Kid in the red shoes

   
 Every student has just as much responsibility as the teacher but has much more to lose. The teacher has less motivation for a child to understand the material, they get paid either way. What qualities make a good teacher? One that quality that should come first is someone that takes their job seriously and understand how important their job is. Not every student is the same, each child is an individual that may or may not learn like the rest. These are the future of america and the people get molded into in school are the kind of people they are going to grow up to be. A good teacher needs to put in more time than they thought they would have to. Students are at a vulnerable stage in their lives and don't want to look dumb in front of their peers so don't ask questions during class, students feel more comfortable talking to the teacher after class because of it's more casual setting. One thing that most of my teachers throughout high school lacked was passion, the students could tell they didn't care for their job and only wanted the salary, maybe they once cared about teaching but one to many bad classes cause the passion to burn out, maybe good teacher aren't permanent.
      I once had an English teacher that gave up on reading a book halfway through it and for the rest of the year just had the TV on while he slept at his desk, students would bring their Nintendo Wii and play super smash bros or watch "cops" during the whole class and he passed all his students. I later found out that he knew he was going to get fired because of budget cuts, so I guess he just said fuck it and decided to just lay back and rake in those final paychecks. He had potential to be a great teacher, he started out strong and I felt that the class was going to be enjoyable to be a part of but, when he stopped caring it stopped be fun because he was trying to make learning fun but, because we could basically do whatever we want. The reason the class went on like that for as long as it did was because none of the students fought it. what student would, I hate to say it but, that was a dream class back in high school. The reason why was because  most students don't associate a high school English class with fun, when you think of a high school English class you think of a boring quite class where all the students are either reading a lengthy, boring novel or writing about the lengthy, boring novel. Ever since the whole  "No Child Left Behind Act" students no longer have that fear of falling behind a grade. I think students need that , a little fear is the fuel that keeps our passion burning, if they know they're going to get bumped up to the next grade regardless then what's the point of working hard, and the teachers that don't care whether or not the students learn anything. Some times they have this idea of "well they'll just learn it the next grade."
      Most of the people in our graduating class never thought college was even a possibility, students thought college was reserved only for the rich, and I was in senior in 2008/2009 when the economy went to shit so everybody thought the whole country was going to shit, our parents could barely fill up a full tank of gas how would they be able to pay for college. In the poorer school districts they assumed that the majority of students would either drop out or finish or go straight into the workforce, so I was never approached by anybody about colleges or preparing for college, the only people that wouldn't stop bothering me my last year of high school was the military.