Misconception #55: The key to being a good teacher is to make learning fun

"So and so is my favorite teacher because he makes learning fun." Give me a break. I had teachers who were humorous, and students loved them. That did not make them good teachers. Failing in an entertaining way is still failing.


The "makes learning fun" cliché overly simplifies the learning process. There are so many variables to how children learn that it's wrong to single out one. I like humor, but joking during a lecture doesn't change the fact that lectures are designed to have all children learn the exact same thing in the exact same way at the exact same time. That means you can turn a class into a stand-up routine and still fail to do a legitimately good job at teaching.

You can inject humor and other forms of entertainment in forms other than lectures. I had a teacher refer to his tests as testaroonies (how do you pluralize testarooney?). That same teacher even had a debate over the proper spelling of thingy. He was entertaining. He was also the teacher who informed me that he couldn't meet my needs because I was an individual.

Part of the problem is that these teachers do not actually make learning fun. They add humor as a distraction. If you like a teacher on a more personal level, you are not as likely to complain when you are doing the exact same homework assignment that kids in other classes are receiving. Things seem a little less tedious. Essentially, these teachers are not really making learning fun. They are making their schoolwork slightly less boring.

I want to say one more thing. If these teachers are really so good at teaching, why are their students incapable of coming up with their own reasons for liking them? It's always the same cliché, "He makes learning fun." Apparently, good teachers are responsible for children who can't think for themselves. If you know the profession, that actually makes sense.