Working as a teacher

for the time being I'm working as a substitute teacher. I never thought of myself as a teacher but I have been teaching English in China for several years, and recently gone into subbing.

So that got me thinking about teachers that are writers. It seems to be very common, and I think the summers off makes it easier to be a writer and a teacher. On the other hand I don't know of any good writers or writers that I enjoy reading that are also teachers. I also find that many of the teachers who are writers are not very interesting. So does being a teacher or having the security of the teaching profession make you a boring and uninteresting writer?

If you think about it most of the textbooks you had to read in the course of school were written by teachers and textbooks are universally dull tedious and uninteresting, much like most classes I suffered through in school.

My experience subbing has shown me that these kids would learn a lot more with a library card. I think it is fairly obvious that the schools we have today are not producing competent adults, they aren't even about learning or any of that. I wouldn't say that a good teacher can't be more effective than reading books on a subject. The teacher can know the subject well enough to guide a student down the right path. That kind of guidance can save a lot of time, but at some point the student is still responsible for their own learning because once you get really good at something then there is no one there to give you guidance. Just think of Einsten, he didn't have anyone to tell him how to figure out relativity he had to pursue it and take all of the information he had and find a way to understand it. That kind of understanding can never come from a teacher, but must always come from a learner's interest in a subject and dedication to learning. In this kind of pursuit a teacher can be anyone who is informed about the subject.

Well then if you are a public school student who would like to be a writer someday read as much as you can and write. If you can get published in some way, even if just in your school paper, then that might help you later get a job writing for a living. If the teacher objects to reading a book in class tell them they need to be more interesting than you might think about not reading a book in their class. If that doesn't work you can always drop out and spend your days at the local public library.