I suppose even the rotten apples have their positive uses... Image: mbeo
For a while now, I've been sorely tempted to blog about the rotten apple teacher. You know the one I'm talking about. They linger for a bit at the bottom of the barrel, concealing themselves until they hit something in the way of a comfort zone, and then up they pop.
It is potentially perilous to identify the rotten apple teacher by name, but certainly they live on in our collective ELT awareness in deed. The arrogant, bigoted, verging-on-outright-racist remarks and attitude both in the staffroom and in classes with multi-national and multi-cultural students. The erroneous assumption that talking down to students when they make mistakes somehow helps them to improve and like their second-language selves. The presumption that one is entitled to barge in on other teachers' classes to check up on and embarrass students, or else to basically mock the level of the attending students when they don't appear to understand what the intruder is gabbling on about (or why the hell they are even there). The appalling public attitude towards homosexuality (without bothering to know whether any of one's colleagues happen to be gay). The ineptitude with basic principles of effective teaching (despite the oft-quoted special certificates and diplomas and years of experience), and a cover-one's-behind-at-all-costs approach to explaining why certain straightforward administrative policies haven't been followed. The huffy insistence on planning time, on hourly rates, only to produce classes where students sing mindlessly for a couple of hours, or else do a worksheet (from several years ago) with inane, unorganised "communication prompts" on one side, and a gap-fill exercise on the back with completely disconnected decontextualised sentences (for no specific purpose, and for a class that is potentially already well beyond this particular structure). The whispered demands in the staffroom to know what other teachers are earning, and the ongoing theme of bitching about the establishment while -- essentially -- through one's own (in)action, ensuring the establishment stays as close to the dark ages as possible so that one's ineptitude can be safely nursed and concealed.
Yes, I wanted to do that in so many ways (and yes, it's not the first time by a long shot!), and I'm sure you've been sorely tempted to do the same many times yourself.
But there's really little point, in some cases. Like crocodiles, some teachers are -- unfortunately -- at a point where they just can't (or won't) change. It's all the environment's fault, you see. And/or the working conditions. And/or the other teachers. And/or the students. And/or the unfavourable schedule. And/or the weather today... Anything but the crocodile itself, of course.
And until there is a trip and stuff up of colossal enough proportions, when what everyone already knew but couldn't necessarily prove with hard evidence becomes embarrassingly apparent, you're stuck with the nasty dinosaur.
Anyway, there are other -- more positive -- ways of looking at bad apple teacher syndrome:
1. They give students practice with dealing with difficult people with poor attitudes in real-world settings.
So long as they are not the class's sole teacher (and/or not for an extended period of time), I think this experience can be valuable for students. Communicating out in the real world isn't always about dealing with fluffy/happy/kind/patient people, is it? At least in a classroom, there are likely to be at least a few other students who realise the teacher is (a) rather incompetent and (b) a bit of an arse, so there can be a feeling of camaraderie there, and perhaps at some stage the learners will be able to work up the courage to stick up for themselves and each other, even complain to management. Basically, if they can learn to tolerate or stand up to bullyish bigoted behaviour in the classroom, this bodes well for their chances out in the real world.
2. These teachers make the rest of us look so much better...
When you share a class with the bad apple teacher, you can see the look of joy on the students' faces when it is you that walks through the door rather than your noxious colleague. If you happen to take over a class from a bad apple teacher, for the learners it can be like escaping from the Gulag and a period of misery somewhere in Siberia. You might even wander past the bad apple teacher's classroom from time to time, and see the learners spot you and crane their heads, yearning, wishing...
See, there's potentially something positive in everything negative you come across...
=D
