From Dusk In Autumn (edited)
A good teacher has to be honest and hard-headed. And, honest reflection demands that we abandon the illusion that all students are above-average blank slates.
Most students are bored to tears by school because it is geared to those who are bright, enthusiastic and promising. Average or below-average students get frustrated because the material is over their heads.
But a good teacher can relate to students who aren't bright nor highly conscientious. And that entails revealing the awful truth that life isn't fair, that there are some things you have to learn in order to function as a job-holding adult, and that large parts of formal schooling should just be viewed as a day job you have to tolerate until you have the opportunity to do something else.
Make-believe is the opposite of good teaching. You motivate students by not lying to them, so never pretend that all of their course material will be vitally important later on.
Comment: Recruiters have to be good teachers, too, breaking the bad news to vain-glorious candidates that they are not as terrific as they imagine themselves to be.
They have to be stern mentors to their clients as well, advising them that it is very difficult to find an eight- armed hermaphrodite who can juggle fragile dishes and make both men and women swoon to fill a very modestly paid job.
