etirabys:

1) Myopia is somewhat hereditary.

2) No one thinks Professor Elric is an unkind teacher

– it’s just that when you say something that reveals your ignorance on a topic he expects any student to have a firm grounding in*, he looks at you with this pessimistic fascination, as if you’ve permanently altered his view of the rest of humanity in some small way. This is rather more shattering than overt disdain. Students leave his class with more humility than they had entering it; he has no idea whatsoever that they do so.

* Relevant topics seems to encompass half of known science.