I've about had it with the Anti-Teacher sentiment here.

[Sazerac]

What is UP with this?

I agree that there are a few bad teachers out there, but every day I come on this forum to see more people posting about how "all teachers suck, all teachers are boring, why do teachers drone, those who can't do, teach"...

COME ON, GUYS!!

I have been a teacher for the past 15 years...9 of which were at the university level, and the past 6 at the vocational skills-training level. I have a bachelor's and master's degree in business education and a Ph.D. in Business Statistics with a minor in Consumer Behavior. I chose to forgo a more lucrative career because, quite frankly, I enjoy teaching and I find helping people develop themselves and develop their careers to be ultimately far more rewarding than backstabbing people on the way up the "corporate ladder."

There are many other people who have dedicated their lives to teaching as well for similar reasons. Granted, there are always those few apples who spoil the barrel in there as well, but they are not indicative of our profession as a whole.

You know, I could easily come up with a laundry list of why "all students suck." They are noisy, inattentive, obstreperous, indolent, skip classes and then expect the teacher to "catch them up", or ask inane questions like "is this material going to be on the test?" or "is this important?" when you're lecturing. They whine that the workload is too much, and then whine when they don't make a good grade (as if they were automatically "entitled" to getting a good grade.) They flout school rules (like bringing sodas into classrooms where there are computers) and then whine when you catch them at it, even though it's clearly written in the rules and the syllabus. They're habitually tardy, then expect you to stop in the middle of a lecture and help them log onto a computer.

I could continue on and on about why "all students suck." And I'd be completely wrong, although everything I've said here is true. Why would I be wrong?

Because it only applies to 5% of the students out there!

Do you see what overgeneralizing does, now?

Think about that, the next time you start generalizing about any profession, including education.

-Sazerac

[Timber Loftis]

Since you quoted my post Sazerac, I feel I must apologize. I thought I made it obvious I was joking. I've taught before - and it ain't easy. I think many of us were just pointing out that, like in every profession, not every teacher is a good one.

[whacky]

Sazerac i am in harmony with the teaching prefession since my father is a researcher cum teacher cum principal specializing in history. From him and his collegues my perception of teachers has improved a lot. Now i and my high-school teachers understand each other perfectly. Thats one of the reasons i ace my exams. Neither do i find them boring, nor they find me a conventional student. A teacher-student understanding/coordination can surely transform any ordinary student into an avid learner.

[Melusine]

Saz, I don't think you should take it quite like that.
I understand that since you are a teacher yourself it will "feel" more personal, but I doubt that most people in the two threads that I think you are referring to meant to generalise. In the case of Uss's thread, I think if his English teacher really is as he tells us, it *is* an outrage! He didn't say anything about teachers in general, he just related a story about a very bad teacher that he happens to have.
For the other thread, I see your point more: the title *does* generalise. But I do think you should relax. I doubt people here hate teachers as such, there just happen to be bad ones as well as good ones, and the reason why this raises tempers so much is because many of us either have children or are in school themselves: good education is very important to them.
I don't mean to diminish your point of view, I do realise it must be hard to do such an (at times) ungrateful job.
FWIW I loved most of my teachers, respected them, looked up to their erudition and learning... LOL, I was a right nerd and teacher's pet [img]tongue.gif[/img]
So I do agree that it's awful if their efforts aren't respected and appreciated. All I'm saying is that I don't think people meant to be quite as harshly generalising as it feels to you now. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Attalus]

LOL, Saz, I never respond to those threads, though I have posted on some of those, "school is irrelevant" threads. I went to school 20 years, 25 if you count inernship and residency. Some of my teachers were boring, a few were malignant jerks, and several were brilliant, too many to mention without boring people. I have repeatedly pointed out that when you are ignorant (in the sense of not knowing something, not stupidity) you are often unable to see the utilty of what you are being taught, to say nothing of the fact that some teachers (coaches teaching math are a good example) really don't want to be teaching what they are in the first place. These students are frequently irritable because they would rather be doing something else, just as I would rather be playing games than seeing patients. I actually went back to school seven years ago to take a class in World Literature at our community college. Our teacher was great, a good speaker, enthusiastic about the course material, but still several kids (they really were kids) complained about the course load, too much reading, etc. I informed them that I was paying good money to learn this material, and I didn;'t want any of it skimped. Amazingly, I wasn't unpopular.

[Blade]

Well i agree, teachers do need more respect then they get, for the most part there are some who just shouldn't be teaching, ie thous who don't want to or don't know the material shouldn't be teaching it. Teaching is harder then it looks to a student just think of how hard it is for most of us to get up and speeck in a speech class and they do speeches daily. As for thoes who don't do teach, that might apply to some but if they couldn't do it how could they teach it well? As an example my dad is currently teaching a class for the union at his work and he is the boss of some of them. They asked him to teach it because he is one of the few people who actually had the knowledge and cirtifications to do it from learning in a class years ago no less then applyed it to real life. So what i'm saying is lots of teacher actually can do, they just don't do it any more or didn't want to do it in the first place and work teaching people.

[ 10-16-2002, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Blade ]

[philip]

Sazerac, I don't think the thread is about all teachers. The second reply already states that not all teachers are boring and then there's only posts that some teachers are good other less but not that all are bad or boring. And that's just the way it is and I think you should be happy that you aren't a boring teacher!

[Jorath Calar]

Sorry, Saz I never meant to offend with my thread, I acctually have deep respect for teachers. It's the most selfishless (is that a word??) job in the world.
I posted it more as a joke... because that teacher was simply putting me to sleep.

And like someone said, only my first post and the title was generalizing, and I'm sorry about that.

[WillowIX]

Could it be that it´s easier to notice negative things? Since I studied for about 19 years I can truthfully say that I´ve had bad teachers. But I´ve also had plenty of good teachers. The sad part is that I remember the bad ones better since I´ve complained about them more often than praising my good teachers. It could also depend on which grade you´re in. When in uni I didn´t have a single bad teacher, mainly because the subject was so interesting. I really REALLY wanted to be a doctor and find the human body a very interesting subject. In high school some subjects were plain boring. That leads to less interesting lectures and probably "bad" teachers. A bad teacher to me is one who fails to teach the subject, not one who fails to make the subject interesting, that´s the students responsibility (mostly).

Now I don´t know who posted the drone thread, but a teacher who does nothing but stand in front of you listing facts in a monotone voice is IMO a bad teacher. He/she loses the students attention and then the lecture is lost and a waste of time. Now I´ve had 2 teachers doing that out of 50-60. So as I said in the beginning, it´s easier to notice the negative things.

[Sazerac]

*sigh* Well, I've cooled down from my "Berserker rage" from my first post. Seriously, though, it has seemed that there has been a barrage of anti-teacher sentiment here. I've been noticing it the past few days.

However, I appreciate the clarifications. I also wasn't doubting any of the horror stories with "bad teachers" out there, but the generalizing of it to the entire profession is what made me see red like a bull.

Jorath, I think you could easily call it the most "thankless" profession in the world. Lots of us do it, though, because we still do care.

It does relieve me, somewhat, at least to know that not everyone thinks all teachers are "bad." I do feel for those students who have to put up with do-nothing teachers or teachers from the Abyss, with little or no recourse but to muddle through the whole session with them.

I guess I lived a charmed life growing up. I never had "horror" teachers...my teachers were that good, they are who inspired me to seek education as my field of choice as well.

-Sazerac