I came across a post that Seth Godin had recently posted on his blog, in which he started a conversation about what you can learn from a lousy teacher.  He wrote…

If you have a teacher (of any sort) that you cannot please, that you cannot learn from, that is unwilling to take you where you need to go because he is defending the status quo and demonstrates your failure on whatever report card he chooses to use, you could consider yourself a failure. Or you could remind yourself…

1. Grades are an illusion
2. Your passion and insight are reality
3. Your work is worth more than mere congruence to an answer key
4. Persistence in the face of a skeptical authority figure is a powerful ability
5. Fitting in is a short-term strategy, standing out pays off in the long run
6. If you care enough about the work to be criticized, you’ve learned enough for today

I quickly had two conflicting thoughts here.  First, I thought that he was dead on.  I’ve had some ridiculously crappy teachers in my lifetime, but none of them were able to permanently impact the life I was destined to lead.  I blazed my own path, decided what kind of life I wanted, and I continue to work my butt off every day to achieve it.

Then I thought that if you take that list too literally, you could find yourself digging yourself out of a pretty deep hole.  Just look at number one - “Grades are an illusion.”  Some of the smartest people I know had crappy GPA’s in high school and college, while others with little to no common sense graduated with report cards full of A’s & B’s.  So what he says is true.  However, while grades may be an illusion, if you’re a student planning on getting to the next level (college, grad school or whatever)…they matter.  The same holds true for the other points Seth makes in his post.

Ultimately, the lesson here is that while some things may not matter in the long run, you have to learn to play the game as a student at any level.  The key is finding the balance between valuing yourself using your own metrics and staying aware of the grading scale others are tossing you into.  If you can master both, you may just be able to have your cake and eat it too…