Sturgeon’s law is a clever saying. It happens to be one that I like a lot. But it is not an actual law. It is an opinion, and a highly cynical one at that. It is not a universal constant. It is not a law of nature. It is not evidence of anything. Citing it does not change an opinion into a fact as claimed below:
If you have an opinion, have the courage of your convicitons and label it as such. And Theodore Sturgeon was talking about writing:
Citing it as if it were a scientific theory is specious at best.
However: I hardly thought it necessary to label something obviously opinion as opinion, that was posted in IMHO, in which the O stands for…opinion. One would think that as pretty much something taken as granted, as there is a certain trend in those words.
“Good teachers” versus “bad teachers” is a qualitative measurement; for the most part, qualitative measurements are highly subjective and therefore rest on…well, let’s just say it starts with an O.
I take Sturgeon’s Law (“I take <x>” in this case expresses an…) to be more dark humor than cynicism; I do not know if its namesake meant it as deadly serious observation and if he did…well, it takes all kinds.
In my opinion, there are a minority of good teachers, a minority of bad ones, a small handful of exceptionally good and exceptionally bad ones, and a fuzzy majority who simply muddle along doing the best they can. Based on subjective personal observation during my time in school and college.
So, sorry you got so riled up. Just don’t send those damn hunter-seeker oversized beach balls at me.
This wasn’t aimed exclusively at you, drastic. I was merely using your post as an example, due to your using Sturgeon’s law as a reference to support what you refered to as a fact. I obviously misinterpreted your meaning. I happen to agree, most professions contain a small number of very good and very bad practitioners, with the majority somewhere in between.
Besides, I happen to be one of those very good teachers.
I think that Sturgeon was an optimist. It’s more like 99%.
To begin with he was talking about the arts, (Writing, performance, etc.) and other creative endevours. In every day life Number Six is correct that most people and things have a small percentage very good and a small percentage very bad, with the rest spread out in between. Most houses are built well. Most teachers are good. Most roadways are sufficient for their needs. But, where the creative process comes is designing new houses, new paving materials, new educational methods. A lot of these fail in the early stages. We only get to see the sucesses. The failures are winnowed out before they are brought to public. (There are exceptions of course, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the Hindenberg come to mind.)
Part of the creative process is taking risks. When you take risks, there are failures.
