Young teachers are often advised, “You have to not care whether the students like you.”
I think that’s true. My self worth is not tied up in whether or not my students like me.
However, I do care, deeply, whether the students like the subject matter. I want my ensemble members to love the music we’re working on. I want my academic students to get passionate about tritone substitutions and altered dominants. I want my private students to get psyched for lesson days.
I think sometimes we risk equating the two. Teachers are so convinced that they can’t worry about their students liking them that they stop worrying about whether they’ve convinced their students to like the subject.
Students will learn so much better and go so much farther if they love the subject. They will find their careers and their hobbies in classes where they like the subject. And teachers have the power to make them like the subject….if we care to.