Old Skool

Sometimes I reminisce about childhood and breathe a sigh of relief that I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of Old Skool Skoolin' when I was at my most impressionable. Yes, back in the day when teachers had decades of experience and understood that young minds needed them to be more than just "cool" tutors.

Alas, the slow corrosion of teacher credibility began somewhere around middle school. Suddenly newly indoctrinated educators were over-sharing and under role modeling (broke up with your bf and crying in class? GREAT! Having secret affair with fellow faculty member? AWESOME!). Although the preteen me was predisposed to respect authority, it was middle school that finally got me thinking that sometimes, teachers don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Although there were still a few old skool gems here and there, most of the lot were freeloading off of our indoctrinated AzN Academic Anal-ness and calling it "effective methodology evinced by scholastic aptitude."

Nowadays I wonder how I could ever have thought otherwise. With no real filtering mechanism in place, it's safe to say that even I could probably become a teacher. Can you imagine that? This fireball of hateration having disproportionate influence over kids at their most vulnerable time? Yeah. It's a wonder we all grew up to be somewhat functional. Though it's uplifting to see that those of us who didn't are actually now teachers. Payback?