I tuned out to those the moment I got to middle school and realized that I did not have to write all my assignments in pen, use cursive, or risk having my assignment shredded if I forgot to put my name on it.

Being an authoritarian asshole is probably a coping mechanism for teachers who struggle to navigate the same hellscape the students must. Teachers aren't immune from the school yard popularity contest: the charismatic teachers seem to have a much easier life than the rest.

I found it was usually older teachers who were authoritarian luddites. I don't think it was a coping mechanism, I just think that's how they genuinely thought the "real world" still works, as they had been teaching for 40 years and had no idea what non-teaching jobs and university were actually like.

Those were probably the same teachers that told you that you wouldn't always have a calculator in your pocket.

Those who can do, those who can’t teach*

Maybe those who teach secondary school do so because they have difficulty handling the real world.

* I both work as a full time developer at a fortune 100 company and teach a few sections of a college level programming class each semester. So I don’t know what this says about me.

Oh please. How is being a teacher not a role in the real world? You don’t have kids, you don’t realize that the real world loops back around again.

I actually have 7 kids. What made you think I don’t have any kids?