There is an elusive win-win in teaching in which both teachers and students truly enjoy a class together. The teachers find pleasure and satisfaction in educating students, and the students are fully engaged in learning concepts they find interesting and meaningful. Unfortunately, some teachers and students never experience such moments. Faculty who see teaching as a chore probably doubt such moments could exist, so they never try to create them. Students who are focused more on passing a course than learning anything probably also doubt such an experience could happen in a class. Both teachers and students can approach a course with an embittered, cynical attitude. When they do, however, I argue that there can be another kind of win-win in which both teachers and students get what they want but neither benefits from the experience. Before I describe it though, I want to explore what jaded teachers and students each want out of a class.
