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Study Section 15: How to Become a Lousy Teacher

15.1 Connect

Few people strive for excellence. Most people live mediocre lives. They usually do what
they must do to barely get by. People with this attitude in life probably will apply the
same attitude to their teaching, if they become teachers in your church. They will do
minimal study and preparation for the lesson. Then they will repeat the same delivery
method weekly, using the one that takes the least effort. As a result, they will become
LOUSY teachers, and their class will suffer. So pay attention! Today you are going to learn
how to become lousy teachers. Does this seem strange to you? We really don’t want you to become
lousy teachers, but if you practice what we share in this lesson, you probably will. Let’s get into it……

15.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to state the six major behaviors of what makes a lousy teacher.

2. The student should be able to discuss what NOT to do if one desires to become a great
teacher.

15.3 How to become a Lousy Teacher

I remember some of the teachers I have had to endure in school. I think of my teacher in
Government and Economics in 11 grade. She was a very large lady who pretty
th
much sat behind her desk the entire class. When we got close to her, we smelled
her and it wasn’t good! Back to the point, we had to do current event reports
almost every day. The purpose of this class was to learn about our Constitution
and Bill of Rights, how our Congress and House of Representatives functioned – all
to become good citizens. At the beginning of the year she passed out our Government and
Economics book. In the entire semester, we never once opened the book we carried around.
Occasionally, we would watch an historical movie which we really enjoyed. She never taught
us one thing about government. The only knowledge of government that I have, I had to learn
on my own. I would consider this teacher a lousy teacher who failed her students and left us all ignorant
of this important subject.

George Bernard Shaw best described what a lousy teacher is. He said, “He who can, does; he who
cannot, teaches”. His quote has been shortened to, “Those who can’t do, teach”. In other words, if you
are not able to achieve a goal in life, you can just become a teacher and teach others how to do what
you cannot do. He was sharing that he feels that those in the teaching profession are inept.

This lesson is about what you need to do to become a lousy teacher. Just apply these simple principles,
and your students will not learn and you will accomplish very little as a teacher. If you want to become
a lousy teacher, do these things and you probably will succeed.

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