Teacher or Preacher

Something that has bugged me going into senior year is that more and more, the opinions of my teachers manifest themselves much more frequently. Teachers make statements based on their opinions that are expressed as fact, and students take their opinions as fact, because they’ve been conditioned to do so. Too sparingly, the teachers that do so get lucky enough to not get fired due to their preferences. For example, one of my teachers stated that he wouldn’t teach high school freshmen or sophomores because they weren’t mature enough, and luckily he doesn’t. If his students were any younger, presumably they would come home and tell their parents about what he said over the course of the day, and if any of his political, religious, or economic opinions were expressed, the parents would act to keep the teachers from imposing these views on their children, and the best way to do so is to keep the teachers from expressing their opinions in class. Obviously, this doesn’t always happen, but one way or another, teachers are prohibited from imposing their opinions onto their younger students. But, as students get older, they become more independent, but not necessarily less impressionable. Their independence means parents aren’t as aware of the teacher conduct, and their impressionability leaves them victim to the molding of their teachers.

Worst part of this is that the teachers know this, or at least they should. Part of the process of learning how to educate is knowing patterns in childhood, and being easily manipulated is a frequent characteristic in children of all ages. The notion that teachers would know the power they have over kids and consciously misuse it, regardless of their job requirements. In public school, teachers are employed by the state. As long as they are on campus during school hours, they represent the state, and thus have a responsibility to remain comparatively objective. Now, if a student approaches a teacher after hours asking about their opinion, perfectly fine. That’s a private conversation between two people, not a communication between a civil servant and person. But if it’s in school, its exploitation of minors to distribute a personal philosophy or opinion, because they are in an environment where they are expected to take their teacher’s word on everything, where their ability to distinguish between opinion and fact is blurred.

So, in short, teachers who maintain relative objectivity, props to you, teachers who don’t, suck a bucket of duck fucks.