Anyone else feel this way?
Everyone that went to middle/high school knows what the “cool teacher” is. They’re the teachers that let you watch movies on Fridays. The teachers that banter about video games for ten minutes after class starts. The teachers that would skip homework that night if someone guessed their trivia questions correctly. The teachers that all your classmates would hype up and beg you to take their class.
More often than not, I hated them.
(Please note that this is a rant about the stereotypical “cool” teacher. Teachers in general are super valuable, and I had a ton that were actually unironically super cool).
I had a lot of trouble in the school system thanks to learning disabilities. It’s your standard story. I was considered “bright” and loved learning, but multiple factors would prevent me from doing my best in a way that seemed “lazy”. When a subject grabbed my attention that day, I could converse about it all class and apply myself to an astonishing degree. When it was a bad day for me, I got called to the office for the hundredth time to discuss my inattentiveness. That’s how it went for about 9 years.
Funnily enough, it was always the “dry” teachers that understood more often than not. The teachers that sat down, taught class, and were made fun of by the kids for being “boring”. Those teachers usually saw me as I wanted to be: a person that could contribute and cared immensely about learning new things. When they understood that, they would try to reach out to me and help me learn, because they truly had a passion for their subject.
The “cool teachers” on the other hand- hoo boy. Have you ever pet a dog that you didn’t know all that well? And it would be loving your attention and your pets and your voice until suddenly- it snapped! Bit at your hand, or barked at your face loudly, and it would scare you and ruin all the fun (This metaphor is not meant to compare teachers to dogs, obviously). With the cool teachers, class would be fun and games until I struggled, and that’s where it got miserable. The jokes would continue for other kids, sure, but not for me. One minute, the cool teachers would be discussing Transformers with the other kids, and then immediately turn to me and loudly ask why I would never turn in my homework, for all the other students to hear. The students obviously thought it was all part of the show. Part of the game. So naturally I would just become the weird kid in those classes, and everything was that much worse. Every cool teacher had their own way of snapping, so to speak, but they all did it somehow.
Amazingly, I didn’t hate school. In fact, I was truly lucky enough to have had understanding friends and good teachers. I was not as bad off as I know many young students were. But the memories of “cool teachers” still linger, and sour many of the memories I have of growing up.
Anyway, not sure if this is a rant or a discussion or what, but I just felt like getting it all out lol. Hopefully some comrades here have similar experiences.
That just sounds like teachers singling kids out to make fun of them. I never had any teachers like that, mine were all religious fundamentalists who didn’t care about teaching. Mine were just about all the most dull people imaginable.
It sounds like you just had teachers who were jerks? Who wanted to win over some kids by singling out students and making fun of them.
I think it was more of a misplaced concern of putting a “fun environment” first, over a learning environment. Teachers were so concerned with making kids like them (which I understand is a difficult task, and one that makes their lives easier) that they fail to address the kids getting in the way of that environment appropriately. Meanwhile, the boring teachers often had a shitty time of teaching because kids would take their classes as opportunities to be disruptive and antagonize them. So I get why teachers tried to make things fun instead. However, those boring teachers (in my experience) were often the most knowledgeable and approachable about their subjects, so they would take the time to help me out more.
I honestly don’t blame teachers for wanting to be the “cool” ones. Teaching in the US is a shitty job, with terrible pay and stressful work environments. It’s just too bad that it can leave alienated the kids that wish to learn, but struggle with standard class structures.