How Bad Students Become Good Teachers

“Badly behaved students generally get away with quite a lot, and they have a sense of just how often they should have been caught and punished. I recently spoke with an administrator who admitted to being a bad student back in high school and he remarked that slackers grew up with a keener sense of just how little a stern talk really does. Bad students know how often lazy, ignorant teachers let them get away with murder—and they know what sort of discipline could have saved them from squandering years of their lives. They think, “I know what kind of message would have gotten through to me,” and the cynicism they feel toward sentimental, ineffectual correction drives them to do better. Bad students turn into teachers who not only know how to catch bad students, but how to effectively punish them. They turn into adults who know just how easy and dangerous it is to confuse indulgence for grace.”

-from my latest for CiRCE