By Charles Schnell, Self-Proclaimed King of Mediocrity, Controversy, and Unavailability
Is it better to be the teacher or the student? Neither, if you still do not have a significant other.
When all is said and done, there is not much of a difference between teachers and students. We are all human, and that means on our best days, we are all imperfect. (Albeit, some more than others.)
Teachers and students are more similar than the teachers would like to admit. For one thing, we all fall in love. Teachers fall in love with Lincoln, the Ti-84, the government, and the College Board. And students, well, we fall in love with each other–for better or worse.
Additionally, we all have favorite foods. I am sure all my teachers are craving an In-N-Out burger as much as I am. The difference here is students have the metabolism to handle the burger, the shakes, and the fries that find themselves tossed around in the bag.
Sure, metabolism is great, but being a student certainly is not free of its own disadvantages; teachers have a “leg-up” on us in many things. They cannot be grounded by their parents, only the law; they get to correct the homework instead of doing it; they can drink. As a lover of freedoms like these, I would rather be a teacher than a student. However, if you were to ask teachers, I’m sure they’d rather be students again.
To sum it up, teachers and students have one key similarity trumping all other similarities: our humanity. We are all human, so maybe we can reach an understanding and compromise. Teachers, if you stop giving us homework, we will stop giving you homework to grade. Imagine how many outings to Applebee’s we could make.
Editor: Luke Langlois
Lawrence Nelson says
Honestly, Applebee’s could create world peace. The school should create a field-trip to Applebee’s.
Charles Schnell says
Junior retreat that begins and ends with Applebee’s?
kenny sarkis says
If a “student” and “teacher” are defined in relation to academic setting, there’s room for differentiating. If they are defined in relation to life, there is no difference. As Charles says “we are all human”. From birth to death, (and perhaps beyond), it is instinctive that we “learn”. It is inevitable that we “teach”.
Peter Kadel says
whats really weird is when you are still a student but your job requires you to teach, you’re young but those kid you are responsible for make you feel so old. Nice article Charles. Keep it up.