Did a teacher change your life?

[ProfPickles]

I saw on social media that it has recently been thank a teacher week and it got me thinking about the teachers I had at school and college.

Nothing remarkable stands out to me that happened whilst in their classes (other than them being great teachers and kind people) but what really stands out to me is that my high school art teacher came to support me when I opened my business 8 years after leaving school.

My college art teacher took me out for dinner to look through my personal statement when applying for uni. I had a baby within a year of leaving her class and everyone else was off to uni without me. It meant so much that she took the time to support me and she sat and held my newborn son while I finished the meal she'd bought me.

I'm going to be starting my teacher training this year and in my current job in a secondary school I see every day how the teachers work so hard for our kids. We're in a deprived area so there is a lot to deal with behaviour wise too and the teachers are inspirational to me.

Anybody else have stories of past teachers that really changed things for them?

I think mine just made me feel valued as a person and not just someone that they once taught

Thanks @ProfPickles. I left my old school after 10 years in 2019. I loved it there, great school I just hated all the crap that goes with teaching. Unfortunately the effects of coronavirus on our business saw me return to teaching at a different school and I hate it even more lol. It doesn't help that we're all isolated from each other so I know no one!

The overriding issue (as I put it to my line manager) is I'm fed up with teaching other peoples shitty children! Obviously that's the minority but it's soul destroying nonetheless. And that's why I need to leave, I can't be thinking like that about my students. I want to be a good teacher even an inspiring teacher to some but I feel so far past that in the last 3-4 years it wouldn't be fair to them or me to keep battling through.

I will look back on my successes though, one of my ex students is a teacher and I helped her write a personal statement for her post grad, one writes and produces music around the world, there are 2 married couples from my first tutor group and most of my ex students have grown up to be decent people.

Yes my maths teacher who asked me why I wasn’t applying to oxbridge. It had never occurred to me - no-one in my family had ever gone to university. She insisted and it’s changed my life completely

Yes, I think so.

One told me I was good at something and showed me how to demonstrate it by scoring highly in assessments. Prior to that I'd hoped I was good but hadn't known how to achieve and hadn't been sure. It changed a lot of things.

I had some fabulous teachers… and some terrible ones.

I’m now a head of subject at a secondary school and I’ve received some of those lovely comments back from former students who are now studying my subject at university. I hope I’ve learnt/am still learning how to make a positive difference but to be firm/fair 10 years in. It’s the best feeling to know you’ve made a difference.

Another story I’ve heard. Close family member was first in her family to go to university and desperately needed the forms signed by her teachers/family members to go (this was mid 70’s so full grants for all students) to a RG uni.

One of her teachers refused to sign the form because she felt this family member didn’t deserve to go as they had been given a scholarship to go to their school and therefore didn’t deserve university.

Flabbergasted.

@ProfPickles, I Google his name from time to time, but I’ve never come across him. I don’t live in the city I grew up in anymore, and I left school over 30 years ago.

Head master of my primary school . His name was Mr S.
He has been in the military and was a rather strict but kind man.

For thank a teacher day this year my school sent an email out to all students and parents with an online form they could fill in to thank a teacher if they wanted. They didn't tell staff they were doing this. On the day itself we all got an email with the messages we had received. It was done fairly quietly because not everyone got them but I tell you, it was a bright spot in a year that has been very difficult indeed. It went a long long way.

My A- Level art teacher bought a piece of my artwork- it gave me such a boost in confidence! She was an amazing teacher.

Not life changing, but memorable! Age 8, my father got a job on the other side of the world and we as a family were all going. My teacher organised the whole class with a surprise farewell party for me. I still recall walking back into the classroom, lights off and everyone gone and saying 'where has everyone gone?' Next thing, the room erupted with all the kids jumping out and saying surprise!

Sadly the only ones who had a lasting impact on me were the shitty ones.

A chemistry teacher in secondary school who was terrifying and unapproachable. Literally lived in fear of her picking me out in class each time.

Second was my sixth form form tutor who essentially wrote me off when I said I didn’t want to go to uni. Offered me nothing from that day on. Made snide comments about my family and that I was putting it about. Not what you need at 17 when you’re already suffering from a crisis of confidence

@MiloAndEddie that's awful. So sorry to hear that. Your sixth form tutor sounds as if they should have been fired from the profession for misconduct, making comments like that .

@NewModelArmyMayhem18, agreed. What a disgrace.

Most female teachers changed my life really. My mum was a nightmare but they all over the years showed me what a capable, sensible woman looks like. If I'd just had my mum as a role model it would have been horrendous. Thank you capable, sensible teachers

Just to add they didn't need to do anything amazing to change my life, it was just the years of them being good role models

There was a teacher I had in the last year of infant school and I have such vivid memories of so much we learned that year in a way that I don't of any other primary school year. I remember books she read to us, songs we sang, projects we did that I got really into, walks to the library,.a school trip, poems and stories I wrote in her class. Such a memorable year I feel she must have made a huge effort to make it so interesting and varied.

I was a studious and plain looking child, played musical instruments. For school plays I was always picked to be the narrator whose costume was school uniform. In the last year of infants the teacher cast me as a fairy godmother and gave me her daughter’s fabulous pink sparkly ballet tutu to wear. I’ve always been very intuitive and sensitive (to my detriment at times) so even then, I knew why she’d given me that role. There were other teachers who did the opposite and held me up as the kind of child others should aspire to be. That was in retrospect damaging in many ways

I was a studious and plain looking child, played musical instruments. For school plays I was always picked to be the narrator whose costume was school uniform. Isn't that always the case? Certainly was for those picked for the narrator role in DC's classes.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 it’s sad isn’t it? It was the same when I moved to juniors, there was a great Nativity production in the church the school was connected to with a fabulous chest of costumes. I used to look enviously at the angels getting make up put on and with net and sequin halos and there was I in my navy blue uniform either narrating or playing the violin. It may sound daft but if I unpick it, I know it played a part in affecting my self esteem

I loved being the narrator! and the sound of my own voice generally

My life was certainly changed by one teacher, who taught what could have been a very worthy and tedious class - he brought it to life so much an we learnt about all the stuff kids never learnt about in school but definitely should: HIV, migration, the history of feminism, the role of the police, what political parties are etc etc etc. It was fantastic and I remember things he taught me nearly every day. I did email to thank him and say hi a few years ago, he remembered me and my best friend. (She had got really stuck with another subject and he used to coach her quickly on the tough bits of it in the break between lessons, she passed and did well!)

Headteacher of my tiny rural primary school - he got the whole village involved in the school.

History teacher at secondary school who encouraged me to consider uni when I thought I was not good enough.

When I was choosing my O level options, my art teacher asked why I hadn’t chosen art. He was a rather remote chap, I’d never engaged with him one to one, art was just one of those things on the timetable. I said it was because I had no artistic ability. He cocked his head and said “really?!” Years later I’ve picked up a sketching book

11:59EditedbySKSS

What a lovely teacher. Do you mean that you knew she'd given you this costume and role so you could discover your sparkly side? Did it gave the effect she'd intended?

Absolutely not, unless it was for the worse. I'm a little tired of the hero worship we're all supposed to feel towards teachers. They are doing a job for a very good wage and most do not give a toss beyond that - can't afford to, with the numbers that pass through their door, to be fair. My teachers were mostly drawn from well-off backgrounds and had little of value to add to my life except by way of having a go at me because my background and therefore likely prospects did not match their grandiose expectations.

For the last 2 years of primary school I had an amazing teacher who I have never forgotten. He made learning fun and interesting, he was fair and I felt he liked us. All of us passed the 11plus, a class of about 33. He ignited my interest in all sorts of subjects, I loved learning and attaining knowledge. I loved school.

If it was a nice day we would go out and do nature study looking at wildlife, leaves and flowers and their fruits . At end of terms he would take us to the park for rounders, we loved it.

One day he called me to his desk and talked of/showed me pictures of Vincent Van Gogh and the Impressionists. It gave me a lifelong appreciation of art and painting. He would always praise me for my handwriting and it gave me confidence. I felt he liked me and gained my trust as at home I had no male role models at all and was generally wary of men/other friends dads.

I went onto Friends Reunited back in the day, and looked up the school and my teacher. There were loads of posts, so so many, from old pupils saying what a great teacher he was and how he was very respected and loved. He went on to be a headmaster. I think he has died now, sadly.

The second school [Grammar] was awful, hellish. I hated every minute. Snobbish: pupils and teachers. It nearly broke me. By then I knew the difference between a good, inspiring teaching which gave me an interest in life and everything in it....and crap teaching [of subjects of no relevance whatsoever. Incredible boredom].