As I reflected upon the grades received after finals I began to become more content with something that has always troubled me: good professors, bad professors, and how they can create impacts on us that last a lifetime. We often say that the teacher is the most important influence that we will have as students. They can either inspire us to love the subject or push us to loathe the academic contents that they teach.
Personally, I am grateful that I have had so many amazing math teachers and professors throughout the years. My math teacher in senior year of high school, for instance, who taught AP Calculus, explained and taught everything with such clarity and detail that it built my fundamental basis in higher mathematics. That also became one of the reasons why, when I took Calculus again in college, everything became much easier to understand with the help of my next math professor, who is also incredibly clear when explaining concepts.
To be honest, I’ve never liked math that much since I’ve always pictured the subject to be difficult and time-consuming. But, after my experiences with these two professors, I discovered my interest in mathematics--which is essential for my major.
On the other hand, science was never my strong-suit. Perhaps the subject itself was too complex to grasp, or maybe the material is not of the category of things that I’m able to automatically process. Regardless of the countless other reasons behind it, I often think that it was because I’ve never run into a professor who is able to make the subject fun for me. Rather, my old chemistry teacher, who is believed to have been let go in my high school, became one of the reasons why I didn’t enjoy the study of science--especially chemistry.
It wasn’t about the professor anymore. It was more about the memories that I had with the subject that left a disappointing, yet ever-lasting, taste in my mouth.
Maybe we are all naturally gifted in one subject area more than another. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t succeed in another field. Each of us is, and can be, inspired by a particular way and style of teaching. It may not be the conventional approach, nor may it be a method that’s widely applied, but, one way or another, there’s always a path for where our true interests lie.
Yes, professors are critical to learning the subject. But I still believe that there are professors out there who can clear all the imprints of a foul memory of a bad semester.
All professors are great. It’s just their varying manner of teaching that marks the difference between a good experience and a bad experience for an individual. You might find a professor’s work enjoyable, while another may feel like it’s impossible to deal with the situation anymore. Nevertheless, in the end, it’s really what you make of it.
