The important quality is passion. The truth is if you had the perfect science teacher, the perfect history teacher, the perfect French teacher ect, and they all had passion and the ability to generate interest in the subject they teach and are passionate about, still not every student would also become passionate.
The point is that the person who has it in him to become a linguist, or a biologist will have had the opportunity, because a teacher who was passionate about French Lit or Cepholapods (or whatever) for example inspired him, that same student with the same passionate history teacher may not care for history, but another student with the potential to love say, British History might.
If a teacher/mentor ect isn't passionate himself, student will not have the opportunity to perhaps find that potential within him, and this is what's needed and this is what is not allowed to develop in the current US system.
