I recently passed over a page on facebook criticizing the ineptitude of teachers, calling teachers out over the grades students receive in their classes.

Well, listen up, oh benevolent ones: it’s not the teachers’ faults.  Believe what you want—I’m sure you will.  Believe that you’re perfectly fine.  Believe that you’re as brilliant as your parents tell you you are.  Believe that the teachers hate you and are out to get you.

Now believe that the state department is furloughing those teachers. 

Teachers, in an attempt to put a hole in our gaping budget—thank you Mark Sanford—are being excused of their duties. 

It’s easy to place blame.  Throw stones.  Make a scapegoat out of the high-ranking officials. 

Call out the teachers for your shortcomings. 

But heaven forbid you should take matters into your own hands.  Maybe spend another hour a night staring at a chemistry book instead of your Xbox.  Or, just maybe, you could stay awake in class.

The argument becomes: “Well, see, the teachers don’t reach students.  The teachers don’t do a good enough job of explaining what they’re teaching.”

These are the parents.  These are the observers. 

Well I’ve been in classrooms.  I’ve watched kids fall asleep during tests.  I’ve watched my teachers explain and explain and explain.  I’ve seen white boards on walls full of ink—and sheets of notebook paper on desks full of nothing.

I’ve fallen asleep in class; I’ve made bad grades. 

And I’ve also learned how to write.  How to solve quadratic equations.  How to explain DNA replication.  How to debate.  Write speeches.  Paint.  Design pages.

Don’t tell me the teachers are the problems.  Don’t tell me they don’t reach students.  They may not be the movie-type college professors that teach you life lesson after life lesson, but be careful about the bones you pick with the professionals that are willing to sacrifice their jobs so maybe our world can be a little bit more educated.

The tragedy in the situation, though, is that you can’t argue against ignorance.  You can’t argue against the students who just don’t want to learn.  Or listen.  And the same students get offensive when the oppressive job market singles out their lack of education. 

As Kurt Vonnegut put it: “Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.  He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.”