Last semester I read the book called “The Courage to Teach“. This book, while valuable in parts, nearly gave me a seizure.
The author does a great job explaining why it is so important to invest oneself in teaching, but he also does a great job instilling into the reader that “there are no bad students, only bad teachers”. I beg to differ. Don’t misunderstand me, I think bad can come on both sides of the equation.
I believe there are discouraged students, downtrodden students, resistant students… these students need to be helped with a personal relationship with the professor, i.e. knowing that the professor genuinely cares about them. The instructor should take on the role as mentor as well as teacher… this is important. HOWEVER, I felt my anxiety needlessly rise through the roof as I turned page after page, leaving myself with the aching feeling that if a student fails, I failed.
I disagree. I do believe that there are some cases where this is true, but not all. I think it’s important to invest ourselves in our classes, putting our best self forward, trying as hard as we can, but not to blame our self for student who genuinely don’t seem to care. I will try my best to reach such students if/when they come along, but I will not beat myself up if I do try and it is simply fruitless.