Doan Courant

The semi-whenever newsletter for one of the many Doan Families.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

How to be a good teacher.

Teaching is a difficult profession. Some people might think that anyone can teach. Some people might think that teaching is as easy as getting out of bed in the morning. These people have never tried to get out of a bed that is resting on top of Mt. Everest. Some people have absolutely no clue.
Teaching is an art. Not just anyone can create a masterpiece. Not just anyone can be as much of a genius as John Cage or Jackson Pollack. It is a gift.
Teaching involves several rare qualities. To be a teacher you need to have a near clairvoyant insight into students. You need to understand what makes them unhappy and unexcited, for a teacher's primary function is to squelch every ounce of enjoyment out of school. You need to be able to squeeze all the juice of joy out of the lemon of laughter so that all that remains is flesh of funlessness. You are not a successful pedagogue if any of your students feel any inclining of enjoyment while at school.
A good teacher is entirely devoid of emotion. They possess a Spokian level of stoicism. The sorrowful and distressful pleas of the pupils bounce like fleas off the teacher. He doesn't care if they are happy or sad or perplexed or upset or ecstatic. He is completely nonplussed by their emotional state. This is not to say he hates his students. He thinks of them merely as pods who must listen intently and complete homework on time.
A good teacher has no life outside of school. Teachers should arrive at school directly from the pampas of Paraguay. They ought to have no clue about the culture that surrounds their students. This gives them all the more reason not to care about the culture that surrounds the students. Since the headmaster has no "real" life he will naturally assume that the students have no real life. This will help the teacher care nothing about any non-school related aspect of each student's life.
That is all, for now.

No comments: