I agree with all of Max’s comments about teachers having favorites, and I’ll just add one more thing. I’ve got several friends who currently teach high school, and I get the impression that “favorites” are sometimes the only thing that keeps a teacher going on a bad day. When my buddy Andrew is struggling through another freshman Geometry class with a room full of obnoxious 15-year-old boys, it’s vital that there’s at least one student in the room who can be counted on for a smile of commiseration and an answer to keep the discussion going. It’s got nothing to do with the student’s grades or athletic ability and everything to do with their attitude and respect for the teacher.
Important Note
This site features content going all the way back to 2000. The posts you’ll read reflect my views and writing style at the time. While I have gone back to clean up a few of them, I think it’s important not to sanitise too much. This site is a record of who I am and how I’ve grown. Any blog post written years ago may not reflect who I am today, nor how I would write about the same topic today.