Misconception #153: We should support all teachers because we have all had teachers who have touched us in a positive way

Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.

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We have all had a teacher that touched our lives. Actually, that's technically not true. Not everybody has learned in a schooling environment. For the sake of simplicity, let's only look at those who attended school.

Those of us who attended have had teachers touch our lives, but context tends to complicate this. The idea that teachers touched our lives is generally intended to win our support for the profession. Although they don't normally clarify this argument, what they mean is that we have all had teachers who have touched our lives in a positive way.

Again, this is not true. When I was in school, my teachers were consistently anti-educational, intolerant, and abusive. I grew up in the schools, but I never had a teacher touch my life in a positive way. I definitely had teachers touch my life in a negative way.

This brings up another issue. Defenders of the schools are trying to get us to evaluate the entire profession based on only the best that we've encountered. We shouldn't elevate lousy teachers just because of the best teachers.

Even the best teachers really aren't that good. We have normalized the wrongdoing of the profession so much that we don't see it as wrongdoing. The best teachers are generally not very good. They're just better than teachers who are even worse.

The bottom line here is that we shouldn't support the entirety of the teaching profession just because some teachers aren't as bad as others. This is a profession that can do a lot of damage to innocent children. Personally, I don't view that as a reason to show my support.