Nice Teachers Improve Grades

This may seem like a puerile premise, but think about it. When you think back to elementary school, who were your favorite teachers? The nice ones. Back then, it didn’t really matter what was taught, as long as your teacher was kind to you. As adults, we really aren’t that different; we will always be more willing to storm a beach if our general treats us respectfully.

When I say nice, I don’t mean easy. What I mean is teachers who treat their students like fellow human beings. Teachers who stand on a soapbox waving a flag with their Ph.D. attached to it ruin the educational experience. If a teacher feels that he/she is too well-educated to condescend to somebody with only a high school diploma, maybe another look at the job description is in order.

Who are all the students? High school diploma or GED holders. That’s right – implicit interaction with poor little retarded 20-somethings.

I don’t care if the subject is Introductory Ball-Bearing Manufacturing Methods. As long as I have a polite, respectful teacher, I’ll be all for it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I realize that everybody has bad days. I also realize that many teachers bang the gavel the first few weeks of class to weed people out. My point is that if a teacher is a perpetual dick, no matter how interesting the class is, the students will turn against him/her.

Building rapport is something one has to do in the “real world”, but the student-teacher relationship should be more special than that. (If class size permits.) Kindness shouldn’t be earned. It should be given freely by the teacher until the student becomes blatantly disrespectful or disruptive in the classroom.

Teachers, instructors, and professors, my suggestion is this: Treat serious questions and suggestions cordially, without cynicism or sarcasm. You are a professional; act like one. Be the reason a student learns to love a subject, not the reason he/she learns to abhor it. Be a mentor, not a MINOTAUR.