posted February 23, 2009 05:43 AM         

My favourite teacher was my primary school headmaster. Big Welsh guy, looked like Ray Reardon the snooker player (slightly vampirish with a widow's peak for those who don't know who RR is).

The important lesson I learned from him is that it is never satisfying to cut corners, and to always do a thorough job. I was excited one day at a woodwork class he taught and I wanted to get my wooden letter-holder finished and home to my Mum because I was very proud of it. In my haste I nailed on a bit of wood that had not been properly sanded, and I knew it, and he said very gently that I would regret not finishing it properly. I've never forgotton it. Bless him.

He made all the kids feel special. He made my primary education really valuable and I'm grateful. We were so proud of our school.

posted February 23, 2009 05:57 AM         

quote:

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He was like Teflon as well

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posted February 23, 2009 07:07 AM         

These days, however, I am finding them a whole lot more attractive....especially a certain petticoat wearing one.

posted February 23, 2009 07:09 AM         

FE= Further Education (non-degree post non-compulsory education)

posted February 23, 2009 08:18 AM         

one maths 'master' at high school who took great pleasure using the cane ..
he would stand on a chair and spy on pupils via the corridor top windows to the classroom ..
anyone who was misbehaving .. got called out for a caning ..
he preferred six of the best on the backside ..
( yeah mr. jabowinski i've never forgotten you )
then there was the sports 'master' .. he got great pleasure in a double caning ..
miss out on sports day for whatever reason .. and he would wait .. untill ..
he had two kids to cane .. made us each put one hand finger tip to finger tip ..
then wack the cane down in between .. was sods law as to who got the most strikes ..
( most kids viewed him as a sexual pervert for some reason )
i've forgotten his name .. but if i should ever run into him .. god help him ..
then again he's probably in his 80's now .. if he's still alive ..
and the music teacher from pre-high school ..
a racist son of a so and so .. took great delight picking on someone for being different ..
was a real nasty control freak .. good thing he had no authority to use the cane ..
he'd probably be in his 70's now ..

fond memories of any teacher .. not really ..
music teacher in high school was a cool person .. i.e. kind and understanding
and class would mainly consist of listening to clasical music ..

conclusion .. most teachers are closet control freaks ..
and get a kick out of having authority over kids ..

posted February 23, 2009 08:34 AM         

My ex boyfriend had a similar time I think. Except there was this one 'master' who, if you wanted to be disruptive and if you shouted out a word at random in class, like for example "cake", he'd say:

"I'll cake YOU boy!"

so everybody took great delight in shouting out the word "bum".

posted February 23, 2009 09:23 AM         

well .. just sounds like that :-))
never really bothered me ..
be all that i could remember regarding teachers ..

posted February 23, 2009 12:48 PM         

Another teacher I liked:
Mrs. D., my Virgo art teacher from the 6th Form. She looked like Elaine Paige, and taught me how to paint - I seriously couldn't paint before then - draw, but not paint. Favourite phrase: "Somebody with a brain cell..."

Mr. Green, another Chemistry teacher (all my Chemistry teachers were nice actually). I remember us making thermometer bulbs out of glass rods, and growing potassium permanganate crystals (though I remembered none of the Chemistry). He used to wear a green tie, was the mildest man ever, and used to go to the health food shop (so obviously Green by name, green by nature).

Mr. P., director of music at comprehensive school. He was okay, quite lazy but very supportive, he looked like a Viking, v. tall and bulky with a great mop of strawberry blond hair and beard - can't imagine anyone ever having dared argue with him, calm and rocklike though he was. I think he was a Taurus - in order to get us to concentrate whilst he was rehearsing us for public concerts, he used to stick his finger up his nose.

Mrs. W., who was the temporary headteacher at my comprehensive school, and used to permanently patrol the corridors to check for skivers. She must have been quite efficient at it too, because even though she was tiny, bird-like, and very cross-eyed, meaning that one didn't know where to look (poor woman), she didn't let that get in her way - she was positively fearsome and well-respected.

Teachers that were mad as hell, or who I hated:

Miss G. from the girls' private school I went to - who looked like the Beryl Reid character out of St. Trinian's - and more or less behaved like her. Reversible kilt, men's knee-socks and men's shoes, with a blazer and deep booming voice. Think she was a Capricorn - anyway, she used to say: "I'll dictate to you what to write in your exams. My way of teaching is the only way (she actually said this!) Learn this and you will get an A" - so, 2-hr lesson after 2-hr lesson, all we did was write down her notes. I had not a clue what she was on about, and furthermore, I didn't think that was teaching!! I couldn't stand her, and she always gave me bad marks, but apparently she said to my father one parents' evening that she thought I was incredibly talented ("the future Iris Murdoch" ?!). How strange is that? (Not that I'd want to be compared to an old bat with a bad haircut, you understand).

Mr. L. - the Director of Music at girls' private school, who loved himself. A Libra.

Mr. R, the physics teacher, who tried to explain the principles of magnetism by saying in a very oily manner to one of the most un-confident girls in the class, "Are you attracted to me?" YUK!!!

Mr. S., the Latin teacher who used to dye his hair (it was a different shade of red every time), who developed a crush on a girl in the year below me and had to leave!!!

Mr. F., another Geology teacher, who was camp as a row of Boy Scout tents. I didn't dislike him because of that, but because he always had too much of a hangover to teach us - and also had a personal hygiene problem - we used to fight over the window seats in the classroom!

All my lecturers from art college, with the exception of a couple of visiting ones who were a bit more sane. (The most loopy ones were on my MA course - they used to tell us (including P/T students) to turn up at a certain time and then turn up 3 hours late. They'd criticize your work and when you asked them what you should do, just say: "oh, do ANYTHING". I was lucky - I jumped ship and got a refund. The students who stayed on ended up as miserable as sin and their work - um, well, they wouldn't have needed to go to art college to produce it, because it wasn't inspired, and I know why - NO-ONE can produce good work in an unsupportive environment! Criminal!!)
My verdict: don't EVER go to art college - save your money (and time!!)

Oopsdescendingintoahijackstylerant...

Lots of love,

posted February 23, 2009 03:17 PM         

HD, I'm glad they'd phased out caning in schools by the time I got there - only time I got caned was by nuns when I was 4, for throwing stones. I got caned at home a lot but at least I didn't get it in school. In fact both schools I went to were pretty concerned about my parents' heavyhandedness.

posted February 23, 2009 04:39 PM         

~ Xena ~
*** only time I got caned was by nuns when I was 4, for throwing stones. I got caned at home a lot but at least I didn't get it in school**
at 4 years of age .. holy crappolla !!! ..
and at home !! .. two adults against one gal ..
( stopping any more here 'cause the idea of it makes me seriously angry )

i must say i had plenty of warnings at school before the cane was produced ..
wasn't like i wasn't aware of the consequences ..

with the sports master it was more like a game ..
i.e. to see if we could abscond downtown without being caught ..
the music shops were so much more interesting than boring cricket ..

posted February 23, 2009 05:23 PM         

He was my Language Arts teacher when i went to Catholic School. He taught me .... about life. He spoke French, had lived and taught in Europe and South America, lived in a commune, etc. He was just so... intellectual, and experienced, and sophisticated. I wanted to be intelligent and philosophical like that... i still do. My goal in life- be like Mr. Miller.

My hero, to this day.

His chart:

posted February 23, 2009 10:40 PM         

quote:

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Did anybody actually LIKE school? Some people I've spoken to claim they actually DID, for the social element.

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My favorite teacher was Mr. Burke, senior-year Behavioral Science class. I don’t even recall exactly what Behavioral Science was – something of a cross between sociology and psychology I guess. Mr. Burke was VERY hip for the time – we had an overnight class trip to the ocean, and he set up teams of 4 – 2 girls, 2 boys – who planned their own meals, brought their own food, and stayed overnight together in the same tent (**shock!!**). It was a fabulous trip – the first night after we’d hiked out past Lake Ozette to the ocean and fixed our dinners over campfires, we built a bonfire on the beach made of logs a foot in diameter and 40 feet long. It was a bit like caber-tossing, getting those suckers onto the pyre, as you couldn’t get within 20 feet of it!!
Nothing untoward happened (at least in our group tent) other than the consumption of smokable material, although we were all about 17 and quite healthy in regards to normal teenage hormones
We respected Mr. Burke enough to not do anything stupid that would get him in trouble, as he had gone to great lengths to line this trip up for us and give us some freedom away from the parents.....

posted February 24, 2009 01:35 AM         

I guess as for teachers, perhaps the best AND worst, was a math teacher. I had gotten way behind in math due to circumstances that had nothing at all to do with my math teacher and was having a very hard time catching up. For some reason, I just couldn't get it. I was flunking (a first), and I had to get like at least a B on the semester exam or I'd flunk it.

So I went back through the textbook. And by using the book, it made sense! It was so easy! Not only did I pass the semester exam, I was the only one to get the bonus question right, getting a score of a 110. After that, she had me tutoring other kids.

Ever since then, I learned to tune out the teacher and pay attention to the book. It almost always works better that way.

As an addendum, one time I got in trouble was when I contradicted a coach who was a history teacher (only because the law said he had to teach something) over a date of a historic battle. The textbook was wrong, but because of an Iron Maiden song (Alexander the Great), I knew the correct date. He laughed at me for trusting my source over the book, but I went and got books from both the public AND school library, and each one agreed with me, and not the textbook. I got in trouble for that, and the history books from the school library were taken from me by the principal immediately after and the library never got them back (I got that from the school librarian herself, who at least didn't blame me for that).

Oh, yes, the question about the date was on the test as multiple choice, which included the one the textbook gave and the correct one that I confirmed with library books. I chose the correct date and it was the only one I got wrong. ('Course given that schools are there to teach obedience, I was wrong to answer that way...save I'm not interested in learning that authority is always right.)

As a general rule, don't trust the teacher to know.

posted February 24, 2009 04:51 AM         

W-O-W, Lexx, that is some story! No, but seriously - some people deserve to have furniture thrown at them.

HD, guess my seeming buoyancy over being whacked must be my Aries resilience - or the fact I was brought up in a family atmosphere where it was taken as a given that kids *had* to be smacked (according to my parents, it didn't harm them and it wouldn't harm me either). Actually smacking just makes kids more resentful if it's not done for the right reasons, and it got crazy in the end, because my father ended up breaking my nose as he just couldn't control his temper, and my mum was still trying to find opportunities to whack me with a wooden spoon at 21!!! (I used to hide all her wooden spoons - I think she actually broke one on my behind once!)

I do have to say I never threw a stone again after having been caned. Personally I blame the stupid tattle-tale Saggie girl I threw the miniscule piece of gravel at for having made such a damn fuss - it hardly touched her.

Zala, I really loved your stories - about the camping and the trousers!! At the girls' private school I went to, everyone had to wear a skirt (even in the 6th form). At my comprehensive, we were allowed to wear trousers (1989) - although we still had to wear school uniform (it being the UK).

When I myself decided to teach, it was sort of weird, because I could understand the position some of the teachers must have been in and I wondered whether I would come up against similar situations myself. I decided I wouldn't go for a baptism of fire, and determined to teach adults rather than children. It's been suggested that I should retrain to teach kids, but I am reluctant because of the amount of paperwork involved - plus teaching the same thing every year would make anyone doolally after a while!!

I did teach adults (a specific branch of art) for about 4 years and that was great as I could determine my own courses and subject matter (within reason) and they did all really appreciate what I had to offer and got something out of it. I determined that I was going to do all the things my teachers never did at art school - I actually TAUGHT them and was always encouraging. I also allowed them to interpret things in their own way if possible - I think this is a really crucial part of learning, it's simply not a recitation of facts or one-size-fits-all.

I taught people with MS and Special Needs - I was especially proud of the improvement in a Special Needs lady, who hadn't always been that way, but who had been operated on for a brain tumour, and whose brain had been damaged in the process. After my working with her for a year, she was producing the sort of work that could quite easily have been reproduced as textile designs, and she was able to mix colours spectacularly well. If there had been a prize for the "most improved" I would have given it her.

When I left the students clubbed together to buy me the most beautiful book. I had tears in my eyes...

Love,