Kakashi : Bad Teacher?

[MemnochTheCaT]

Kakashi is one of my favorite characters in the series, even though he hasn't had much to do lately.

I was looking back over the series and I think that Kakashi is actually a pretty bad teacher. I think he's much better suited to leading missions than to being responsible for training ninjas. Let's look at what he did with team 7 :

Naruto - Basically didn't teach him anything, Naruto's progress has been more or less due to his personal ambition and rivalry with Sasuke. I think the funniest thing Kakashi taught Naruto was the 1000 years of pain, I about died when he did that to Gaara! Lol.

Sakura - Wow. Absolutely nothing.

Sasuke - Indisputably his best work was done with Sasuke, which is also a huge problem. You think he would have noticed Sasuke's severe mental problems, and dangerous obsession with Itachi. Instead of mentally mentoring Sasuke and strengthening his moral character, he teaches him an effectively useless (against Itachi) assassination jutsu. Sasuke needs to learn genjutsu defenses and possibly summons (like the dogs Kakashi brought against Zabuza!). Not only does his work with Sasuke seem to be narrow-minded, he also does this to the exclusion of Sakura and Naruto.

To be fair, Kakashi's past is pretty twisted, and he probably wasn't thrilled at the idea of having to deal with kids (he never passed any of his previous candidates, apparently).

I would have loved to see Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto's development had they been given Gai as a sensei. I'm sure Gai would have forced Naruto to develop some serious taijutsu instead of relying upon contant Kage Bunshin + basic punch/kick. And Sakura probably would have had to get serious as well. Sasuke arguably wouldn't have been any better off with Gai, but I don't think he would have suffered from it either.

Thoughts?

[Mut]

Kakashi is badass. Stop bashing him.

[MemnochTheCaT]

He IS [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I'm not denying that. I'm not really bashing him, I just think he's a much better fighter than a teacher.

[Aeon]

Pffft Gai sucks as a teacher worst then Kakashi. I mean come on what type of teacher teaches one of their students a move that's meant to beat the other one? Not to mention Gai abandoned Neji during the Chuunin exam forcing hum to train with TenTen instead.

[kooshi]

Who cares? Isn't it better that you develop your skills through your own methods rather than by someone else's? Look at Naruto's Rasengan. It's not the same style as Jiraiya's, but his own style still gets the job done.

[MemnochTheCaT]

Naruto wouldn't have developed his Rasengan without Jiraiya's help. That's the whole point of having teachers : to help the students grow in different areas, such as knowledge, patience, ethics, etc.

EDIT: Aeon : Yeah, as far as Gai focusing on Lee, I agree that is wrong for a teacher to do.

[Rek]

all kakashi does is teach them areas they need teaching in... and he admits his weaknesses. He says there is nothing he can teach sakura. He sees they are lacking in chakra control, so he goes over the walking exercise. He sees naruto needs tutoring, so he does just that, and he notices sasuke needs speed... so he works on that, the Chidori was meant for gaara anyways, not itachi.

Granted, he should have taught naruto more about strategies and MUCH more chakra control and stuff... but what can he do about that? Other than more jutsus...
and he should have taught sakura ...something... anything really... and more about the sharingan to sasuke... because in all honesty, what does sasuke know?

[kooshi]

Well, other than that, Kakashi has been pretty busy in a way. He can't really teach if the team is in the middle of a mission (although some of them are just plain RIDICULOUS), concentrated on Sasuke for the Chuunin exam, was taken out by Itachi and in a coma, then had to go on a mission after he was healed.

[Assertn]

kakashi plays favorites, just like gai
there's no shame in that

[Got_Pho?]

i have to agree with MemCat, but not Gai, he's not too great either, i have to go with team #10 that's the beard guy, ino shikamaru and chouji's teacher, he let his student go with thier own bloodline special skill, ino bloodline of spy, chouji's bloodline of fat and power, shikamaru bloodline of what u call it, "shadow" thing.

Kakashi doesn't do any of those, he should of taught sasuke with his red eyes thing, and naruto should be taught something within like the 4th hokage and he should send sakura back to soap opera with her crying #@^*&.

[Assertn]

asuma is biased against chouji though, even though he was finding faults in all 3 of them, he singled chouji out as the one who was the biggest disappointment.

kurenai is probably the fairest among all the senseis

[UberSuperHACKER]

Kakashi isn;t a teacher.. he was just the leader of their team... The small amounts of Traning that Kakashi ptu them through were always sucessful ... but he is more of a put them in the situation and let them grow by themselves kinda teacher.

Kakshi's "give some guidance but let people do things on their own to realize their own full potential" style is obvious by the way Kakashi faked his own death inthe first "real ninja" ight at the begingg of the wave country arc, and by how he entered the team in the chunin exam.

[dragonrage]

I don't really think he's the best teacher ever. In fact, as a regular teacher he is horrible. A Gai or even a Kurenai would make a better teacher for typical ninja teams.

@masamuneehs.... Gai focuses all of his attention on Lee and ignore the others, the only reason he really teaches them anything as a group is to push Lee harder. Other than that they are basically alone.

Kurenai.....is a new jounin and doesn't seem that powerful since all we have seen from her is illusion techniques, but she did survive the attach on the village so gotta give her some props. But i do like her as a teacher though, this may show that she is weak, but when Shino was training for the Churnin finally test, they all help out.... which is cool.

I didn't say that he was the best teacher, i said he was excetional... atleast for this group... can you really point out any other teacher that could have really, push them thus far. Most teachers and people resented Naruto, or not qualified to deal with the issuses of the group. Sasuke needed someone to teach him about the sharingan, Sakura just wanted to be in the group with Sasuke nothing else, but she ended up with a greater purpose and did alot of growing up in the process. I think that is all he could have done for her. Naruto just wanted the village to recognize him, specifically Sasuke, and we all know that was accomplished. It gave him somewhere to belong to, a family if you will.

The group had to break up if it didn't the story wouldn't be interesting so you really can't blame that on him..... There were alot of outside influences that is gonna determine their future, and they are destined for greatness, that we all know. He play his part and nothing more, he gave them what was need to proceed onto the next stage in life. Some needed training, others, time or just someone else. In Naruto's case, Jariya who again trained the foruth and most likely knows more are the seal and Naruto than anyone else, thus being the best person to help him achieve the other stage.

Anyways i say he did his job the best he could.... and was the best person for the group.

@ubersuperhacker. have you really been watching the series, because all journins are teachers. If they weren't where or who would you learn the basic techniques from.... But i do agree with you, on the given them their own space to grow thing, and that show that he is a teacher and not just a leader.

Edit: @masamuneehs... the only reason that they pass the first test is because Sakura and Sasuke were smart enough to firgure out the lesson that he was trying to teach them. But at the end they really were team mates, family or Nakama if you will. That is why Naruto was so influencial on Sasuke, and that was recognized by Sakura as well.

[masamuneehs]

dragonrage i still totally disagree with you:
the same way Gai focused on Lee Kakashi focused on Sasuke

Kurenai's team: still intact.

Sakura just wanting to be in Sasuke's group: But what about Ino? Same deal, really, so it doesn't make Sakura special. In fact, if anything, putting two people in the same group where one of them would have that kind of attachment to the other is a flaw in composition.

Kakashi was an OK teacher if you just want to say he furthered the characters' (sasuke's) abilities. But he almost totally neglected 2 out of 3 of his students. that is not the mark of a good teacher.

finally, i find the fact that he initially stressed teamwork, but never really cultivated it, to be his biggest failure as a teacher. i dont think anyone can argue with that.

you can't just say: Team 7 had to break up for the story to be the way it is. That's BS as far as excusing Kakashi from his duties goes. If anything, there should be more in the story about how Kakashi's failure with such an exceptional group is a big deal, or at least a big evaluation of his character. it's totally been downplayed to preserve his character as the 'cool, mysterious, older ninja'

[dragonrage]

Team 7 was gonna break up anyways, because of Sasuke's quest to kill his older brother. Come on, and the fact the the Orichmaru wanted Sasuke sharingan didn't help., and Itachi's group wanted Naruto. Are you telling me Kakashi or anyone else could have stopped the break up. And that someone other than Jariya could have prepared Naruto better to face the upcoming battles.

Yes Kakashi focused more on Sasuke than the other two, but he didn't just ignore the other two. We all know that Sakura and Naruto were immature, Sasuke was the only real somwhat mature one. Naruto and Sasuke need to grow up alittle that is all i think he could have taught them. Naruto potential was already growing beacuse he spent so much time with Sasuke, he went from a coward to a ninja because of being in group 7.

His name is the copy ninja. The only original technique he has is Raikiki(chidori). The technigue itself needs speed, chakra control and having the sharingan doesn't hurt. What else could he have taught Naruto and Sakura than chakra control, specifically Naruto lacking mostly in basics, he told him to master the basics and he will become stronger. And he recognized his growth as a ninja and a person.

Oh sakura and Ino are best friends but they are not the same. Sakura is brilliant, hard working and a genius when it comes to chakra control. The brilliant part was established by Ino herself during the first Churnin exam, chakra control was establish by Ebisu and Kakashi, and the rest by Tsunade when she cleared the 7th stage i think, of the medical training. Remember Tsunade said that something else was need to be a mediacal ninja "desperation" and she said Sakura had it.

You also stated Gai did the same thing with Lee so how does that make him a better teacher. Gai was traning Lee to beat Neji. Did Kakashi do that? He was teaching him so that he could protect his friends and fill that hole that was that was made when lost of his family.

What else could have been taught to Naruto by any other of the Journins, even Ebisu admitted that Jariya was a better teacher for Naruto.

[bxgreatone87]

well i kind of don't see them as teacher's.i see each of them kinda like moderater's who take them on missions and make sure the job is done and giving advice only if needed.i dont see them as teacher's because they dont really teach them new things from what we've seen only gai and kakashi taught lee and sasuke anything the rest of them learned there moves on there own or from there family skills or natural abilities.ohhh i forgot naruto but he is a special case and learned from a sanin because of future danger with itahic group.

[kooshi]

But then again, we haven't seen how Kurenai taught her team. The only thing I remember about her comments on her team is all about Kiba's techinques during the Naruto vs Kiba fight.

[ZakuHan]

The only thing he really brought to the team was trying to teach them teamwork.. Pretty much the whole first arc was about that. Other than that, yeah, he mainly focused on Sasuke and let Jiraiya take Naruto - which, I believe, was a good decision.

Sakura just stayed home and played with flowers, or something. "Training to be a woman" as they called it..

[complich8]

I can't say that any of them are bad teachers.

Sure, kakashi was a better fit for sasuke than naruto. But at the same time he taught Naruto some chakra control, he found another tutor when he was going to be focusing on sasuke, he did genjutsu training with Sakura. The training before the second chuunin exam didn't pay attention to Sakura, because she wasn't IN the second chuunin exams, she'd already been eliminated.

That said, it's understood that you're responsible for your own training. That's why Asuma didn't know how far Chouji came, because Chouji's training was generally private and self-disciplined. Similarly, Kurenai didn't really have to do a whole lot in training her team, because quite frankly hinata, kiba, and shino all already knew exactly what they needed to work on.

"Teacher" is probably the wrong word for what the team jounins were doing. I think it'd be more accurate to think of them as Personal Trainers.

[jing]

its not kakashi's fault that his team is a bunch of newbs.