I grew up in West Virginia, and I can guarantee that virtually none of my teachers could explain how to derive most of what we were taught from first principles

I grew up in West Virginia, and I can guarantee that virtually none of my teachers could explain how to derive most of what we were taught from first principles. There were a few very bright stars in my list of teachers, but most were really phoning it in and didn't understand well enough to teach anyone aside from reciting from the teacher's edition of the book.