the importance of good teachers
i'm sure we've all had both positive and negative experiences with teachers/professors/etc.
i remember when i was going into high school, i heard rumors about my future AP1 world history teacher.
she was known to be quite scary, mean, and hated spearmint gum.
being the docile, obedient child i was, i never chewed gum in class anyway, but spearmint gum is my favorite, so i immediately felt that i would not like her.
and yeah, i did not. i'm not sure if anyone did honestly.
she always sounded like she hated her job (although i'm sure she didn't actually), and was always super strict with grading.
i got my first C in my entire life in that class, and more than being shocked, i was absolutely terrified at what my parents would say to me.
that's another story, but basically, because i had such a bad experience with her, i ended up hating history and dreading every one of her classes.
throughout the rest of high school and college, i would meet several teachers who maybe weren't as harsh as her, but were awful at teaching or just plain disagreeable.
the teachers who were awful at teaching made me feel like i was incompetent because i couldn't learn well on my own; i was never good at self-teaching, but why was it my responsibility to teach myself when the teacher is getting paid to teach?
luckily, i had a few teachers who were excellent, not just at teaching, but at being good grown-up figures and mentors.
unfortunately i can only think of 4-5 throughout my entire education, but those 4-5 are the ones that i still remember from time to time.
the first teacher who really left an impression on me was my 9th grade biology honors teacher.
some people thought he was a bit weird, but i love quirky people, and he made class enjoyable.
i loved learning from him because he was great at teaching, and he often used hershey's kisses to quiz us in class, which was fun because i got to brag to my friends that we got chocolate in class.
as a kid i had always been interested in the human body, and his class fostered my fascination.
he always had bonus questions on his exams that weren't biology related; they were usually little puzzles which allowed us to get some extra points in case we didn't get everything on the exam.
beyond that, something i remember very clearly is how he explained to us that he takes antidepressants, and that without them he would not be able to come into work.
even though i was already feeling depressed at that time, antidepressants were something that i would never have thought of taking, since there was still a lot of stigma around mental health at that time, especially in my culture.
but because he told us about it, a few years later, i was less afraid in trying them, and i thank him for it every day.
along with him, the few other great teachers i had really made my other teachers look like ass.
one of them even almost convinced me i liked math because he taught calc II so well that i got an A with ease.
i wanted to talk about teachers because i'm currently a teacher (right?) and i recently had a very fulfilling experience.
the mother of a college student had contacted the coding school i'm working at and asked if anyone could tutor her daughter in HTML/CSS.
the school itself doesn't teach HTML/CSS anymore, but since i had experience in it, my manager asked if i was open to tutor her.
i gladly accepted since i wanted to teach something i was confident in, as opposed to python which i had only started learning recently for this job.
basically, she had a terrible professor who explained way too many things way too quickly for a foundations class.
after 2 days with her, the fear in her eyes disappeared and she even said she was having fun learning.
she didn't even want to take a break even though i suggested one!
it made me really happy to see that someone was flourishing through my teaching.
this is the importance of good teachers.
they don't leave a bitter taste in your mouth, and they can even make the most dreadful subjects seem doable and enjoyable.
Advanced Placement - college level courses for high school students↩