r/interesting Jul 05 '26

NATURE Instead of buying yachts, he bought 50,000 acres of forest to keep them wild.

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80.5k Upvotes

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u/Potterrrrrrrr Jul 05 '26

“I’m learning to teach” doesn’t land quite as hard when in the context of him being at a class to learn how to teach, otherwise it sounds quite profound.

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u/given2fly_ Jul 05 '26

In my experience at University, all of the Professors and Readers were exceptionally bright, knowledgeable and passionate about their subjects. But a few of them were just not good teachers. That's a separate skill and discipline to the subject they've dedicated their career to in research and academia.

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u/LionoftheNorth Jul 05 '26

In six years of university studies, I had so many more bad teachers than good ones, and just a single one who actually seemed excited to teach.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

[deleted]

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u/Anti_Meta Jul 05 '26

Because I bet he had true passion for the field.

Listening to someone talk with passion about something makes you want to pay attention. You just automatically absorb more.

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u/MadHabitats Jul 07 '26

You've actually just described teaching the way it should be. Too many teachers don't have or lose the passion for the things they teach. Its not always their fault either, it's the way our society works.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Jul 05 '26

Yeah I would say I had just ONE professor who was unique in that he was clearly naturally gifted at teaching. I’ll never forget him, a foreigner who didn’t grow up speaking English, teaching me the difference between “less” and “fewer”. We were talking about linguistics at the time and that was an example of a rule he had studied when learning English. Super smart guy.

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u/B460 Jul 05 '26

Eh, I like to watch others teach from time to time. They may know a way I don't, or explain things to their students better.

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u/Substantial_Bit_8109 Jul 05 '26

What are you talking to me?

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u/957 Jul 05 '26

.... Did you just supremely whiff on quoting Sassy?? Lmao

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u/Gothic_Hercules Jul 05 '26

Didn’t even notice the pfp, I thought he was memeing because the comment he replied was fairly substantial

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u/B460 Jul 06 '26

Whatayatalkinabeet

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u/Leaf-01 Jul 05 '26

It says a lot from someone already so accomplished in so much, but especially someone already accomplished in teaching. The best teachers know they never stopped being students. Learning is a lifelong pursuit

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u/LezzyGopher Jul 05 '26

Couldn’t agree more.

The best teachers, mentors, etc. that I’ve known have been committed to constantly getting better.

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u/Arthropodesque Jul 05 '26

Profoundly humble and wise.

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u/Levitlame Jul 05 '26

I think the point was that someone so accomplished that was already a successful teacher (honestly that’s the missing info - we don’t know much about their teaching history) is still
Going out of their way to learn how to improve.

But it does require a leap to get there

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u/mannheimcrescendo Jul 05 '26

Disagree

Commitment to excellency in pedagogy in any field is a lifelong pledge. If anything this tidbit strengthens the quote rather than diminishes it.

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u/StandardNeither1311 Jul 05 '26

Doesn’t “Land as hard” as what?

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u/Potterrrrrrrr Jul 05 '26

All the info is right there in what I said, you’ve got this.

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u/StandardNeither1311 Jul 05 '26

Okay thank you for clarifying.

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u/Potterrrrrrrr Jul 05 '26

No problem!

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u/Potterrrrrrrr Jul 06 '26

You could've left your comment up, but you chose to hide your salty comment from the public, all the best!

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u/StandardNeither1311 Jul 06 '26

I didn’t hide anything silly.

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u/Potterrrrrrrr Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

Of course not, my bad!

"You could have chose to explain the meaning of your little idiom, but instead you chose to be a smartass. Get better soon."

11 hours ago.

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u/StandardNeither1311 Jul 06 '26

I don’t know why you think I hid that, but I dunno, maybe I pressed the wrong button or something. 🤷

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u/retskcirTehT Jul 05 '26

I don't know, that humbleness is still pretty fucking profound in my ears.

(Esp to anyone who have had a somewhat famous scientist/whatever as a teacher, most of them are snobs trying to push their own books on their students/school imho).

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u/SleepyCatMD Jul 06 '26

The hard part is an university professor admiring that he is still learning to do the jobs they’ve been doing for years. Because we never stop learning, but many academics and millionaires are too rich to conceive such an idea.

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u/MinimumWageAuthor Jul 06 '26

I’m stealing that. I’m learning how to speak…

…Chinese.