I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I am a teacher and I know that some of my students feel that I am an incompetent loser. I can tell; I see it in their closed expressions, their absolute refusal to commit even the smallest amount of intellectual effort or curiosity to the course.
Most of them come into the class with that mindset. They have been turned off somewhere before they get to me, and I haven't been able to turn them back on. A few, I regret to say, I seem to have turned off myself; apparently, my enthusiasm for literature did not communicate itself to them. I always regret that.
A few, a very few, I have been able to reach. They start the year closed and leave it open. Somehow, I managed to reach them. Or perhaps it was another teacher, and it spread to my class.
But you will pardon me if, despite my regrets, I do not wallow in grief about those students who are turned off. I firmly believe that most people are as happy as they want to be in school, always excepting those whose life experiences outside of my class preclude happiness anywhere. My class is not "boring," too many students tell me they enjoy it. The student is "bored," a choice he/she has made.
Fine. Be bored. It isn't my job to entertain you, although I try to make my presentations as interesting and stimulating as possible. Do the work, bored or not, and you'll get the grade. Don't do the work, however enthusiastic you are, and you'll flunk. That's the standard I was hired to use, and that's the standard I believe in.
But I doubt that most of your teachers were incompetent losers. I'll bet that there were many students in the same classes you attended that found those same teachers interesting, informative, caring, and effective. Perhaps they did not meet your particular needs. But perhaps you never gave them a chance to. Both situations happen.
As for 6 figure salaries, I appreciate that idea. It might indeed make the quality of the teaching profession higher. Regretfully, I doubt that it will ever happen. And even with a 6 figure salary, I doubt that the most inspiring teacher in the world will be able to reach a student who is determined not to learn, not to cooperate, and not to care.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I am a teacher and I know that some of my students feel that I am an incompetent loser. I can tell; I see it in their closed expressions, their absolute refusal to commit even the smallest amount of intellectual effort or curiosity to the course.
Most of them come into the class with that mindset. They have been turned off somewhere before they get to me, and I haven't been able to turn them back on. A few, I regret to say, I seem to have turned off myself; apparently, my enthusiasm for literature did not communicate itself to them. I always regret that.
A few, a very few, I have been able to reach. They start the year closed and leave it open. Somehow, I managed to reach them. Or perhaps it was another teacher, and it spread to my class.
But you will pardon me if, despite my regrets, I do not wallow in grief about those students who are turned off. I firmly believe that most people are as happy as they want to be in school, always excepting those whose life experiences outside of my class preclude happiness anywhere. My class is not "boring," too many students tell me they enjoy it. The student is "bored," a choice he/she has made.
Fine. Be bored. It isn't my job to entertain you, although I try to make my presentations as interesting and stimulating as possible. Do the work, bored or not, and you'll get the grade. Don't do the work, however enthusiastic you are, and you'll flunk. That's the standard I was hired to use, and that's the standard I believe in.
But I doubt that most of your teachers were incompetent losers. I'll bet that there were many students in the same classes you attended that found those same teachers interesting, informative, caring, and effective. Perhaps they did not meet your particular needs. But perhaps you never gave them a chance to. Both situations happen. As for 6 figure salaries, I appreciate that idea. It might indeed make the quality of the teaching profession higher. Regretfully, I doubt that it will ever happen. And even with a 6 figure salary, I doubt that the most inspiring teacher in the world will be able to reach a student who is determined not to learn, not to cooperate, and not to care.