I learned a lot about who I was throughout high school. I learned who I wanted to be, and who I refused to ever become. I had many great friends and many fantastic teachers who helped me learn and grow into the person I am today. But with all the good, comes the bad. I am lucky to say I have only had one teacher, throughout my entire educational experience, I would call a "bad" teacher. Now, I will not name names, nor state specifics about the teacher's identity because I think it lacks class. We’ll just refer to them as Teacher X.

Not everyone will like you and it is not always your fault. See, Teacher X did not like me. I did not know why, as I had never met this teacher before the class. I was a good kid, with a good reputation, but for some reason, anytime I would have a question, and would go up to the desk to ask it, Teacher X would simply glare at me until the student teacher came up and answered the question for me. Throughout our whole semester together, Teacher X never said a single word to me. Of course, I quickly understood why this teacher despised me so much; more so, how Teacher X did not like my Hijab.

But of course, because we are a package deal, it resulted in the dislike of me.

Now this teacher never graded me unfairly nor did their hatred for me impede my learning. I do not know whether it would have because the student teacher did all the grading and he did not seem to have any issues with my scarf.

Rather than teaching the subject I was supposed to be learning, Teacher X taught me that not everyone is going to like me and there is not much I can do about it. I had to learn that my value as a person was not rooted in whether people liked me. Because of the fact that Teacher X had an authority over me, I also had to treat them with a level of respect. This experience taught me that even though I do not agree with something a person does, that does not mean I should treat them any different than I would anyone else. Through Teacher X’s class I also learned just because someone stoops so low, does not mean I have to join them.

Basically, Teacher X taught me how to rise above, which is a lesson I am very grateful for.

Bad teachers often leave students wondering what is wrong with them. More often than not, parents do not believe a teacher simply dislikes a student. They say try harder or focus more. Some teachers take advantage of their role and treat their students poorly. I understand when people make points about how a world without bad teachers would be better.

I understand, but I do not have to agree.

I think that if the world lacked bad teachers, and no one had to deal with adversity coming from an authoritative place early on in their lives, they wouldn’t know how to deal with it when it truly began to matter.

See, you are not always going to get along with your boss, or the guy in charge, but if you want to keep your job you are going to have to treat them with a level of respect. You will not always agree with what your neighbor does for fun on the weekends but you are going to have to treat them with a level of respect. You are not going to always agree with your parents and their opinions of things but you are going to have treat them with respect.

Respect is such an important thing and, when faced with adversity, it is important to still have respect for the person in front of you.

For that, I thank you, Teacher X.

Yours Respectfully,

Tiffany Taylor