In my last post, I wrote that even though all subjects may not be created equal in the strictest sense, you should find ways to treat them as though they are, since they are equally a part of your life in this moment. One of the best ways to remember to treat all your subjects as equally as you possibly can is to remember that even though they are all different, they have a very crucial thing in common: teachers. Not only do all your subjects matter to your present grades, your future plans, and the development of your study skills, all your teachers matter, too, because each and every one of them has a part to play in who you are and who you will become.
While teachers certainly expect that you will do better in some subjects than others, most of them are more than capable of knowing the difference between lower grades earned despite your best effort and lower grades earned because you didn’t care enough to make much effort at all. You may not think it is important to show you care about each subject, but remembering that your teachers care about the subjects they teach is a good way to remind yourself to do it. Even if they are well aware that the subjects they teach are not your favorites, teachers who see that you are still making the effort to learn all you can from them will appreciate your willingness to give both them and their subjects a chance.
While it is important to show all your teachers that you will give their subjects a chance, it is even more important to show them that you will give them a chance, not only as teachers, but as people, too. Even if you don’t like certain subjects, or certain teaching styles, or certain homework expectations, try to keep an open mind. Teachers are not only created equal – they are also unique. They have different life experiences, different strengths and weaknesses, and different personalities, just as you and your peers do. Each teacher will do things a little differently because of who they are as individuals, so be careful not to judge them harshly because they don’t do things exactly the way other teachers may have done them. If you make the effort not only to understand what they are trying to teach, but also to adjust to how they are teaching, they will be more than willing to listen when you ask for help, and they may even be willing to make some adjustments to their style and/or expectations to accommodate your needs. If, on the other hand, you write them and/or their subjects off too quickly and make unreasonable demands of them instead of sincerely asking for their assistance, they may become frustrated by your lack of respect for them and be much less willing to help you do the best you possibly can do in their classes. Remembering to think of them as people will help you remember to treat them with the respect they deserve. Not only will this keep them able and willing to treat you with the respect you deserve, it will also make them able and willing to go the extra mile to help you.
Remembering that all your teachers are created equal and treating them as such may not be easy, especially when the teachers you are having difficulty with teach your more challenging and/or least favorite classes, but reminding yourself that even your least favorite teachers are people too will go a long way toward making you more open, not only to learning what they are teaching, but also to learning how to adjust to the challenges of life. Take the time to figure out how to learn more in your less interesting and/or more challenging classes, as well as from your most challenging and difficult teachers. You might not come to love those teachers or ever do as well in their subjects as you love your favorite teachers and enjoy your more preferred subjects, but that’s okay. What you do learn, whether it’s that some things are more interesting than you realized, that you’re more capable of succeeding in your more challenging classes than you would have thought possible, or that you can gain both knowledge and life lessons from teachers and classes you least expected to, matters just as much, if not more, than the grades you receive. Not only does making all your subjects matter make you a better student – it makes you a better person as well.