3 ms·

But, when left to their own devices, some teachers don't teach at all. Teachers follow the same distribution of personalities as any other occupation on this pl

But, when left to their own devices, some teachers don't teach at all. Teachers follow the same distribution of personalities as any other occupation on this planet; some are good, some are bad, most are average. In my experience there are precious few teachers who don't teach at all. In fact, I never had a single one that bad. At worst, they hand you the text book and make you read it over the course of the year and give you some tests on it. The best teachers don't teach much really. Rather they inspire. The worst teachers may teach a lot, but they make you despise the material. It seems to me that having teachers be forced to teach to standardized tests will kill off the first type of teacher, while having little or no effect on the second kind of teacher. The worst of all worlds.

Wilduck 15y ago
> The best teachers don't teach much really. Rather they inspire. The worst teachers may teach a lot, but they make you despise the material. Going to my 11th grade Biology class every day, I used to joke with a couple friends "Do you think we'll be learning today?", "Ha ha, Probably not." The class was fun, not very serious, with the bulk of the period spent listening to our teacher tell stories. All that and the homework was always easy. But at the end of the year, while studying for the final, we realized that we had learned a huge amount of biology. Our teacher had spent the classes telling us stories that related to the material, and the homework was easy because she inspired us to be interested in the questions being asked. I didn't remember toiling over the Krebs[1] and Calvin[2] cycles, but I certainly knew them. More importantly though, I found them interesting. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_cycle

Wilduck 15y ago

> The best teachers don't teach much really. Rather they inspire. The worst teachers may teach a lot, but they make you despise the material. Going to my 11th grade Biology class every day, I used to joke with a couple friends "Do you think we'll be learning today?", "Ha ha, Probably not." The class was fun, not very serious, with the bulk of the period spent listening to our teacher tell stories. All that and the homework was always easy. But at the end of the year, while studying for the final, we realized that we had learned a huge amount of biology. Our teacher had spent the classes telling us stories that related to the material, and the homework was easy because she inspired us to be interested in the questions being asked. I didn't remember toiling over the Krebs[1] and Calvin[2] cycles, but I certainly knew them. More importantly though, I found them interesting. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid_cycle [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_cycle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_cycle