on the students and not the curriculum. The curriculum is simply a tool for helping students learn and progress.  I want to be a teacher of students, not a teacher of lessons.