Willow the teacher

[Taake]

Re-watching some of season 2, I realized that the show obviously made a lot of hay out of Willow’s brains and hacker skills, and especially in the What’s my line episodes where she and Oz don’t even qualify for jobs but get taken aside for being super geniuses or whatever …

But we already see Willow in a professional setting this season, subbing for Miss Calendar. In Passion she says ”five hours of lesson planning down the drain” when she sees Miss Calendar has shown up to school.

It just got me thinking, Willow would be a pretty good teacher, no? She clearly has an aptitude for it, it seems like something that should’ve shown up on her test in those eps.

People get on Giles for not teaching her magic, but until the end of season 6 it is pretty unclear that - youthful indiscretions aside - he is particularly skilled in magic himself and able to actually teach and guide her as necessary.

But Willow could teach. If not in a real High school professional setting, then at least in a witchy sense? Do the comics adress this at the end of s12?

What do you guys think, would Willow have potential in a future day job as a teacher? (With the right qualifications of course)

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I posit that she liked teaching because a- it was something she really shouldnt be doing, and b- it placed her in an echelon above her peers and gave her a sense of power of them.

I don't think a midage, professionally licensed, Willow would get the same enjoyment from teaching.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Yeah, I think Willow would have been a good teacher. Or even like teach magic at the Magic Shop. It could have been an avenue for her. Not sure what her major at university was going to be or what she planned on doing for work. "Wicca" isn't really a paying job. I did like seeing Willow take pride and have confidence teaching in season 2. The one thing that bothers me is that students don't teach. That's not a thing. It's one thing to be a teacher's aide but I don't think you can have student's actually teaching the class. Plus that only works if that is Willow's period for Computer class, otherwise she would be missing her own classes to teach other periods. Minor nitpick. lol

 

[Stake fodder]

I think she could have been a good teacher. She is patient and good-tempered, and a little show of Dark Willow when the kids misbehave would get them back in line quickly!

The one thing that bothers me is that students don't teach. That's not a thing. It's one thing to be a teacher's aide but I don't think you can have student's actually teaching the class. Plus that only works if that is Willow's period for Computer class, otherwise she would be missing her own classes to teach other periods. Minor nitpick. lol

Yeah, that bugged me, too. Is Willow getting paid? Is she missing out on parts of her own education to teach? Smart as she is, is she really qualified to teach? What would the union think? So many questions....

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Willow's mother is a college professor, we don't know what she does during the summers. As most advanced degrees require extensive time as a Research / Teaching Assistant, it seems within reason that Willow was shadowing one, or even working as one. Maybe that's enough experience to be a substitute in a city that still has Natalie French in the call list?

As for the union issue, remember, Willow was doing this before Jenny died, so she may have made the arrangements. But, a temporary tour, a hard to find field? Maybe? I mean, I'm sure Willow is working under the supervision of an actual teacher, who is being paid to extra to do so. As long as Willow has a card, and the situation is covered in the contract, there's very little the union can do

Or, for all we know, Sheila Rosenberg is a certified substitute teacher, the union has no idea that job is being su contracted.

 

[NotASlayer]

People get on Giles for not teaching her magic, but until the end of season 6 it is pretty unclear that - youthful indiscretions aside - he is particularly skilled in magic himself and able to actually teach and guide her as necessary.

Season six showed that Giles knew people far better qualified to teach Willow than him. He just could not be bothered introducing Willow to them. Of course, those people did not exist until near the end of S6, thanks to shockingly poor writing.

I doubt Willow, as shown in the series, would have made a good magical teacher. Tara probably would, though; she seemed to have been given a decent grounding by her mother. However, if Willow had been taught properly, she may well have been capable of passing the skills on, because she did seem to have skills that way. As is, Willow improvises without really knowing what she is doing, which is pretty dangerous.

 

[Taake]

. The one thing that bothers me is that students don't teach. That's not a thing. It's one thing to be a teacher's aide but I don't think you can have student's actually teaching the class. Plus that only works if that is Willow's period for Computer class, otherwise she would be missing her own classes to teach other periods. Minor nitpick. lol

I think she could have been a good teacher. She is patient and good-tempered, and a little show of Dark Willow when the kids misbehave would get them back in line quickly!


Yeah, that bugged me, too. Is Willow getting paid? Is she missing out on parts of her own education to teach? Smart as she is, is she really qualified to teach? What would the union think? So many questions....

I just say it was a different time, when I was the same age (15-16), whenever our French teacher had to go away, me and my two friends were always tasked with taking over the class and teaching it as we were the top students of the class.

So yeah, we taught our class, and surely the top students of the other classes taught the class they were already in, thus no scheduling conflict.

It was the late 90’s-early 00’s, it was ok then. Would it be now? Probably definitely not. But a couple of classes taught by a fellow student, just didn’t even raise eyebrows even here back then. We didn’t get paid, we just followed the guidelines, made our own lesson plans, and I guess got some extra credit for it.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

So yeah, we taught our class, and surely the top students of the other classes taught the class they were already in, thus no scheduling conflict.

I couldnt even imagine that over here, or at least where/when I went to school. There were stabbings and fights when the teacher was in class, couldn't imagine what it would be like were an adult not present.

 

[NotASlayer]

I couldnt even imagine that over here, or at least where/when I went to school. There were stabbings and fights when the teacher was in class, couldn't imagine what it would be like were an adult not present.

Have you ever read Lord of the Flies?

 

[Kendar]

I think she could have been a good teacher. She is patient and good-tempered, and a little show of Dark Willow when the kids misbehave would get them back in line quickly!


Yeah, that bugged me, too. Is Willow getting paid? Is she missing out on parts of her own education to teach? Smart as she is, is she really qualified to teach? What would the union think? So many questions....

She's almost certainly not being paid. And this is Sunnydale, with a hellacious turnover rate for students and teachers. It's quite possible that there's not an eligible teacher available (although CS sounds like one of those classes where you'd just grab a sub to be a body).

 

[Ethan Reigns]

On rare occasions (that I could count on my thumbs), students did teach the class but never as a replacement for a missing teacher and always as a supplement for the existing teacher. We had a large pool of substitute teachers and someone was always ready to answer the call. Most of our Grade 7 class was taught by a substitute teacher. But in Sunnydale where even someone like Natalie French could become a teacher, maybe the ranks of substitute teachers may have been depleted by vampires.

 

[NotASlayer]

On rare occasions (that I could count on my thumbs), students did teach the class but never as a replacement for a missing teacher and always as a supplement for the existing teacher. We had a large pool of substitute teachers and someone was always ready to answer the call. Most of our Grade 7 class was taught by a substitute teacher. But in Sunnydale where even someone like Natalie French could become a teacher, maybe the ranks of substitute teachers may have been depleted by vampires.

Just the ranks of substitute teachers? Two principles were eaten and the school then got blown up! And other teachers died as well!

 

[Stake fodder]

I just rewatched IOHEFY, and I see I already posted about various questions I had about this situation. Now I'm thinking Willow wouldn't have made a good teacher in one respect, because she didn't possess a sense of authority. Kids would have walked all over her, not just because she was a fellow student, but also because of her shy, hesitant way. She did gain confidence as she aged, though, so perhaps as an adult teacher, she would have done better. I think she certainly would not have encouraged a student's crush on her!