Greetings, dear fellow A-netters. A reply I posted on MCOflyers Government page, got me to thinking about teachers and college instructors in general.

When I was in high school, I had a teacher by the name of Reid Wightman, who even though I was not actually in any of his classes, he mentored me on the wonders of theater and poetry.
I attribute most of my theatrical and poetic successes to him. He was one of a kind. From his bow-ties, to his classroom (which is ironically very much like my bedroom, adorned with almost anything imaginable, walls, ceiling, floor, you name it), to his playing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" over and over, (and "We Will Rock You" before big football games), to his dancing up and down the halls, and lastly, to his wearing a toga, as he taught Latin.

I have always known, that if there were only an easy way for me to get through college, I'd definitely become a teacher and change lives as he did.  

So how about the rests of ya? Any teacher that really made an impact on your life? Please please, feel quite free to share!  

Mrs. Curran, my third grade teacher at Edgar School in Metuchen, New Jersey, along about 1956.

She was a queen among teachers and a credit to the fairer sex. She took an 8 year old kid whose family was imploding around him (although he did not know it, being a little kid) and made a place of safety for him.

She died young, too.

I'm quite sure that there's a special place in heaven for her.

Strangely it was my independent living teacher my Senior year of High School. I just recall how sweet she was to me, especially in light of the fact that I was bummed out from missing 2-3 months of the end of my Senior year because I was home with Lyme's disease. Missing out on those months of my senior year was a problem for me, it affected my relationship with my then girlfriend and some of my close "best friends".

Her class was the only one I did not stress about.

Quoting Dougloid (Reply 2): She was a queen among teachers and a credit to the fairer sex. She took an 8 year old kid whose family was imploding around him (although he did not know it, being a little kid) and made a place of safety for him.

I hear you on that.

My 3rd and 4th grade teacher, Ms. Hoyt. It was an integrated classroom, meaning that it was half 3rd graders, and half 4th graders (so I had her for 2 years).

My mom died when I was in 3rd grade, and then my dad got remarried when I was in 4th, which meant I had a new stepmom and two stepbrothers. Needless to say, those are all pretty hard things to adjust to when you're only 8-9 years old. But Ms. Hoyt was an absolute blessing to my family and I.

She was also a wonderful teacher, who made us students actually want to learn. She was an avid traveler as well, and had been to all 50 states and many countries.

Last time I saw her was at a friend's graduation party (I can't for the life of me remember if it was high school or college graduation, but probably high school). It had been years since I'd seen her at that point, and it was great to see her.

She retired when we were in middle school or early high school, and I'm sure she's spent her retirement going on countless new adventures. She had always had a long-term boyfriend, and if memory serves, they got married on a hot air balloon after she retired.

Thank you for the splendid replies so far. How wonderful the stories!  

Most definitely, teachers have that something special that puts them in our hearts. As the son of a teacher, I can definitely attest to that it must largely be done for the love of doing so.

Let's all pave a path in the Heaven's meadow for these most gallant of memorable folk's from our pasts memories.  

Mr. Roell, Dr. Liepe and Dr. Koehler in Berlin, around the late 1970s, early 1980s. Mr. Roell was a chemistry and biology teacher, a bearded giant from Frankonia, with a great sense of humour, who really could get anybody interested in the subjects he was teaching.

Dr. Koehler was teaching mathematics and physics. He actually had a PhD in mathematics and was originally a research scientist, who, to avoid unemployment, ended up teaching in highschool. He was still doing mathematical theoretical research in his spare time and was regularly publishing papers in important journals in his field.
And he was the only mathematics teacher I ever had who really knew his subject.
But he had a problem: He demanded his students to work and show some effort. If you could show that you tried to solve a problem yourself, but without success, he would help you and even give you decebt grades. But he couldn't suffer lazy fools and graded them accordingly. This made him unpopular with many fellow students, especially since he wasn't afraid to speak his mind.
But during the two years I was taught by him, I learned more about mathematics than from any other teacher before and after.

Dr.Liepe was teaching history and had a PhD in this subject. He was also unique in the fact that he was blind (he was one of the boy soldiers, who were issued a rifle and told by the nazis to take on the Red Army during the final days of WW2, when Berlin was already surrounded. He lost both eyes due to a Russian tank shell and later became very disillusioned from the Nazis).
Since he was blind, he had a very special way of teaching. He would have us write any tests (since we could have cheated him without any problrm), but he graded us according to our contributions when we discussed historical subjects. He would not grade our opinions, but in how far we did research to back them up (e.g. bringing references to books and other sources).

Jan

I really remember (well, liked would be a better word because I only left school in July) my Biology teacher, Mr. Warwick. Really good guy, although wasn't really a great teacher (not really much class control but if you wanted to learn apparently he was very good. I was in a class full of remedial kids basically so I don't know). Really good laugh, we shared an interest in bass guitar (most of my 2 hours a week of biology were basically just talking about music and stuff. No wonder I barely passed the exam  ). He had a gorgeous bright pink Mark Hoppus-esque bass as well that seems to earn him the label "gay" (with 2 kids and a wife, obviously v,v)

My old English teacher for year 8, Mr. McGrath was a really good guy as well. The kinda teacher you could have a real laugh with but you didn't want to be anywhere near his bad side, 'cause you were in for it if you were  Saw him slam a window on an older lads head (accidentally) once, as painful as it looked he was never suspended because the school knew how popular he was.

My old head of house (basically just like head of year) was really nice to me as well. She often had heard about me being pulled up for fighting, and she had to deal with me because of her positon (well, hitting people back) because basically they'd call me fat/gay etc and I'd just hit them back because I couldn't deal with it anymore (It was just after I'd been outed at school as bi and i'd already had it in some form for the last 3 years, so It was getting pretty old by this point). I remember once somebody said something to me on a really bad day (I think I'd split up with my then girlfriend the day before or something like that) and I just turned around and basically put him in orbit, with 3 teachers and 90 kids watching. I originally got really bollocked for it (I'd basically turned one side of his head red from the punch, and he was crying. Bad as i felt at the time he had it coming to him, at least from me anyway, he'd always made fun of me.). After school found out why I'd done it... coincidentally I was taken off all forms of punishment and he was suspended for 3 days  . My head of house even congratulated me on it because none of the teachers wanted to teach him because he was that bad in lessons. That was in 2006. He never spoke to me again (I left in May 2008 and I was in the same registration group).

Mrs. Rodriguez, Spansih teacher.

Used to wear Black Stockings!

Never missed a lesson, even to this day I can't speak Spanish!!

Mr Morris, in Junior school, I would have been 9-10 years old.

For the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz link up in space, he got a TV in the assembly room for us all to watch it.
On Jan 21 1976, we were allowed to watch, from the top floor of the school, the first ever Concorde pax service, which was happening about 2 miles away, to aid this, Mr Morris brought in his air-band radio!

My interests in these areas started here.

(He was also a good teacher anyway, very encouraging of initiative, humorous and he dealt with mis-behavoir by making the kid concerned look foolish.)

There are many but 2 stand out:

My History and Geography teacher. Through her teaching I was looking a lot into maps and books and as stupid as it might sound but I started to think how I could reach those places. And the answer brought me to my job and hobby: Aircrafts and Aviation. She was very strict sometimes not nice and we always thought she did not like foreigners because she was quite hard to them. But we learnt that she was hard towards them because she wanted them integrated as fast as possible. And she succeeded. When we learnt about the WW 2 and the Nazis she made this in a very strange way. She told us stories about concentration camps how bad they were etc etc. When she told us the stories we actually went into like in a virtual reality.One day she did not come to class anymore and we were told that she was released from her duties. The principal explained that the subject WW2 was too early for us and she violated several rules etc etc.
The end of the story is that she turned herself in as a former Concentration Camp warden who killed several ( up to 100 people) herself as a teenager but could not live with it no more. She was never convicted. She retired officially as she was quite old. I have never seen her again which is a pity as I would have a 1000 questions I would like to ask.

The second one was my Mathematics teacher. There is one sentence I remember for all my life he said to me when I just stopped at a test and did not finish.

It was in german:

"Einer der aufgibt ist in meinen Augen ein Arschloch".

English translation:

Someone who gives up is in my eyes an asshole.

Until today I have never given up at a test or at work.  

One teacher stands out for me, my A-Level mathmatics teacher Miss Diana Bratten

She was an excellent teacher, and uncorrupted by the system that the government and local authorities set. She was 18 months out of teacher training college, and a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the old duffers in the school at the time.

Another Excellent teacher was my Geography teacher Ken Rustidge, he basically said balls to the system and teached in his own unique style, he was also in the Territorial Army (Eqv National Guard), and kept trying to get posted out during Gulf War1, but to no avail. although i have heard through the grapevine, that he has now done 2 tours in Afghanistan.

Derek Bontoft was the Deputy Headmaster, and he was more chilled out than a dutchman eating one of those "special cakes".

Mine was Dr Thurmond Hux. He was my metal shop teacher in HS. He was in Vietnam as a Army special forces soldier(tunnel rat), and used the GI bill to get his PhD in physiology. He wanted to teach metal shop because he wanted to help the kids that nobody else wanted to(I took it cause I wanted to learn welding). The man treated all the "dumb" kids as adults, and never put anyone down(except the other teachers). I remember when I came back after boot camp, went to a football game in uniform, all he said was, good job but wrong service( I was Navy--he was Army) and shook my hand like a man, and had that look like he did his job. He died a few years later due to cancer cause by agent orange, and had some of his ashes scattered on the football field to be near the students he loved.The one teacher that truly made a difference in my life, can still picture him in my mind, some 24-26 years later. RIP Dr Hux

Dan in Jupiter

I remember so many teachers:

Tommy Ruth (English)
Mr. Alexander (Spanish)
Mr. Keizer (English)
Mr. Muller (Band)
Mr. Herbig (Band)
Mr. Chrysler (English)
Mr. Johnson (Math)

Those are the good ones.

There was one English teacher who was a good guy too. His name escapes me at the moment. Before reading this, I have to say the way our high school was set up, four classrooms were connected by one long hallway. So, to go from one room to the locker bay, you would have to walk through at least one other class room. I was never in his class, but there was one day (1988) when he decided to re-enact a sword fight from Shakespere. He lunged and split his pants. He ran through two class rooms screaming obsceneties. One room was vacant that period. The other had Tommy Ruth teaching. Tommy Ruth was a quiet woman who was very prim and proper and was always smiling. Everyone's grandmother type. The teacher with the split pants called his wife who brought him a pair of plad polyester pants straight outta 1978.

Another person I met was a teacher although I did not go to the school he worked in. His name was Walter Williamson and he was an industrial arts teacher in Hunterdon County New Jersey I think.

When I first got the idea that I wanted to become an aircraft mechanic he gave me concrete and pointed advice that served me very well. All of this in the garage of his house where he was overhauling his Citabria.

I guess the takehome is that there are a lot of teachers, you may never sit in one of their classes and that may not even be their job title, but teach they do, 24 hours a day.

I have a few, actually. It shows that as much as I never really enjoyed school I was lucky to have a great school system where I lived.

1st Grade- Mrs.Ruth, she was a spelling and writing aide I had when I was in catholic school. She was such a kind and nice woman, and very funny. Not to mention a very big help in my writing.

Also there was Sr.Patrica, All 4'10 of her. She was a firecracker. Very funny and an amazing teacher.

6th grade- Mr. Foley. 6th grade was my first year in public school and it was a very different experience then parochial school. Mr Foley was my homeroom and english teacher and the man was funny, an amazing teacher and a great story teller. Not to mention he was a great help in getting me adjusted to public school. Sadly he died about 4 years ago from cancer. I still run into his wife from time to time and she is a very nice woman.

8th Grade- Mr.LaFlesh. He was my math teacher. Very helpful, would go over anything you needed as many times until you got it. He was in the same teaching class as Mr.Foley and both would constantly be picking on each other and their classes were only funnier and more enjoyable for it. He retired a few years ago and I still see him around town and at church, a great guy.

11th Grade- Mr.Pelczar. There is no way to describe him better then a former HI surfer who became a teacher, oh, and he did inhale. But this man was one of the teachers I'll never forget. a complete riot, how he got away with some of his shenanigans was beyond me. He even accused myself and about 6 others of cheating (we were innocent), including having the Principal, two vp's and our guidance dept head come up to class to "show what poor students CHS was creating, and that he could no longer teach such heathens", as a tie in, to the Crucible and how messed up the Salem Witch Trials were. I still see him from time to time at school football games or in town.