During college, I was talking with two classmates about what we’d learned in various classes: what had (and hadn’t) been tangibly valuable. “You know the class that I thought was great?” I asked. I told them. One started nodding her head in enthusiastic agreement, and the other looked at me as though I were from another planet: “That class? What a waste of time!”

It made me realize that being a teacher is a bit like being a parent. Just as we’re a different parent to each of our kids, we’re a different teacher to each of our students. Each relationship — each give and take of information  — is unique, and yields different outcomes.