The Gray Monk

And then there are those teachers who have never had an "AHA" moment themselves. They merely go through the motions and resent the career path they chose. They are more caught up in exercising power and control then actual teaching.

My 8th grade son has just such a teacher now. She abhors questions, and insists she has already taught the subject, and she views questions as a challenge to her authority. I end up explaining "why" to him, and helping him understand the subject matter. She has actually given him detention for asking questions, if you can believe it. And by all other accounts, my son is one of the most mild mannered, good-natured, respectful kids around.

I remember having teachers even in college who were merely going through the motions. They were not excited about learning, and looked at student "AHA" moments condescendingly, as though any moron could understand what they had been teaching. Many times, I found out that my understanding of the subject matter was more extensive and deeper than the professor's.

Good teachers are as valuable as any other true professional. Grade school teaching does not require a lot of mental rigor. There is a reason that highly intelligent people choose other careers. But even these teachers can be professional and engaged. My daughter's 4th grade teacher is not too bright, but she is fully competent to teach 4th grade, and she takes it seriously enough to be good at it. And she cares about those prized teaching moments when the kids grasp the material. She is a good teacher.

But too many teachers today are teachers by default - that is, they were too stupid to do anything other than try to teach passive, captive children. They are not interested in knowledge or learning, and extremely closed-minded. The resent their students for making any demands on them at all. The students pick up on this, and give these teachers the least amount of respect. Inevitably, these same teachers become obsessed with MAKING the children respect them, which only exacerbates the problem.

For some students, the teacher doesn't really matter too much. My other daughter is one of those students. She is a "joy" for all teachers because she is capable of quickly and efficiently grasping and organizing facts and concepts. She makes no mental demands on even the lazy teachers.

When I went through school, I was so far ahead that some teachers (I found this out from my mother) would have a second blackboard with problems for me so I wouldn't get bored. But most often, the lazy teachers resented the fact that I was obviously a helluva lot smarter than they were. Unfortunately, I wasn't WISE enough to hide it, and I immaturely tended to publicly expose their ignorance to amuse myself. Not exactly a recipe for "winning teachers and influencing professors."