High school teachers play a huge role in the development of adolescents before they apply themselves to society. Whether it’s setting them on the right course, showing the importance of learning, or instilling life values, teachers have many tasks at hand that they must achieve to reach the objective of producing successful students. However, not all high school teachers have that same end goal of generating thoughtful thinkers of society, and based off what they want for you and for themselves, they can be classified into one of three types of high school teachers, the “friend”, the “professor” and the “ideal”.

“The friend”, these are the teachers you see with their legs up on the desk and a pen in their mouth, telling you to do the warm up on the smart board that takes like a million hours, so they have time to finish the morning crossword puzzle and figure out the lesson plan for the rest of the class. They tell you to call them by their first name, and always tell stories of their lives to pass the time so you don’t realize that they have nothing planned, nothing to teach, and nothing to do. These teachers constantly bombard you with links to websites and videos to teach yourself because they don’t know how. To some, this might be the cool teacher that lets you do what you want, sleep when you want, and work when you want, which in some cases might be what you need, a pat on the back for being lazy. But if you are a student who aspire to be more than a worker at McDonalds that can work the morning shifts on a weekday, than this teacher should be avoided at all cost. Don’t be deceived by the “Mr.” or “Mrs.” in front of their last names and think that as teachers, they give a rats tail about you, because they don’t. They just want to go through the motions and receive a paycheck because they chose the wrong major while having too much fun in college and now they are stuck. Their goal for themselves is to get through the end of the day and their goal for you is to pass the class with anything above an F. 

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a teacher as, “a person who is to teach students about certain subjects.” This isn’t my preferred interpretation, but this definition fits perfectly to the next type of teacher which is “the professor”. The “professors” are exactly what they sound like, very monotone, very boring, and they will kick you out of the class for accidently yawning or asking your fellow classmates for help because they went through the slides way too fast, relatable to a college professor. Don’t bother asking them to adapt to your learning style because it’s their classroom, and it’s their rules, and it’s not your jurisdiction to change that. You have a question? Wait until they are done talking as the class ends up overlapping into your passing period because they do not know how to operate a smart board and ends up telling you a story about the old days and how they were better. What are we doing today? Don’t ask this question because you know what you are doing today, it’s been 10 days since the unit started which means you have a quiz and the cycle of no surprise repeats. Unless they decide to diffuse this cherry bomb of homework, tests, quizzes, projects, and essays, which will be never. They tell themselves that if the system has worked for the 20 years they have been teaching, than it should work on you since all students are apparently the same. Never feel special, because you are just one of the 30 names they must memorize for the year until they go on that summer cruise and forget who you are while playing some intense bingo. The goal of these teachers is to maintain that credibility as the OG of education and their goal for you is to make sure that happens. Whether it’s giving you a 13 page worksheet to make sure you know more pointless information that can be discarded as soon as the unit is over, or make you take notes on a 1,000 year old PowerPoint, they just want you to pass the class with a good GPA. But isn’t that what school wants? It is, but this isn’t the way you to go about doing it, for this way of teaching will lead you to hate education, hate learning, and hate school which is not what a teacher should be doing. Instead of being reluctant to change the ways that taught cavemen, they should adapt to you as well as your fellow mates on how you guys learn best.

  Ah, finally, the “the ideal” teacher. These are the teachers who you want to meet in life and experience what it is like to be with not just a teacher, but a role model that exemplifies who you should aspire to be. These teachers care about you, and whoever else that wants to learn the lessons of life, values of education, and steps to success. They conform to your needs, they assist with your wants, and they understand your struggles and frustration. If you’re a student who does not see the big picture of education and its application to life, this teacher will grab your hand and help you draw the outline on a big white canvas that is your dreams. From there, it is your duty to color in this outline and complete this image that is your success. This teacher won’t hold your hand as you eat that 3 day old burrito on the couch you just took a nap in, nor will this teacher hold that roll of toilet paper so you can wipe your butt, for that is your job to apply yourself and put in the work. Life isn’t easy, but this teacher will always be pushing you, will always try to motivate you and will always be at your side holding that palette of paint for you to utilize for yourself. The goal of this teacher is not for you to just pass the class at minimum effort, or have a high GPA while doing it, no, the goal of this teacher is to help you realize your true potential and do everything in their power to lead you down the right path, so you can one day reach it.