IL by Martin

IL by Martin - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

I had trouble forming the base of this essay. I’ve been having a hard time choosing one valuable thing out of all the teachings my mentors have gifted me with. It’s tricky to narrow it down to just one. But then, I thought to myself “Why not talk about a lesson that you indirectly learned through a teacher that is poor at their job?” I ignored that thought at first. But then one teacher came to mind that was the perfect candidate. He was a theater teacher, a new one that only stayed for one year. I’ve already written a narrative about him, but for this essay, I’ll focus less on the whole experience and more on what this teachers broken methods. And to avoid naming names, I shall refer to him as Mr. B.
So what did he do wrong? A lot. Too much for a paragraph, really. But I think it was his opinion on theater that made him a poor teacher (or a poor director; the theater teacher always directed the shows put on by the school’s theater program). I believe the man put way to much credit and way to little responsibility on his own role. He seemed to believe that if anything went wrong, it was the fault of the cast and crew for not strictly listening to the director. Of course, during my time in the tech crew for the theater program, I heard of and witnessed countless times when somebody or some group of the production had no information on a task they apparently should have been doing. And eventually, Mr. B would scold them for not having finished their task, expecting them to do everything just short of reading his mind. This was exemplified a week before the show, when we tried to run the whole thing to see how it looked. But it moved at a snail’s pace, as Mr. B stopped the show again and again, and the people moving set pieces weren’t sure when to move on to the next scene, and then get talked down to for not knowing, etc. etc. etc.
I believe I’ve made my point. There are other things I would love to rant about (and indeed, have), but I must keep my focus on, overall, what I learned from Mr. B’s mistakes. Actually, the moral can be summed up quite simply as: Narcissism is not a good leadership trait. To be honest, it’s sounds childish now that I’m writing it; then again, the things we learn on the kiddie shows we grew up with don’t really set in until we experience similar scenarios in our own lives. And I’m glad I experienced this, despite how much everyone else involved with theater hated that year. I’m speaking as someone who could potentially lead a team of game developers (an optimistic thought, but one I’ll indulge myself with). And after watching Mr. B, I’ll never forget how his big-headed nature made everyone who worked under him despise his personality.