As a teacher, I definitely hate this quote and worse yet, it’s popular enough that I get to hear it, usually from students, more often than I’d like. It’s a good cheap shot at teachers and until now, has not had much in the way of a come back.

However, it IS important to realize the limitations of the logic behind this statement and once you do, you’ll be able to forgive your inner insecurities about the whole damn thing….

Look at it this way, “Those who can, do…”

Well I fit this half of the saying perfectly: I can teach and that is precisely why I do teach!

But like you, I’ve had plenty of ineffective teachers. Ironically enough, they all tend to be college professors…. Hmmmm, I’m beginning to think the mediocrity lies here.

Maybe it’s these college professors that are responsible for the apparent necessity of coining the adage? As Thoreau once said upon returning from his studies at Harvard, “I think I’ll think for a while; that’ll be a nice change from college.”

The way I see it, it seems like there are just too many individuals that go off to college, only to stay in college, like it’s some big escape from the responsibilities of the real world or something—but then again, the keg parties weren’t bad either. But then after spending some 8-10 years in college, only to realize their getting a “little old” they decide, “Maybe I should go get a job or something.”

Problem is these guys are now quite over-educated and contrastingly under-experienced for their age and the business world positions they seek. Teaching college and adding a second PhD to their name seems like the only choice left to them… It’s similar to how all those meat-head jocks back in high school wound up becoming cops b/c they never really amounted to anything on their own and one day they finally realized they didn’t have much in the way of other options, ya know?

So don’t sweat it… I’m sure YOU teach because you CAN teach, not because you cannot. In reality, at the non-collegiate level, those who cannot “do” might “try” to teach, but they always end up quitting the business of teaching in no time. They never survive…

Or maybe they do; they just teach others how survive to instead! ;P

SQUEEEEEEZE!!

My wife and I both have bachelor’s degrees in the hard sciences from the same institution. My minor is her major, so there is a lot of overlap in our academic backgrounds. She is undeniably smarter than I, however I can do a better job of teaching. Does that make me a failure? Hardly. Just because I can do biology, doesn’t mean I want to.

Standing at a classroom of pupils trumps standing at a microscope full of bacteria. It’s just a personality trait. No matter how interesting biology is to me–and no matter how good at it I am–if I’m a people person being in a lab would be a waste of a day.

On top of that, there are plenty of people with amazing skill sets that can do awesome things… yet couldn’t explain to someone else how to do them. So that, I say maybe George Bernard Shaw had it backwards:

Those who can, teach; those who can’t, do.

Namaste

XOXOXOXO, Barb