Teachers who have impacted your life

[SOteric]

either positively or negatively. And in what way did they do so?

My fondest memories as a child are of time spent in class with Fr. Myron Murphy. He inpired in me a life-long love of learning, a passion for books, and an open mind to other ways of viewing life.

[GOPisEvil]

1. Dr. Anthony T. Gadzey

Formerly of Ghana.
Formerly of The Catholic Church (ex-priest)

He taught me a lot of good information, but he taught me how to think critically. He also taught me how to process information.

My favorite Dr. Gadzey story: One day, the a/c was not functioning in our building. This is Texas, and it is warm. Dr. Gadzey decides to keep class in session. After about 15 minutes, he wipes his brow and says, "I am from Africa, and even for me, this is too hot. Let us go home."

[HEyHEY]

2. I had a few but the main one is

Mr. John Gustafson (Mr. G.)

I was a kid with learning disabilities, though I was noticably smarter than the others. It got to a point where I was "sentenced" to a half an hour a day after school to study in the learning centre. At the time they didn't know I had disabilities, they just thought I was an attitude case. Mr G, had a knack, he made you respect him, and want to listen to him. And he made you care about what he thought of you.

I still flunked courses all the way up until I finished high school "barely" But MR. G. made me feel that no matter how shitty my grades were I could still do anything because I had what it takes.

I saw him a few years back and he said that he had been thinking about me recently and was going to call my dad to see what I was up to. That's a teacher that gives a shit.

On edit: "There's a teacher who gives a shit" is what the last line should read - sorry MR. G

[Ashes]

3. Mr. Spangler

he was a middle school english teacher. He came back from vietnam and started teaching again - had a strange habit of jerking his neck to the side and his mouth would do weird things at times, but all us kids just loved him. He was open minded and caring and taught me a lot. I miss those days.

[Terran]

4. All my HS English teachers

Terry Moore, Lois Coleman, and Marilyn Stalder-Burke--they all inspired me to write and showed me in very practical ways how to do it right. They were and are all great human beings.

[WindRavenX]

5. Mrs.Babbs and Mrs.Halpern-most awesome teachers ever

I knew these two high school teachers my entire HS "career" and I can that without a doubt, they impacted me so much that I am now going to be a teacher- I'm double majoring in the fields that they taught (English and Bio). I'd like to teach both fields in HS.
Mrs.Babbs showed me you can still be you and be a teacher.
Mrs.Halpern showed me that you can still be spiritual and love science.
Most of all, these two women took me under their wings and helped me when I needed it. I ran into Mrs.Babbs in the hall one day after I was rejected by the guy I asked out to the prom. When she saw me, she comforted me and when she learned who he was (who was also in her class), she looked dead serious and said "Want me to kick his ass girl?" Babbs is from NY. Kick ass teacher.
Mrs. Halpern just retired this year...the school is going to very different now.
These two teachers really impacted me. Everyone needs to have teachers like these.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

6. Lao Tsu

[Shanty Oilish]

7. None!

Not one of them lifted a finger to teach me anything. :grr:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

8. Mr. Clark -- My high school Earth Science teacher

he was a cigar-chomping 'Nam vet. When he found out I'd done a delayed enlistment into the Air Force as my senior year was winding down, he stood me up and shook my hand in front of the entire class. No one had ever respected me in that manner before! It felt good.

He was a cool man. Don't know what happened to him.

[DS1]

9. Negatively, Dr. Eder, 5th grade, Willard Elementary, NJ

Evil, just plain evil, she hated me because I questioned her.

She would always run out of textbooks when it came time to give me one, I had to "share". When there was one of those rare lunar eclipse events, I pointed it out, so she shut all the blinds to the classroom so none of us could see it. She would assign me homework without giving me the class material. She would assign me detention for voting the wrong way. She made me clean her boards, even if I had done nothing wrong. She would give me an absentee mark, even though I had a legitimate excuse, ala getting a tooth drilled. She was evil incarnate. She called on me for answers to questions that were never explained. She demanded that I help her clean up the room before summer break. I told her to go fuck herself.

Best: Professor Cole: Effective Speaking

I started out doing an invisibility trick. My second speech was titled "George W. Bush is an Asshole", my last speech was "Drugs are good, don't believe the fundamentalists".

[no_hypocrisy]

10. My 4th grade teacher. I just attended her funeral two months ago.

She was the greatest. She seemed to know everything without opening a book. Great sense of humor and imagination. Certainly never a dull moment in her classroom. She read to us on a regular basis and good books too. She never really got mad, just frustrated when she thought you weren't trying hard enough. She didn't accept the concept that anyone in her class could not learn something. And to fill in "dead air" time (e.g., 5 minutes before the 3:00 bell), she'd give us updates on her two "incorrigible" teenage sons and their antics. It was a virtual soap opera.

I finally got the opportunity to fill in for her as a substitute teacher about 15 years after leaving her class and it was a privilege.

The best reason why she was the greatest teacher was she made me work very hard for the sake of doing well, not for the merit or the pay-off. And she understood me better in some ways than my parents. She'll never leave me.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. Do you mean they hit me or constipated me?

:evilgrin: Sorry couldn't resist!

I'll go with negative. I had a college professor in a writing class that read my blank books and told me my work was self-indulgent crap after I had (for years) gotten accolades for writing by my earlier teachers ( at a college prep school.)
I was devastated by this though and stopped writing ( poems and short stories.) Then I was in the campus bookstore and read one of his peotry books with bullshit about "ladies dresses dropping diamonds in the dew drops" :puke: but the damage to my confidence was already done since my works actually were deeply personal..and...wel...self-indulgent! But they were still good..

Fucker!

[SuffragetteSal]

15. Jeez - NSMA

I feel for you. I was reading a local newspaper about a creative writing teacher who spoke of her students in such unflattering and unsupportive ways, I was actually shocked. I was also glad I wasn't in her class. I think some teachers grasp onto the power they have over others and use it to boost their own fragile egos.

Always be cautious in the classroom. I am sure there are wonderful teachers out there - but there are also ones that do much damage and it goes unnoticed.

[SOteric]

16. Teachers who do such things

really have no business teaching. But as an observation I note that most of those who condemn others in such a cold and unfeeling way truly aren't very talented themselves.

[Aristus]

12. Greg Goss, my band teacher.

Taught me pride, self-respect and responsibility. I owe him more than I can ever repay.

[REP]

13. English Teachers

who taught the correct way to use "impact."

(Sorry, the misuse of "impact" annoys the living shit out of me)

[SOteric]

14. I'm very sorry for you.

That's really an horrific and unfortunate thing to have to suffer through in your life.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

17. ooh...zing

[oneighty]

18. Mr. Bent Thumb!

That is how he introduced himself to our class; "I am Mr. Bent Thumb".

He held his bent thumb up for all to see. "Ask me questions." He says.

"Show me what you do not know so I can teach you."

With his magic he would make Hydrogen, Oxygen. He would pour acid

into a beaker of sugar, make carbon. He would turn colored water to clear.

For the curious he would stay after school for hours, teaching.

Mr. Bent Thumb also had a sence of humor. A class mate, Joe, had copied

my homework paper complete, word for word, including my name.

"Ed" he says you got two hundreds. To "Joe" he says "You got zero."

180

[TXlib]

19. Carl Sagan.

I find watching Cosmos to be a spiritual thing.

I first saw it when I was 11 or so, and I knew then I wanted to study physics.

[Braden]

20. Mr. Richard Meyers

HS History teacher. He was one of a few who could connect to me back then.

Dr. Jain my finance professor who made me work my ass off.

Dr. Seperich without whom I might have dropped out of college just shy of graduation for what seemed like a good job then.

Dr. Lattie Coor ret. President of Arizona State. On of the finest Administrators you could ever know. He was not consumed with the power of his office, he loved learning. And he instilled a lifelong love of learning in anyone he had a chance to meet with. Thats my shortlist.