Teaching students to teach themselves

As I read the 3 primary perspectives on education, and sub categories within them, I was reminded of something my grandfather said. He is not an educator in the formal sense of the word, but he believes in the importance of education. He often says “the most important thing to teach a student, is how to teach themselves”, and I agree. I definitely find myself most drawn to the constructivist perspective, but I think in addition to helping a student to construct knowledge and understanding for themselves, there is also the broader issue of their continuing education. In the modern world knowledge is regularly expanded, revised, and replaced. For that reason the real challenge facing most students will be to teach themselves as they progress through their lives. Therefore I would argue the primary purpose of a teacher is to use the specific lessons they are teaching the student as examples, to demonstrate good techniques for self education; and teach the student how to find and evaluate potential learning resources and tools.