Which subject should you pick? First, look at who's teaching it.

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During subject selection, students are often told not to select subjects based on the teacher. I can see the logic. If you choose a subject based on the teacher, and then the teacher changes or leaves, what happens then? Still, I think students should pick subjects based on the teacher.

Here’s my logic.

Students look forward to going to class for a teacher they like. Students will listen to a teacher they like. Students will always… Let me try that again. Students can be more likely to do assigned tasks, and go above and beyond for a teacher they like. 

If this argument doesn’t resonate, then flip the situation. How do students perform for teachers they don’t click with?

But what happens if the teacher leaves?

Let’s tackle the key issue here: what happens if the liked teacher moves on? Not an ideal situation but one that’s replicated across so many aspects of life. You take a job based on your potential colleagues, you start, then over time those people leave. How do you respond? Or you invest in a company based on the charismatic CEO and enviable investment returns. The CEO moves on — how do you respond?

It’s like a starting point for decision-making more broadly. You make a decision based on the best available information. Here, you want to study with a specific teacher. If the teacher leaves, you may need to adjust. Maybe you end up dropping the subject; maybe you’re able to take up some private tutoring; maybe you work more closely with a trusted classmate. But you had that time with the respected teacher.

And this can be an incredibly beneficial experience. A liked teacher has the power to encourage students to explore new subjects and interests. I think of my own situation where the economics teacher suggested I study her subject. I appreciated that personal approach and, honestly, the decision to study economics in high school has helped shaped my career more than any other single decision.

This can all be tricky in larger schools

A complicating factor is the experience in bigger schools where many teachers take the same subject. Here, it’s very difficult to guarantee which teacher would have an individual student. In terms of my point, I’m thinking about schools where senior subjects can have only one or two specialist teachers — particularly for a subject like economics.