What kind of teacher do you want to be?

There are two teachers that I look back on in high school as an example of the kind of teacher I want to be.

First, Mr. Afari.

Mr. Afari came from Nigeria to teach us Calculus.

I always got A's in math class without even trying. Oh, I often made little mistakes here and there, but the teachers would only take off a single point and re-work the rest of the problem to see if I got the idea right. I always got the idea, so I could easily get an almost perfect score without any effort.

That's not how Mr. Afari marked. One single mistake meant a zero. The answer was wrong. Therefore you got no points. At midterm I had a D!

Second, Ms. Iwonttellyouhername.

She taught exactly what was in the textbook word for word. The only thing I remember about her teaching is that if I sat down the night before the test and read the chapter I would get perfect. There are other things about her class I remember, but I'm too embarrassed to tell you them here. I got an A.

What were the results of these two teachers? I stopped going to Ms. Whatshername's class. I just showed up for the tests and still got an A. In Mr. Afari's class? I earned a B-. You see, after that midterm I never made another mistake. Not one. I checked everything twice, or three times. That was the only way I could earn a B-. I had to get perfect scores to average out all the terrible ones from the first half of the term.

If I have to choose what kind of teacher I will be I choose Mr. Afari.

And Mr. Afari, wherever you are, thank you. I still check everything two or three times.