Teachers

I am always befuddled when I hear others talk about some teacher they had growing up that was a huge influence on them. Besides my parents, I never really had any teachers I even particularly liked until I got into college. Perhaps that’s why I’m confused when others tell me I would make a good teacher. Does such a thing exist? What is all this hullabaloo about teachers?

In my experience, most teachers are basically a resource for book recommendations on a subject. In this role, teachers are about as useful as a library card catalog, and only the best are as useful as the bibliography of a book you enjoy. Teachers assign books to read, or worse read them to you, and then test you on your ability to comprehend or remember what you’ve read. These tests are always biased in favor of the teacher’s interests.

In college, I finally had some teachers who had formed personal opinions and insights on subjects which they had studied extensively, and they shared these opinions with us. In this role, teachers are as useful as reading a book. After all, most of them were published authors.

I’ve rarely received any hands-on (experiential) training from teachers, which interestingly is the only kind of learning you can’t get from a book. Growing up, teachers assigned these roles did nothing but hand me a pencil and say "draw something" or put a piece of music in front of me and say "play this." It was not until I experienced museums and live and recorded music that I had any inking what, how or why to draw or play.

Admittedly, teachers cannot wholly be blamed for the fact that in America the shrewd objective of the education system is primarily to train us to obey and conform. This is because we are intended to be well-behaved laborers dependent upon income for survival. A legitimate education system would teach us first-aid, gardening, construction, sewing, hunting, aesthetics, communications (speaking, writing), communications technology (computer building) and transportation technology (vehicle building); enabling us to live mostly independent of the capitalistic economic system which drives this society.

Finally, some teachers have the ability to inspire others to learn. In this role, they are like reading an exciting or intriguing book. This is probably the most useful type of teacher, but I’ve been inspired to learn from my parents, peers and environment far more than I ever have been from any assigned teacher.

As a child, my mom inspired me to read, and I did. I am a very fast reader and pretty good at retaining things I’ve read. I also seem better at reading between the lines (picking out the biases and underlying intentions of the author) than many others. One of the best things about a book is that if it’s not interesting or beneficial you can simply stop reading it, which is much easier than telling some idiot trying to teach you to shut the hell up.

My dad encouraged me to experience nature and, as an adolescent, my peers inspired me to experience most everything else, which I slowly and cautiously continue to do as time and money allows. Apparently this system considers experience much more dangerous than books because it is much more heavily discouraged and they make it much more difficult to do.

Nobody can teach anyone anything. People only learn what they choose to learn. In that regard, the term "teacher" is misleading. They would more aptly be called "sharers" or "inspirers." Unfortunately most so-called teachers are only distracters.