Did our teachers do right by the other kids?

[Ylva]

This is an anecdote from an article from the Less Wrong blog:

I only really discovered this in my last job as a school teacher. There's a lot of data on teaching methods that students enjoy and learn from. I had some of these methods...inflicted...on me during my school days, and I had no intention of abusing my own students in the same way. And when I tried the sorts of really creative stuff I would have loved as a student...it fell completely flat. What ended up working? Something pretty close to the teaching methods I'd hated as a kid. Oh. Well. Now I know why people use them so much. And here I'd gone through life thinking my teachers were just inexplicably bad at what they did, never figuring out that I was just the odd outlier who couldn't be reached by this sort of stuff.

The whole article can be found here.

 

[Aalo]

Assignment being left with wind blown through I'll leave my sample.
There really is no way knowing how easily others have handled those things I've ever found difficult. I've had good experiences both on theoretical and applied teaching methods, but don't feel like having strong enough of a memory trace of those to mention more. Mostly I've found teaching to be thorough and good until I started attending university, where I almost ended up obliterating my chances with my high expectations. Too long introductory courses, that contained endless amounts of information that by my stance everyone with basic education levels completed should already know, were a common problem for me. It began to be my habit to skip so much classes simply for not to fool away my time that could have used so much better, and ended up all my interest mired just before syllabus got interesting.

But as it seems this gradual approach suits most and I've no doubt they'll know at echelon how to get most of students pass. I have no idea if it's part of some need of repetition over earlier educational levels, but it sure seemed to me as a common accepting stance for coast easy. I'd have felt best to start with factual details of most important examples of the field instead of approximations after another that'll eventually form too distant overview about the whole subject, as I can't really understand nor appreciate the big picture if systematic operations at smaller scale are unfamiliar. I can't understand how others manage doing it the other way, but sure it seems to be the usual way.
It's sad that getting oneself feeling stupid is this easy if it's not thanks to single obliging teacher, even in a country with this developed educational system.