I Don’t Care if you’re “cool.” You’re Still a Bad Teacher

The profession of teaching is under constant attack by out of touch administrations. This is setting a precedent for mediocre homogenized education. Although the two speakers in the film had no shortage of bombast, especially Marc Edmundson, they did raise a few points about the struggle between teachers in a university setting now being forced to balance teaching most effectively with frantically trying to keep their jobs.

In the section title “Is it part of the professor’s job to be uncool?” the professors highlight the dilemma facing teachers when they are confronted with the decision to challenge their students at the risk of jeopardizing their careers via poor student evaluations. While my time in college has been too short to comment specifically on the university atmosphere, their point seems especially true when I reflect on my experience in high school. There was one geography teacher in particular who always received fantastic student reviews. This was, of course, because nearly everyone in the class received a grade upwards around the 125% mark even though they learned next to nothing. While this was one extreme example of a spineless teacher, plenty of teachers seemed in vain to relate to the student or appear “cool.” The result was usually always a teacher who came off as insincere or “try hard.”

While it is unfortunate that this became something of the norm, the professors touch on something that proved to be the exception. While I highlighted a teacher that was among the worst of the worst, there were a few who managed to be absolutely adored by their students while being uncompromising in the difficult standards that they set. Pretention aside, Edmundson actually paint the picture almost perfect when he describes an “A+ teacher” as one who changes the lives of 50% of the class, is adequate in the eyes of 30% of the class, and is borderline unbearable for 10% of the class (Good thing he teacher English and not History, that’s only 90%). Almost without fail, our yearbooks selection of the teacher who was students choice for “most respected” or “favorite teacher” was a particularly difficult teacher who taught AP United States history. This was because she was genuinely passionate about the material that she taught. Students can sense from a mile away the difference between a teacher who pretends that their material is important and one who shows it is important with genuine displays of emotion.

While I agree with the professors about some of the points they make, particularly in regards to teacher evaluations, I believe that the entire issue of teachers and being “cool” is trivial. Great teaching is completely beside such vague terms. I’ve had teachers that may have been the polar opposite of “cool” but still commanded the admiration and respect of their students.  However, there are still teachers I have had that the student popular considered “cool” and were still amazing teachers. So the idea that teachers have to be mindful of how “cool” they are or somehow put on an act, and usually a poor one, that they are “cool” is almost idiotic. The best teachers, as William Deresiewicz shortly touched on, are ones that act like themselves and actually believe that the material that they teach is important.

However, the idea of a student evaluation is a great idea that is just executed awfully. Barring the extremes, student evaluations should not be used as a basis for keeping or firing a teacher. This is especially true when considering the fact that students may not even take the evaluations seriously. Ideally, the evaluations would be anonymous ways for students to give input that would allow the professor to teach more effectively in the future, in hopes of eliciting real enthusiasm from students. When used as a basis for keeping or losing jobs, the evaluations and the pressure that teachers feel from them ultimately make teachers start considering factors that have absolutely nothing with making them effective teachers.

Even though the two professor used a lot of words to say very little, their argument against teacher evaluations, as they are often used now, shows just how this pressure to not do anything too radical makes the nation’s entire higher education standards contently mediocre. Teachers cannot teach effectively when they feel that every action that they take in the classroom is like moving a chess piece in a game that determines their fate as educators, scholars, and even providers if they lose income. Instead there must be an emphasis on improving the standard of education for each individual teacher by using the evaluations in the most effective way possible, as a means of learning from past mistakes and doing what works. Teaching has nothing to do with life-deciding evaluations, false personas, or the word “cool”, but rather with a dedication to inspiring interest though real passion.