@Adirondackwannabe, You see in my post I make a distinction; leaders, and teachers. Teachers we learn from. Leaders keep order, follow a lesson plan, grade papers, but we can’t call them teachers, because nobody really learns from them. I’ve had both. I had an algebra teacher who was smart, knew his subjects (he also taught science), but he didn’t know how to teach. He flunked over 80% of his students in one year.
We got rid of him. He was offered a contract, even though parents were up in arms, and I think some may have threatened his life. I was one of the few students who passed, only because I am capable of teaching myself. I learned algebra from the book. Science I knew enough to pass the tests, and I did extra credit projects I studied on my own to make up for the lessons I missed. I felt a duty to my classmates, and future students to help get rid of him. We banded together; not just one class, but all his students. We pulled off stunts which left him feeling hopeless, like us. We teased him unmercifully, I left him a note explaining that his knowledge wasn’t doing us any good if he couldn’t learn how to teach. Someone slipped it onto or into his desk. I used him, with a different name, for a writing project I was assigned. It was about a teacher who invited students to his house to get extra help and turn their failing grades. The students were coming up missing, but nobody knew where they were, because none of them had mentioned they were going to go to his house. I found out, and rescued them. The story got passed around, and was enough to start some creepy thoughts about a guy keeping HS students in his basement.
It all blended together to convince him to go away.
I had a “teacher” in grade school who put me to sleep sometimes during math class. I was barely passing the grade. Another teacher convinced the school to switch me to her class. I thrived. She showed interest in my pursuits. She even tolerated a visit from my pet snake. She was the one who caused me to think about more than three dimensions, and consider what other dimensions might resemble. The paper I wrote about it got an A. She encouraged my imagination, cared about my personal feelings, appealed to my natural child hunger for more; more to do, more to learn, more to achieve. SHE was a teacher.