So my internship.

I'm observing in a middle school right now, and it's been...an interesting experience.


I have found very few things I want to emulate as a teacher. I have, however, found quite a few things I find to be inadequate, ineffective, and just plain wrong.


Maybe my perspective is all wrong - I'm still technically a student and not a teacher yet, so what do I really know? But to my mind, these things are wrong/bad/stupid:


1) Not having any background knowledge on the subject you teach.
          OK, so maybe American history isn't your strong point. It's not mine, either. But if I were in charge of teaching it, I sure as hell would have boned up on my subject before school started. I wouldn't just rely on the curriculum guide and the textbook to help you teach your students. That textbook is worthless; the curriculum guide is only marginally better. To effectively teach your students - and by effectively, I mean in a way that will engage them, that encourages them to mature in academic and personal areas, that is conducive to the development of critical thinking, and that fosters a genuine interest in the subject - you need to make yourself an expert. You have to know your subject backwards and forwards, you need to know the relevant controversies/issues that can generate debate in the classroom, and you need to be aware of the context of the period you're teaching. Without context, the facts mean almost nothing. Anyone can memorize the Virginia and New Jersey Plans and the 3/5 Compromise, but if you don't understand why the Constitution framers put forth these plans, or why the problems of representation and slavery were of such importance to them, then you cannot adequately teach the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to your students. 
2) Being a lazy teacher.
         Yea, becoming an expert isn't easy. It takes a lot of work. But teaching isn't an easy job. It's not something you can coast through and perform only the bare minimum. Your actions directly impact dozens of students each year - if you only give them a standard experience, what do they walk away with? A sketchy knowledge of your subject and an apathetic attitude towards school? Teaching demands that you actively work, every single day, to engage your students and get them interested in what they're learning. Those teachers who don't feel like working hard every day, who don't take the time to really learn their own subject - they're ruining the experience for their students.
3) Making generalizations.
         Do not stand up in the front of your classroom and say things like, "The North was pro-abolition and the South was pro-slavery." It is SO MUCH MORE COMPLEX than that. There were thousands of people who did not reflect these regional divisions. You cannot disregard individual opinion in favor of a nice, neat little statement that saves you the trouble of actually having to explain a complex and controversial issue.
         [Note: the teacher that I'm interning with is not actually guilty of this. This statement comes from my own personal experiences as a student.]
4) Dismissing a student's opinion as "wrong."
        First of all, it's an opinion. By definition, it cannot BE wrong. It can certainly be uniformed, but if this is the case, then it's your responsibility as a teacher to correct the misinformation and allow the student to re-formulate his opinion however he sees fit. Telling a student that he or she is wrong because his opinion is not what the curriculum guide tells you is "correct" is a horrible way to teach a class. If a student is able to present an opinion and back it up with some evidence, then he deserves to be taken seriously and not be shot down simply because "I'm the teacher and what I say is the final answer." 
5) Standardized unit tests.
        I can't adequately describe the horror I felt when I found out that the unit tests for this middle school are written by the county. This is the conversation I had with a teacher about it:
        Me: "Does having a standardized unit test hinder how you teach your class?"
        Teacher: "Not really; the curriculum pretty much feeds straight into the test so it all works out."
        Me: "Then what do you do if you disagree with the curriculum?"
        Teacher: "Find a job elsewhere."
While I do see both sides of the "standardized curriculum" debate - and I'll admit, I am still struggling to decide if I support it or not - that sort of government control over the classroom frightens me. I can understand a segment of society not wanting an irresponsible teacher to fail to teach their children, and I can understand then why they would want a rigidly-defined curriculum in place. But if the administration in that society also fails to properly educate its children, it is much harder to fight against their deficiencies than it is to fight against an individual teacher's. If I disagree with a curriculum, but my job security and paycheck are dependent on my students performing well on their standardized tests, I have to teach what the county/state tells me I am required to teach. I find this to be a devastating blow to the field of education.