<p>Hmmm... interesting topic. A teacher that can be too smart may not be smart at all in the sense of teaching. If you're a teacher, you should, by purpose of occupation, be smart enough to dumb the material down to explain it to a child. That was always a question on my chemistry test "A five-year old you're babysitting asks you [blahblahblah], explain [blahblahblah] so that he can understand." </p>
<p>The only teachers I despise at times are history teachers. I've had three history classes (note: history, not social science - my three history classes have been US, World, and Euro) and I feel like in all of them the teachers expect us to know facts as well as they do, and sometimes it's just not possible. But, even though I love history, I can't fully blame them because there's no way to truly dumb down their subject. It's factual. They can explain everything clearly but that doesn't make it easier to remember.</p>
<p>I think it's probably hardest to be a math or science teacher... and I have the highest respect for math teachers who can fully dumb down their subjects to the basics to make it more understandable. In my mind, that's awesome.</p>