Authenticity: Context Strikes Again

Teaching is a performance.  As an actor stands before an audience, a teacher stands before students.  And teachers, like actors, must make each and every performance seem as authentic as the last.  So what makes teachers 'authentic' to students?  Competence and sincerity seem to be the markers of authenticity.  If teachers know little about their subject or how to teach it, they are quite rightly seen as frauds by their students.  But the sincerity of a teacher is subject to each student's perception.  In a small schools, students expect teachers to know their names, yet that would be an impossible standard of authenticity for teachers at larger schools.  Some teachers must take a personal interest in each of their students to be considered authentic, whereas others can get by with simply presenting the material clearly. In either case, standards of authenticity are determined by both communal and individual contexts.  A teacher must navigate these contexts in order to determine what is appropriate for each situation.  If a teacher fails to be 'authentic' in the eyes of a particular student or community, they lose the trust of that student or community.  And learning from that teacher is sapped of all sincerity and value.