Good and Bad Teachers

We all know who they are, don't we? It doesn't matter if it happened sixty years ago or yesterday - we know the difference in our hearts.

Good - They not only like kids and teens, they love them.
Bad - They can't stand you.

Good - Born for the job.
Bad - Should be wardens at the worst penitentiaries you can find.

Good - Receive loving gifts at Christmas from you.
Bad - Receive begrudged stuff because your parents made you give them something.

Good - Have patience and easy smiles.
Bad - Patience isn't even in their meager vocabulary. Smiles would crack their sour faces wide open and their noses would fall off.

Good - Say "good morning" and "goodbye" each school day, as if you're their very own children.
Bad - Tell you not to waste time vacating the premises if you know what's good for you.

Good - Teach, show, and explain until you get it.
Bad - Slap it on the board, ignore your questions, sneak out for a smoke when you all need help. You can hear them cackling through the closed door.

Yes - those bad teachers are cauldron witches, male and female and the questionable, alike.

They have lives after hours doing their best to make everyone around them as miserable as they are. And if they live alone, they pollute the very air they breathe with their ugliness.

Bad teachers yell at the kids.

They scare the kids.

The kids never learn much in their classrooms, unless it's how to treat their enemies on a bad day.

Good teachers you think of years later with a smile on your face and a pleasant sigh.

Bad teachers make you kick the coffee table years later. They make you say you hope they met a miserable death, like hanging upside-down by one shoe caught on an over-hanging tree limb three miles above a canyon in the middle of nowhere, where even the buzzards and vultures turn their noses up at their carcasses.

Now you can think of them with a smile on your face and a sigh.

Oh, yeah.