[hrktb]

I sometimes hear teacher friends blurt that they’re not sure their job has any meaning. And I kind of understand in that it is supposed to be a glorified role, and at the same time it may have no direct real world impact and just be imposed boredom on unwilling pupils.

But teaching at a uni for instance is a big deal career wise, identity wise. You end up doing something that you love ans bring some riches, but may not matter at all to those you teach, is highly seen from the rest of the world and becomes your whole value proposition to outsiders.

Compared to that, motherhood has exactly the opposite proposition (lowish social regard, super high impact on someone’s life) while not being so different fundamentally.

[freetime2]

> but may not matter at all to those you teach

I'm tremendously grateful to all of my university teachers. Some more than others, but in general I consider my university education to be a transformative experience in my life.

[hrktb]

I also do, but recognize that more than half of the stuff I did to get graduation credits where very boring.

Of course, we don’t know in advance what will resonate and what will fall into a mental pit, so it’s all after the fact evaluation and I don’t see my “boring” courses as universally boring to everyone.

But I definitely was phoning in these courses, and I hope my teachers had double good feedback from the other students, otherwise it could be a depressing situation.

There is a teacher I kept contact with way after entering working life, and it sure felt like there was a small core of us really really thankful, and a gigantic mass of students just sliding by to get a number on their yearly report.