Must teachers be warm and fuzzy?

As I mentioned in my last post, Back to School night took place this week.

I met Eldest Daughter's fifth grade teacher for the first time. She was just fine. She's the most senior fifth grade teacher at our elementary school and she seemed to know her stuff. My daughter happily goes to school each morning so I'm good with that.

However, as the parents were exiting the classroom that night I asked one, "So, what'd you think?" She responded, "She's not exactly warm."

This brings the question, do teachers need to be warm and fuzzy?

Here are the teachers I remember:

• Mr. Zunich, the 7th grade math teacher who is now married to a friend of my mother-in-law's. The only reason I remember him is because I occasionally see him at social occasions.
• Miss Tighe, the Spinster who taught 7th grade English and drilled sentence diagramming into our heads, a skill I've not used since 7th grade.
• Miss Something-or-Other, another old maid, my AP English teacher who introduced me to Russian Lit, something I still enjoy today but would never admit to the Commie whose posts are set up to autodelete on my Febmom listserv.
• Ms. Reeves, my magazine editing professor in college, not because the class was scintillating but because she was such a strong female figure and had done so many interesting things in her career.

Were any of these teachers warm? No. In fact, the first three were decidedly not warm. But they stuck with me.

Of course none of these were elementary school teachers. Each of my kids had a wonderful kindergarten teacher, but being a kindergarten teacher is a very special skill indeed. Eldest Daughter loved her second grade teacher and I did not. She ran hot and cold, and played favorites.

At what point are our children equipped to get their coddling solely from their adoring parents and grandparents, and no longer necessitate having it handed out in the classrooms?