The only public school teacher I ever learned jack from

Only one public school teacher from the so-called “good old days” is worth praising. That’s how much of a joke my school was. 

To say my old school was a joke is an understatement. I dealt with teachers who wanted to be anywhere but in a classroom, teachers more interested in coaching sports than they were standing in front of a class, and one who was so clueless, I’m still not sure how they managed to make it to work each day.

Looking back, even teachers most of my old classmates liked were no good.

• The so-called best history teacher in the school? An outright conformist sheep.
• Best science teacher? Entertaining, but didn’t teach me a damn thing that stuck.
• English teacher? I’m hearing crickets.
• Math teacher? Again. Crickets.
  • Note: I was related to one of the math teachers, so this does not count them for obvious reasons.

It wasn’t until my senior year that I finally hopped into a class that stuck. One where the teacher didn’t drone through lectures while we feigned interest.

Instead, he started each class with, “So, what do you all wanna talk about today?”

If they all started with that quip, school would’ve been so fun, I’d’ve failed senior year on purpose and taken a victory lap.

Anyway, back to this teacher. When he asked us what was on our minds, nothing was off the table. We mainly talked about sports.

Or politics. And when I say politics, we debated like sane people. That means we weren’t hurling insults at each other and were friends again the second class ended.

I remember this teacher because their class still sticks

Wanna know how effective a public school teacher is nearly two decades after you graduated? Look back and ask yourself if you got anything from their class.

That science teacher I mentioned earlier? For years, I’d’ve said they were the best in the school. Except here I am, writing this post, trying to remember even an iota of what I got from them.

Nothing, except for the story he told about some kid who was passed out drunk in the hallways, “Smashed, at 6:30 in the morning.” Or, how he couldn’t stand parents who “Didn’t give a rat’s petunia” about their kids’ grades.

Okay, so I remember the quips. But he doesn’t compare to that teacher from senior year.

When you’re talking about Super Bowl XLIII, which my Cardinals would’ve won if they didn’t give Ben the ball back with so much time left, to the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, you know you had a kick-ass teacher.

And one whose lack of lecturing and forcing us to take weekly recite and repeat rituals called tests jumped out. Hell, no wonder everyone wanted to take his class.

If public school teachers followed his lead…

Public schools would at least be harder to criticize. But unfortunately, most teachers I had in school were either:

• Disengaged
• Lazy
• Boring

Here are some examples:

• One teacher lectured word-for-word from notes he put on a legal pad
• Another spent the day playing online poker
• Yet another constantly recommended kids get checked for ADHD
  • Few of my friends ended up on meds after that one

But that teacher I had during senior year? They proved that, if you make things interesting enough, yeah, kids can learn in public school.

And when I say learn, I mean what they got from that class won’t fizzle out after a few months, a few years, or even a few decades. Unfortunately, teachers like them are few and far between.

One character who lucked out

Why am I talking about this? Because in my young adult academy fantasy, one of my characters steps into high school for the first time.

But her school’s not like the government-funded prisons you or I went to. Or those traditional private schools that are practically public schools with a price tag.

Nah, at Arcane Elemental Academy, all of Yote Diamondback’s teachers are like the one whose class still resonates with me. It’s a culture shock for Yote, who can’t imagine school can roll in such an extreme direction.

She’s used to sitting in class and listening to teachers drone about nonsense she’ll never use in life. But that’s not the shock Yote will face.

She’s more important than she thinks; she just doesn’t realize it. What makes Yote so important? Find out in Book I of the Arcane Elemental Academy series, The Arcane Prophecy. Read the first three chapters here.