What follows are seven deadly comments that hinder learning about teaching. They are summarized from an article by Marilla Svinicki of the University of Texas that is available at the Teaching and Faculty Support Center. Most people mean this comment as a compliment. Some aspects of teaching may indeed seem as creative and subjective as art, but it does not follow that training is unnecessary. Great artists did not come to their art untrained.
True artists spend years studying the basics of their art, and they never stop studying.
Teachers need to be as well prepared in the tools of their art as artists. I can't deny that some teachers come to the classroom as naturally gifted as some artists. Their feel for the flow of the class, their ability to recognize problems before they materialize, and their rapport with students make the rest of us feel clumsy in comparison. For the vast majority, the journeyman teachers, those skills must be learned somehow. Unfortunately, that learning currently takes place on the job at the expense of our students.