Teachers

Oh nanaval; that's so sad to read. Can you pass on my condolences to everyone concerned. Teachers are much undervalued imo. A good teacher can completely change the path a child takes in his/her life. Unfortunately, the teacher that stands out for me is one that used to throw the board rubber at us if we didn't learn our French verbs; I am actually grateful to her now. And a history teacher who brought the subject to life for me, and gave me a lifelong interest in the subject. Also a maths teacher who was not only a good teacher [I hated maths] but was so stylish we idolised her.

What a very sad tragedy this is for this poor man and his family and indeed the whole school and community.

My most inspirational teacher was someone who spoke in a very quiet voice to us whilst extolling the virues of the proper use of the English language.

When I was in the second year at grammar school, we used to have silent reading on one afternoon a week - reading the set book. I was, and still am, a very fast reader, and this particular English teacher noticed that I'd quickly finished, and gave me the key to the English stockroom to help myself. It was my idea of heaven!

So, when I became an English teacher, and when I had a bit of clout, I instigated book boxes for each English teacher, so that children could read at their own pace. Reading is so important, but so is having books to hand from which to choose.

I wasn't madly interested in geography and have certainly never been able to draw maps. I'm pretty sound on north and south but get a bit muddled with east and west (and, for that matter, left and right). I was planning to do O level history but was stuck with a deeply uninspiring teacher, so abandoned the idea. I chose geography instead because the teacher was so inspiring. By God she didn't suffer fools gladly and would fail 70–80% of the class without blinking, so when I got a B (nothing great, I'm afraid) from her in the year before the O level course started, I knew I would do okay. I really enjoyed the course and still remember the topics we studied. I remained friends with her after she retired, even though I was never one of her stars, and used to write regularly.

Mine was a history teacher. A Scot. Very academic, stern, didn't suffer fools gladly but had very high expectations. We didn't dare not meet them. I corresponded with her for 46 years until she died at the age of 87.

I also remember a primary school teacher when I was about nine. She was a funny old soul with a badly twisted spine and a hearing aid, but she drummed proper spelling, grammar and maths into us which made for a very firm foundation.

Mine was a Scot, in a tiny little school outside Edinburgh. it was called St Mungos. magical place. She taught us all the basics, English Geography, Maths History etc; but with gentleness and ease. We were never shouted at and it all seemed fun, yet we all left there at 8, literate, speakingFrench and with a huge amount of general Knowledge. We used to make camps in the garden at break, and caught newts in jars to examine for nNature study. We had a good knowledge of the planets, her brother was Bernard Lovell who ran Joderel Bank. She was wonderful

My favourite teacher at the Grammar School for girls, in Rochdale, was Miss Guest, my history teacher all through the school. I believe her first name was Dorothy. She wore her hair in one of those roll things, and I often wondered what she`d look like with it around her face.

Two teachers spring to mind. My French teacher was a real francophile, spoke the language like a native and had us speaking it pretty well by the time we left. When I was working towards the Bursary competition for St Andrews, he lent me books to study such things as French institutions and thanks to him I was able to write an essay on (of all things) French Trade Unions! My other 'best' teacher was my classics teacher, small, but imposing, she never had to raise her voice and very rarely had to punish anyone. We all wanted to live up to her expectations. She made me love Latin! And before I went to University, she went through a number of the Greek texts with me to get me up to speed.

Mine was my form teacher when I was 12/13. His name was Mr Burnham and he taught me how to do fractions in my head. I was desparate to please him and although he was the naughty boys nemesis I think he realised how vulnerable I was and treated me very gently.
I wish I could tell him how well I turned out.
Another one was our head , Mr Solomans. I wrote to his widow when he died telling her how much I had respected him and received a lovely letter back.

My husband taught languages and recently he had a lovely message on Friends Reunited from a girl he taught many years ago. She went on to do languages at university and has lived and worked abroad ever since. She has had a very interesting and successful career which she said was largely due to his inspiration.
My husband often felt he was wasting his time and that his teaching fell on stoney ground so it really cheered him up to hear this.