No role models

May 16th, 2023

I almost missed the fact of the coming end of the school year —with me having no children, you know. But more and more conversations at work drift to this subject — grades and trying for better gates and tests for different classes of children of my co-workers. And the subject of teachers is also loudly discussed — with all the voices supporting better pay and praising the teachers for the work they do.

That is very surprising for me — not the idea of better pay for teachers since that is a given in my view, but the fact that teachers try to shape young minds in the best possible way and that is visible to parents of the said children. I heard only positive stories and comments about them with no negativity at all. And that is not what I remember from my school days, granted I finished my classroom education thirty years ago —

Actually, I don't really remember my teachers except for the few really bad ones, those who treated me with malice or criminal indifference when I needed help as a teenager. The rest of them — they all combine into a bland and fuzzy and boring image in my memory. I didn't have any outstanding teacher, someone who would lead me to discoveries or cultivate interest in a particular subject. That is very sad.

On the other hand, that led me to become an autodidact and started me on the path of discoveries that I made on my own. Or maybe all that was my fault — the teachers were by design leveling their methods down to the lowest common denominator among my classmates, and that wasn't good enough for me. Maybe I already then knew the hypocrisy and jealousy and rejection aimed at those daring to stand out and wanting more.