I have seen capricious/unpredictable teachers who were VERY caring. But they are still quite heavy-handed at times, and downright toxic for kids who need low-key predictability in an educator. My daughter finds a teacher who changes his/her mind to not necessarily be a bad thing, actually. "OH, sorry-- I decided that the assignment was too inflexible as it was. Or-- I thought about it and decided that I didn't want students to pick from their own examples there, they needed to think about the three presented in class instead." Both are fine as long as the communication of changes in expectations are clear. (Though they wouldn't be for all students, I realize.)

I've also seen teachers who were very inflexible and yet still quite open about that-- who really DID NOT care a whole lot about students as individuals. They saw their OWN needs as absolute, and those of students as paltry considerations by comparison. "Why should I write a make-up final for you just because you were in an auto accident?"

So I agree that the two things may not correlate well all the time.


Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.