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Comment by bphogan | Hacker News Reader

Another thread said it. Pay them well.

You pay me a nice salary and let me interact with students who want to learn and I will gladly develop great curriculum and deliver excellent results.

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> ... let me interact with students who want to learn

the key to being a great teacher is engaging the ones that don't want to learn.

I respectfully disagree that motivating students and educating them must necessarily be done by the same person. The best teachers should be reserved for the best students if we want to get the best results. Forcing your best teachers to babysit wastes their time and drives them into better careers.

That'll entirely depend on how you define the word "great", and just means you and the GP are talking about different kinds of teaching, done by different teachers, aimed at different students.

I have been nominated for teaching excellence awards by students who didn't want to learn when they entered my classroom. I am considered by many to be a great teacher based on my student evaluations and peer feedback.

But it's tiring and taxing, and it takes time away from interacting with the people who do want to be there.

These little quips like yours usually come from people who have never taught a diverse group of students before, and they are condescending to people who dedicate their lives to teaching others.

> These little quips like yours usually come from people who have never taught a diverse group of students before, and they are condescending to people who dedicate their lives to teaching others.

I've been a high school teacher the past 12 years.

Then you should know how condescending it sounds to have someone say the equivalent of "Well if you were good at your job you could make everyone learn."

> "Well if you were good at your job you could make everyone learn."

I never said this.

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