Classical philosophers and teachers in the history represented by Socrates exhibit the image of models devoting to all-round development of human beings,who constantly pursued excellence with philosophical education as the mission,with communication and dialogues as the medium,with wisdom enlightenment as the purpose and with a happy life as the orientation.With the increasingly magnified instrumental value of education,teachers have been regarded as pedagogues imparting knowledge to students with fixed methods.Such a change in teacher image implies a controversy on the value of education between the an-cient and modern times.To regain the intrinsic value of education,it is necessary to rethink the connotation of the ideal teacher image.An ideal teacher should have a good mastery of ideas who embarks on teacher growth through self-discovery.An ideal teacher should love young people with acuity for caring their souls,guide students to build self-awareness and to develop self-e-ducation by good examples,guide students to learn from great minds in educational contexts and keep constant enthusiasm in edu-cational research and pursue excellence.