Teachers who make physics boring are criminals.

Wonder as a Teachable Thing

There's something almost violent about how a bad teacher can kill curiosity. Feynman isn't exaggerating for effect—he's naming something real that happens in classrooms every day. When a teacher drains the wonder out of a subject, they're not just delivering boring lessons. They're actively training students to believe that physics (or history, or math, or anything) is fundamentally tedious. That's a form of theft. They're taking something that could have sparked a lifelong interest and replacing it with dread.

What makes this insight sting is recognizing it in ourselves. Maybe you had a teacher who made you hate something you later discovered you loved. Or maybe you're the one teaching, and you catch yourself reciting facts in a flat voice, watching eyes glaze over. The thing is, making something engaging doesn't require being a performer or dumbing it down. It requires actually being interested yourself—asking why you find it amazing, then finding one honest way to share that amazement.

Feynman's "crime" metaphor works because the damage is real but invisible. A student walks out of class no worse off materially, but something inside them has been shaped away from wonder. That's worth taking seriously.