21 May 2016

For a long period of time I looked at everyone older than me as beacons of knowledge. With their many years I assumed that everything they told me had to be right because, well, they would know. As I was later thrust into adulthood and given a freedom I hadn’t ever experienced before, I began to realise that a lot of people in my life that I once perceived as my ‘fact checkers’ per se, were not in the least reliable.

Aside from a few relatives and managers I had dealt with through my time, the majority of older people were my teachers. Despite, like many of you, having major contempt for particular teachers, my belief always remained that what they said was both fact and within my best interests (understandable, we were practically kids). 

But, with a few extra years of knowledge up my sleeve, I’ve realize that no, my subject specific private school teachers don’t have the final say on the way of the world. During my high school years, I had a teacher outright refute the impact of climate change to a class full of students. I had another tell me that girls couldn’t wear short skirts because it distracted not just the male students but the male staff. I had personal attitudes and opinions taught to me as if they were fact and I didn’t take a moment to question them. Maybe it was my teen apathy refusing to care about social issues, but it was also this underlying feeling that, for some strange reason, I trusted them.

Some five years later, in the position I am at now, I cringe at the idea that I could accept such statements. As it stands, I would never let anyone preach ignorant opinions and claim them as fact. But am I at fault for not standing up at the time, or were the teachers, preaching subjective attitudes? (How would I have known?) 

If a teacher has the freedom to propose subjective ideas, then myself, and every student in their classroom deserves the freedom, and the confidence, to challenge them.

I have many fond memories with teachers of mine, with some even influencing my career choices. However they are only human, and just like everyone else: your peers and classmates, the other junior wait-staff at work and your relatives, they aren’t always going to be right. And I implore you to question what they say just as you would anyone else.

There was once a time when teachers wrote mundane facts on a chalkboard and students would copy them down, no questions asked. A black and white way of education. Today, especially within the arts, we’ve learned to teach with an open mind and express different ways of thinking; the ‘no answer is a wrong answer’ way of education. It only seems natural that while learning itself can be questioned, the teachers teaching it can too.

So disagree sometimes. Do your research and when a teacher says something you’re not too sure about, let them know. As youths, we have insight into things that other generations had never imagined before, and our opinions should be welcomed with open arms.

Of course, that’s not to say treat your teachers like idiots.  All I suggest is a hand raise, a question, an opposition. Sometimes your elders are going to be wrong, and isn’t it pretty satisfying watching them scratch their heads thinking up a response?

We are told for 18 years of our lives to listen, learn and obey, and then all of a sudden we are expected to know exactly what we want the minute we receive our graduation certificate. So start as soon as you can, make up your own mind, do your own learning and give your teachers a bit of a challenge.

Written by Jessica Clausen