Influential Teachers/Faculty?

I had an Art teacher in secondary school, Mr Edgar, that on a Monday last period every week he'd call me over to his desk and we'd sit and discuss the football from the weekend for 10 minutes then I'd go back to my work. He was a Motherwell fan and I'm a Partick Thistle fan so both were quite rare in the area of Glasgow we live in so we had that in common. Guy was a legend and even funnier, he was one of the photographers at my sisters wedding in 2012. He told me he'd retired and was doing photography on the side as a hobby. It was great to catch up with him a few years later and of all places, my sisters wedding haha.

There was one who treated me decent and was nice to me. Her name was Mrs. Gaul. She was my teacher for 2nd and 6th grade. I was at her house a couple of times, she had a big house right in front of a creek and she would let me go look for crayfish. That's about it really. Teachers were not very nice to be and least of all gave a damn about me. Hate to sound whiny but it's just the truth. Wish I did have that teacher because, and I don't really like to talk about this, but I didn't have a very good childhood growing up. Back then, no one believed kids, they always took the adults/parents side and considered kids lying. It's just the way it was back then.

I'll just throw this in when we're talking school and teachers, but our janitors were so good in my high school. I see Stevie every Saturday, he goes on the same supporters bus as we do for the football. We also had one that would come into the toilets and smoke with us between classes but I don't think he'd like me telling anyone that if he valued his job!

Great post, the teachers deserve a lot of credit. Not all have been great for me but the ones that taught me on a more personal level, outside the text books-those are the ones I remember.

As the shortest kid in school, chubby with glasses, school was pretty brutal for me. I'd say 6th grade to junior year of h.s. were the worse. I could only go few places without being confronted and made fun of. Senior year, things changed, I became "popular" but it wasn't a "he's cool" popularity, it was I guess a strange sign of respect that I had survived, I guess like the wrestlers who get tormented and deal with it.

I wasn't a teacher pet as I never really applied myself or studied but I got close to a few teachers. I only did real well in classes that required essays like English classes and normally History.

The ones I really remember were Mr. Ginaitis, Mr. Dutrow, Mrs. Riddle, Dr. Korz, Dr. Laurie, Dr. Cooley and Dr. Smead and Coach Pastrana. Most knew me on a more personal level, just a few more with being the star student because of the essay writing. Mr. Pastrana had two relatives who were famous and he would get me their autographs. We were in the same college math class so we got really close at the time. They all were various years but all basically treated me better than anyone had every treated me in school. They knew me as more than a number or a class. I am currently what is called a "coach" at my job, I don't get paid any more for this but it's what I love and I know it's the influence of these men and women that got me to a really healthy and happy place in life mentally and emotionally. I can't imagine what kids go through now in school with social media being so big and the bullying always going strong. My only retreat from the bullying was normally going to the library in the school or getting to meet with these teachers at some point in the day.

Let's see. This was a long time ago. My elementary school was more like a reform school. We never got any new materials, mostly hand-me-downs from the neighboring schools. Our school was like a step-child. I was a smelly fat kid who talked with a slight accent, lisp & stutter. I was picked on a lot.

My kindergarten teacher in 1975 was Miss Whitehead (yes that was her real name). It was her first year of teaching & she was awesome. She married that summer & became Mrs. Muchanic & was my 1st grade teacher.
2nd grade was Mrs. Gaskins. The only African-American teacher I ever had. She was awesome. In a 98% white school, there were a lot of jokes or names the older students would refer to her as. She played "Bein' Green" by Kermit the Frog for us & said "Replace the color green with the color black. That's how I feel sometimes". She also introduced me to the writings of Shel Silverstein.
3rd grade was Mrs. Parks. She was older & reminded me of Mae Young. She taught me how to correctly tell time & had an easy way for me to memorize multiplication. I found out years later her husband was a drunk & would beat her. She ended up beating him up & leaving him. Good for her. My mom worked at the school for almost 30 years & said she would tell the filthiest jokes.
4th grade was Mrs. Schaeffer. I don't remember much here.
5th grade was Mrs. Hartman. I don't remember much here. Horrible mention goes to the other 5th grade teacher, Mr. Roemmelt. He was a douchebag. If your book bag stuck out a little from under your desk, he'd kick it. Until Mickey Troutweiller wrapped the straps around the desk legs. Mr. Roemmelt went to kick it & fell flat on his face. He was later "relocated to another school" for physically assaulting a student. He later shot himself, but everyone was told he had a heart attack.
6th grade was Mr. Warne. He was a douchebag. He was more like a college professor with how much homework he'd assign & how he ran his class. My only fond memory of this class is when Lisa Reeves threw up all over his shoulder.
7th grade through 12th grade is a blur. Mrs. Kosa was a great English teacher who would challenge anyone to a leg-wrestling match. She was undefeated, but had one draw when Rodger Franklin farted loudly during a challenge. Mr. Romond was my creative writing teacher & a very cool guy. Mr. Scurato was my theater arts teacher. He put me in a few plays. By my senior year, he said "I thought you would get better. You should stick to writing". I was insulted, but now I understand. My acting skills were awful.
In my experience, the enemy of any fat kid is the gym teacher. Every one I had would use the slow/fat/handicapped kids as examples. I sleep better at night knowing that they'd never amount to anything but a gym teacher & not the all-star athlete they hoped they'd become after college. Lousy douchebags.

I would say I had more good ones than bad ones, luckily. I had one professor in college that was kind of a hardass grader (and I even failed one of his classes and had to retake it) but he was extremely passionate and I just really resinated with a lot of his view points. I still utilize things he taught me years ago in my career today and it's helped me a lot.

I went to a community college where they had a wonderful thing called a student learning center. There you were able to take retests and get tutoring in subjects you needed help with. I took business classes in college and I always needed help in accounting. There was this wonderful Indian teacher there who tutored me in accounting. Unfortunately she passed away in January of 2021. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have gotten through my accounting classes. I think about her alot.

Another teacher that I grew close with since the third grade also unfortunately passed away last year from Metastatic breast cancer.

Undoubtedly, education is necessary but I always hated it. I tried to combine work and study, it was not that easy. I often applied to writing services as it was the only option sometimes. Here is BoostMyGrades phone number boostmygrades.pissedconsumer.com/customer-service.html , contact this service if you need help with homework or essay. I am sure it's useful for many students.

Cool trip down memory lane!

I had some pretty awful teachers as a kid but I also "wasn't like the rest." I will accept some blame but I went to a very strict private school, very traditional and very regimented. I had some good teachers, none worth mentioning there. After switching to public school where arts and such were more accepted I had some cool teachers that in the moment helped inspired me. Do I look back and think they helped me 20 years later? Not really but I'll always remember the fun and how normal they were. Mr. Stone - Drama, fostered an environment where it was all friends and made it cool to act in plays. And Mr. Braband was our CommTech teacher, was a cool ex-roadie who never put pressure on people and just wanted to help them have fun. Good stuff. I'll always remember how fun high school was.

In all my university/college degrees I can't think of many "standouts" but in my MBA I finally had one that taught a subject I needed to help take myself to the next level. Management. She just had the information I was finally interested in to take myself to the next level and it paid off.

I wouldn't say anyone drastically changed my life, but I had some good times despite hating school the whole way through. Not sure why I'm like that but hey, I'm still here.