building up hours

rating and instruct primary students. For the students' sake it helps
if you like teaching but it's not required.

Based on what I read alot of here in the groups and on some message
boards I frequent, there seem to be far too many instructors only in
it for the "hours", and the students that they are mentoring are just
bumps in the road, who are more of an aggravation then anything else.

Not the kind of instructor I'd want, personally.

My current instructor has mentioned to me in the past that he is
indeed on his way to becoming an ATP (Only after I prodded him about
his future plans, he certainly didn't just blurt it out one day) and
I'm cool with that... Hey, if he can build hours at someone else's
expense, that's cool with me...all the power to him. If I ever
decided to go that route, I'd probably do the same thing... (Although
I enjoy teaching others as well..but anyhow).

However, the difference is that my instructor seems to enjoy
instructing, sharing my milestones and seeming to get some amount of
satisfaction from it as well. He's cheery, seems to genuinely enjoy
what he does, and makes the best of things while he progresses through
what is clearly just a stepping-stone in his career.

IMHO, that's the difference between a good instructor, and someone who
is just instructing for the hours, and little else.