“How do you know all this?”
I can’t say it’s rare for me to be asked that question.
People’s innocent attempts at small talk often lead to full-fledged discourses from yours truly.
I’ve shown a notable ability to accumulate facts—some of which are more useful than others. But even though most would call this a valuable trait, my skill actually stems from a not-so-positive truth:
I have trust issues.
No, not in a relationship sense (okay well, maybe a little). It’s more so because I don’t trust teachers.
I always hated college classes that didn’t use textbooks. They put me at the mercy of a professor’s style, interpretation, and teaching ability—or lack thereof.
I needed material I could digest on my own. If I passed or failed it was gonna be on my shoulders, not the ones on a person I met four months ago.
Even then I knew what defined a poor student: trusting teachers too much.
But today, I’ll show you how to avoid this common mistake so you can learn more than you ever imagined.
Know the Roles
Before you learn how to do any of this, you need to know the roles.
There are always three roles in every learning system, and I’ve listed each of the three below:
- Source Material
- Teacher
- Student
It doesn’t matter what school you attend, what info you’re learning, or which medium you use. These three roles will always exist.
For the purpose of this post, I’ll assume you fit into the third role of student. So that leaves us with two roles left to assign.
You have your source material which contains what you want to learn. And you have the role of teacher, who acts as a middle man to relay that information.
In a school setting, the textbook obviously acts as the source material while the professor assumes the role of teacher. But unconventional systems assign these roles to different parties.
Your source material could be a film or a speech to review. Your teacher could be a study guide, a YouTube video, or some random blogger on the internet.
But no matter who or what assumes these roles, the teacher will analyze the source material, break it down into smaller chunks, and pass that info along to driven students…
Well, at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Problem is, most learning systems are far too dependent on one role: the teacher.
But teachers are flawed people (which means the material they produce is often flawed too).
Many teachers have bias, poor comprehension, lousy communication, ignorance of source material, lack of care for their students, and personal agendas. And if students aren’t wary of these, they’ll eventually learn the teacher instead of the source itself.
This is why you can’t blindly trust anyone in that role:
- Poor teachers corrupt learning systems.
- Corrupt systems create ignorant students.
- And ignorant students create generational gaps in knowledge.
So all it takes to ruin a generation are a few people who don’t do their job.
Play Leapfrog
So how do you avoid the mess caused by horrible teachers?
It’s simple.
You play their role.
Sure, there are times when you can replace your teacher or seek help from another source, but there’s no guarantee that the other party will do any better. Plus it’s often not feasible to pull this off.
So instead of searching for an ideal fit, you, the student, need to fill that role.
This was the change I made back on campus. While others complained about Mrs. Smith or Mr. Pondexter, I dove headfirst into the source. And now as a lifelong learner who’s not confined to a classroom, I still apply the same strategy.
No matter how popular a teacher is or how many accolades they’ve earned, I remind myself that they’re still flawed. And given the choice of which flawed human to trust, best believe it’s gonna be me.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to promote disrespect. But as a lifelong student, you should care enough about your education to not leave it in someone else’s hands.
You can’t evaluate teachers anyway if you don’t know the source material. But once you start teaching yourself from the source, you’ll see the faults many teachers have.
Good students know that good teachers are rare. So you should always prepare for the norm.
Value the source material over everything. And remember that teachers are just humans with a title.
Keep those facts in mind, and I promise, you will learn more than you ever imagined.
Trust Issues Aren’t Always Bad
The difference between smart and foolish isn’t IQ—it’s attitude.
Good students know their job isn’t a passive one. That’s why they review the source material, evaluate their teachers, and then decide which role to play.
Sure, this mentality can come across a bit disrespectful, but education is worth far more than respect.
So when you find yourself in that student role—and hopefully you often will—never fully trust the teacher.
(And yes, that applies to me too.)
-Drew
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