Reply #109: "The students" generally can't

[Posteritatis]

With one major exception, I couldn't really point at which of my HS teachers were good (versus merely being ones I liked) until a couple of years into university. Likewise for which of my HS teachers were bad (again, with one exception, who we spent a year trying to get fired).

Some of the ones I considered the best ones in the building were despised by most of the students, mainly because students consider "easy" and "good" to be synonymous. That tendency's even worse in university, where all of my favorite instructors were hated by most of the student body for not being easy As.

Equating "merit" with popularity among the students is an extraordinarily stupid idea.