Take a look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_misconceptions

There’s plenty of information there, take some time to poke through it.

Why is it that my teachers taught me so many of those things?  Are their lives so full of other things that they can’t take the time to seek out real answers instead of relying on that thing they heard from their former lazy teacher?  I can’t imagine their lives are busier than mine, and yet, even though their trade is information exchange, they do not take time to be curious about what information is available.

I’m a software engineer. I’m paid to write code that makes computers do things, and I still have more general knowledge than I remember most of my teachers having.  I pick this up by being generally curious.  I suppose now that many of my teachers were not generally curious.

I’m not “tooting my own horn” by any stretch.  My mass of knowledge is trivial compared to many people in the world, except when it comes to software or computers or Warhammer, and that’s how it should be: my job is to communicate with computers. The same should not be true of a teacher, who’s job is to be curious above all else.

Only curious teachers can live up to a call to action such as this:

I wish I had had a teacher who actually taught, not just collected a pay check.  How many of them became teachers for the 3 month break in the summer?  Thinking back, probably a good margin of them.  There were a few standouts, but none exceptional that I remember.  I didn’t encounter quality teaching until I reached college, and even then, not till several years in.  Why do so many of my teachers lack adequate curiosity?

Why was I telling my university professors what the newest ideas and innovations in technology were?  Their job, if not to teach, is to research, correct? How can they afford not to be on top of their game?  They’re supposed to be on the bleeding edge of their craft!

I now know that the ability I have to pursue knowledge effectively and efficiently is more out of frustration in not having anyone able to give me the information I wanted.

If you’re a teacher, or aspire to be one.  Be curious.  The future students like me will thank you for it. I feel I missed out.