What was the most important thing a teacher ever taught you?

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What was the most important thing a teacher ever taught you in school? This could be a fact that helped you through your life, or a virtue that rubbed off one of your educators. Names aren't important, but you can include one if you wish.

Mine (fact) was the common way to tie my shoes in grade 1.

A virtue I acquired from my teacher 2 years ago was appreciation for philanthropy and compassion. He was unique, teaching music, though he ultimately gave life lessons and philosophies in class. No one else seemed to pick up, but when people listened, they were amazed.

For instance, he taught the class on compassion for transexuals and their situations, and also documenting the struggle on such people.

Then there was the constant debate on "If a tree falls in the woods..." and debates went well beyond regular time.

Finally, his cold analysis on the future generation was softened by the fact that he always recalled a wild moment from his youth every session.

He retired last year at the age of 57, after 20+ years in the field.
 
I don't remember much from grade school but in high school I learned so much about life from my newspaper adviser/teacher. She taught me how to meet deadlines under a huge amount of pressure, how to control my frustrations, how to write well, and many other things. I will always miss her as a teacher and even though I've been out of high school for almost three years I still stay in contact with her from time to time.

In college my archaeology professor has pretty much put me on the path I am now and is passing on his knowledge to me so I can, one day, be an archaeologist as well.
 
Really good question - and it's not something I've thought about for a long time... there were certainly several teachers I had that were memorable for one reason or another, some good, some great, some not so good, and I think a few deserve a mention here!

In high school, my physics teacher Dr. Burns (he had a Ph.D in Genetics!) was mercilessly teased but infact he was a very good teacher - he had a gentle sense of humour and a calm and patient demeanour, that instilled a strange notion in my brain that I would later realise was respect...

My modern studies teacher, Robin Harper, is now a member of the Scottish Parliament, and his classes were always fascinating. I reckon this class was one of the few (perhaps English being the only other) that didn't just involve learning equations and facts and figures, but set us on the road to learning some invaluable skills, like rational thought, reasoning and debate. Mr. Harper also berated us (with his usual gleeful wit) about not reading a quality newspaper every day (even at the age of 15!!) and recommend us to watch the news and take an interest in current affairs...

Few, if any, lecturers during my university days did I find particularly inspiring, in fact one or two (who shall remain nameless) I would love to meet today and show them just how idiotic and old-fashioned some of their ideas were (one Professor once told me that "your whole attitude to life is wrong!" just because I had long hair!), but for every old buffoon there was also people like Prof. David Littlejohn at Strathclyde University who listened, gave sound advice and helped you out in whichever ways he could, and that was worth more than almost the whole of the rest of the department combined!

Finally, probably my most inspiring 'teacher' was by Ph.D supervisor, Prof. Laurence Barron FRS - a bona fide genius if ever there was one. His dedication to his work was awesome, and his benevolence towards and belief in those who worked with him made the whole experience extremely rewarding. But aside from being a great person to work with/for, he was also a funny, friendly and rational man. He played tiddly-winks and collected model planes, he enjoyed discussing the grandeur of the universe and the complexities of the natural world, and took great delight in mocking those who believe that mankind has a divine right to call this planet our own!! "One more big meteor and WHACK!! That would be the end of that debate!"... :D I'm just incredibly grateful to have had the chance to work with someone like Prof. Barron - perhaps the closest I'll get to working with someone like the late Carl Sagan, who I also find hugely inspiring.
 
^Great post, and good idea for a thread.

My most inspiring teacher must have been Mr. Hopkins, in grade 11. He's the one who got me into computer graphics, and now I'm majoring in animation. 'nuff said.
 
NOTICE: I changed the thread title from a tease to a title. :)
 
My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Simonson. She effectively taught me how to read (yes, I could not read till I was 10, basically) and some serious patience and the likes, as my mother had died only a month before I re entered public schooling (was home schooled up till then). She also put up with my off the wall tendencies with math, in that I never did nor have memorized a times table, I simply do them in head as fast. Or my tendency to ask very hard or random questions.

Overall, she was a great teacher, and I always make a point to say hi to her if I see her in town or such. My high school teachers were all fairly good, but my 4th grade teacher got me at a very odd turning point in my life, to say the least, and handled it very well.
 
Mr. Smith was a high-school teacher of mine from grade 10 to 12 in English, History, and Social Studies, and taught me to question everything regardless of the source, to be free thinking, empathize, and to articulate my thoughts. He also used to be an offensive lineman in the CFL and his voice had a definite James Earl Jones-ish quality to it. You couldn't avoid paying attention to his lectures.



I used to dread each and every single one of his classes - they were very interactive and more thought provoking than the usual memorization of dates/people/terms that you get in high-school history. I'm really not the type of person who likes to get too involved in arguments and expressing opinions of current events, which is what nearly every single class of his involved - what's more is he'd purposely call two people to share their thoughts on something knowing full well that their ideas would clash and then just referee from there. Or... he might ask someone who he knows to have a very right winged perspective to argue some point from the left (this was the absolute worst!).

Looking back though, he's the teacher I miss the most from grade/high-school. His classes, although terrifying at times if I was uncomfortable with the topic of discussion, were definitely entertaining and generated some of my best/most vivid memories of high-school.
 
"Boys, make sure you lick it before you stick it."

Mrs. Hopkins, my classroom sex-ed teacher actually said that in front of a class of about 30 guys.

Best teacher ever.
 
my teacher taught me how to do something, which under law, I am unable to do until I am 16.



































She taught me how to drive. not quite what you expected, is it?
 
I honestly don't know. High school was hell for me. I want to forget those years as quick as possible.
 
When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher pulled me aside and said, "I can see that you are very bored with the work. I'm going to give you some challenging math and science assignments to work on. Do those, instead of what I'm giving to everyone else." She wanted me to do them in class, while everyone else worked on the regular assignments. Embarrassed, I still did the normal assignments in school, and worked on the special stuff at home. She caught me one day and asked, "Why aren't you working on the new stuff I've given you?" I told her that I didn't want everyone else to know about it, and make fun of me. Her response: "Your intelligence is not a joke. It will be your greatest asset when you grow up. Please don't let others trick you into wasting it. I'll be heartbroken if you do." That really stuck with me, and of course, she was right.

The other most influential teacher to me was my high-school chemistry teacher. He was very entertaining, and was very demanding of us. "College is not a playground, and I am not a recess teacher." He really wanted us to be prepared for the rigor of university-level science. He was also very fun, and would have parties at his house on the lake. He is the reason I chose chemical engineering, and that has certainly been a big part of my life...
 
Kylehnat
The other most influential teacher to me was my high-school chemistry teacher. He was very entertaining, and was very demanding of us. "College is not a playground, and I am not a recess teacher." He really wanted us to be prepared for the rigor of university-level science. He was also very fun, and would have parties at his house on the lake. He is the reason I chose chemical engineering, and that has certainly been a big part of my life...
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I really could've used a teacher like that in my high-school math and science classes. Instead, my high-school seemed to gear those particular subjects down to make them more accessible to the people headed straight for the workforce after graduation and who would otherwise drop out and destroy their futures with drug abuse or teen pregnancies (...which still happened to a large percentage of my age group anyways). I'm sure that I would have adjusted to university and engineering course loads much quicker had I gone to a different high-school, and that I would have graduated last year rather than this spring.

Of course it also didn't help that the Physics & Chem teacher was 24 and just wanted us all to be her friends rather than to teach us anything, and that the applied math & pre-cal teacher was actually a recycled gym teacher who couldn't even pronounce the word 'parabola', nevermind define it.

ya... small town Canadian schools FTW...
 
The most important lesson I've ever learned from a teacher was from the worst teacher I've ever had. Ms. Boykin (Mrs. George now) showed me that my education was up to me. I learned from her what it took to create change. She and her class made me miserable enough to do whatever it took to escape the prison of a middle school I was in. I remember walking out of her class, calling up my mom, and going straight to the office to demand a school change.

The next day, I started going to another middle school where my uncle was the police resource officer. I did remarkably well and had the good fortune to be taught by absolutely outstanding teachers. I went from D's and F's to A's and B's in most subjects. It was great. My old school and the schoolboard kept sending me letters about how I'd committed an infraction or whatever. We basically told them and their bureaucracy to shove it. The move was the best thing I've ever done in my student career.
 
Not my teacher but I got to meet Tom Matano (Director of Industrial Design at Academy of Art College and Mazda designer) at an Industrial Design Mixer. I asked him about being a car designer and he said...

Be an Industrial Designer because then you can afford to buy the car you want.
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Needless to say it didn't matter because apparently I wasn't good enough for Industrial Design either. xD



Note: When I started in Industrial Design there were about 40 of us and when I left there was only about 9. Of those 9 probably 5 actually graduated... and that's an increase for my major.
 
Ah.. K-12. Some incredibly crappy memories, and some great ones. By far, the best ones happened towards the end. As my transition from boy to man came closer to completion, I realized who my true friends were, and stopped caring about how others saw me; I was finally easing up and just being myself.
I've been largely inept in athletics, and I'm painfully clumsy. So, that coupled with the fact that I have had eczema my whole life found me getting goaded by other kids. My Sixth grade french teacher and Seventh Grade english teacher both got me going on the right side of the road by telling me that I need to have more confidence in myself. At that time, My Eczema was on the verge of being smallpox.
Freshman year in PE, I was picked last for any team activity, and had a pretty bad mile run time. (ten minutes) Spring rolled around, and I was freaking out about a running activity we had to do. We had to run twelve laps in some odd time limit. My PE coach told me "It doesn't matter how you think you do against them. But doing your best against yourself each and every time is what matters. As long as you are putting forth an effort to best yourself each time, then you haven't failed at all. You've gotten the point about what matters in life. Just give it your best, and you don't need a hall pass to get your inhaler afterward."
I ran like hell. A lap of running, two of jogging, etc. I was the fifth one done out of a class of fourty. The kids who had been giving me hell all year didn't finish. In the spring I ran a 7:35 mile. So, between all the teachers over the years, probably the most important thing I learned was that I need to believe in myself. I'm painfully timid, and not the most confident socially. I still have walnut like tendencies, but i embrace who I am instead of trying to hide myself from those around me.

:)

My Chem/Physics teacher taught me some very important lessons.

1.) There's a right way, a wrong way, and the Swedish way.
2.) Don't ask if a whale or a flowerpot will make it to the ground first unless you want to be looking up with a motion detector as they fall. :lol:
3.) There's no reason to fart and waste it while one can burp and taste it.
 
In terms of life lessons I suppose my junior school rugby coach/teacher taught me a good lesson. I was one of only 3 players put forward for the Swansea School's trials from my school. Everyone was completelyc onfused by it, including myself.

I wasn't a star player, I didn't score tries, I wasn't even that big or fast. But I tackled, and I rucked like no-one else. I learnt that it was possible to be a valued member of a team withough being the goal scorer, without being the play maker. Aslong as you can do what you do best and do it with effort you will be noticed in a team. Maybe not when you're playing, but certainly when you're gone. I still stand by that, and still usually play in a defensive positions for teams and more as an organiser in group work.

My DT teach in comprehensive also made a point of getting everyone to remember the mantra of "measure twice, cut once", always handy when dealing with cocaine.
 
ExigeExcel
I wasn't a star player, I didn't score tries, I wasn't even that big or fast. But I tackled, and I rucked like no-one else. I learnt that it was possible to be a valued member of a team withough being the goal scorer, without being the play maker. Aslong as you can do what you do best and do it with effort you will be noticed in a team. Maybe not when you're playing, but certainly when you're gone. I still stand by that, and still usually play in a defensive positions for teams and more as an organiser in group work.
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I had something similar to that happen to me in Science knowledge bowl my junior year. [No, I didn't tackle the opposing team captain:)] I participated in it the first three years it was offered at my school. I was the only one to have taken earth Science, so I filled that role handily. I had excelled in the class and I slowly ground my "team" forward with each point I gained. I got nominated for the A team. One guy was beside himself. He was a freshman, and knew far more than me about most of the stuff that was covered. He could figure out derivatives and other things that made my head spin in mere seconds, but I was chosen over him to be on the A team. Most kids on the other schools' teams we competed against looked down on earth science as being undesirable for a transcript, so they skipped over it. Reading a chapter of an outdated textbook every week probably got me somewhere as well. It [the activity] was totally nerdy, as anyone who participated in it would say, but we had fun doing it. I wasn't the most knowledgeable guy on most of the categories, but going to every practice and keeping things organized got me the post of team captain my senior year.
A good friend who is a year younger than me told me a week ago that things aren't the same anymore, and that my friend Gill and I were the "pulse" of that activity. They'll do just fine. Getting people to join was far harder than than any of the material was.
 
Attending Forest Hills Public Schools throughout my years you tended to come across many different teachers and student aids who really did teach you a lot about not only the subject matter in class, but really general life-lessons that count for something. Although it would be nearly impossible to recall all of the best advice that I have been given in my years of education, I would like to single out three moments from my High School career that really have helped to determine how I am today:

- Mr. Labenz: Generally speaking, I've always been interested in politics and other policy issues when it comes to US Government and International Relations. Mr. Labenz finally made me realize as a student that you have to stand-up for change in this country, understand that people often forget what has been fought for to be where we are today, and that through education can we achieve the greatness that we deserve as Americans. It was Mr. Labenz that made me realize that I did in fact want to be a teacher at some point in my life, and furthermore, that I wish to return to my old School and be able to make a difference as he did.

- Mrs. DeMester: During my Freshman year there was a lot of change that happened in my life. While entering High School was certainly a big one, less than three weeks into the school year, we just happened to be in class on 9/11. Its still a day that I can for the most part recall moment-for-moment in my head, and beyond seeing the second plane hit, seeing Mrs. DeMester cry as the towers fell really put things into perspective. She taught all of us that its okay to show emotion when things get rough, to understand the mortality of the situation, and really see how screwed-up our world was. I really wasn't as close to DeMester as I should have been, but nevertheless, she did teach me a lot that first year of school...

- Mr. George: More than any other teacher while I was in High School, Mr. George and I were by-far the closest. As a journalism teacher and as the Basketball Coach, George was pretty well-known not only as a great man in front of the white boards and out on the hardwood, but as a teacher you could talk to about anything that was going on and how to get through it. More than anything, George really showed the importance of having goals, and furthermore, the drive to get to where you want to be in life. He always gave you that little push (and by little, I mean just that hint that you need, like Mr. Miagi in Karate Kid) to get where you should be. I still talk to Mr. George on a pretty consistent basis, and hopefully, he will be the teacher to get me back into Forest Hills as a co-worker...
 
Basil Mann, who stood in front of my car while it was travelling at 50mph on a soaking wet skidpan, and was still waving at me to speed up long after I felt I'd passed my last possible braking point, just to be sure that my cadence braking while steering exercises were performed under something vaguely approaching the pressure that might be experienced in a normal emergency.

Crazy guy, but he taught me and everyone else there the value of not panicking (sp?). It was an important lesson because it saved a pedestrian who stepped in front of me one day from serious injury or death.

I dunno what Basil does nowadays. He's no longer at that school. Perhaps he got run over by a student...
 
I had some really inspiring teachers. Teachers that taught me to have confidence in myself, teachers that taught me logic and reason, teachers that taught me that knowledge is power.

I had some very bad teachers too.

But I learned the most important lesson from my college professors (no one in particular). From them, I learned how to teach myself. I learned this because they refused to teach me, but insisted on testing my knowledge. The ability to think for yourself is just so much more important than any other lesson you can learn.

Give a man to fish and he'll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he'll be a fisherman.
Teach a man to teach himself and he'll prosper for a lifetime.
 
Danoff
Give a man to fish and he'll eat for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he'll be a fisherman.
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I like the alternative version of that: Teach a man to fish and he'll sit by a lake and do nothing all day :D
 
So far, no part of my English education has left any substantial impact on my life. I've gotten to the point where I am (Industrial Design first-year) from only things I've taught myself and I still haven't been challenged in any one of my classes. The dropout rate is tremendous, so they overaccept and drill the crap out of first-years to seperate the men from the boys, which is why I am surprised I still haven't had any substantial difficulty.

I have also been in Latvian schools from when I was born through grade 8 once a week, then all summer for the last few years. I think that what I was taught there was far more important to me than anything else. I was brought up to respect my culture, people and language, which have infinite value. Without them, I am nothing.
 
Off the top of my head, from a few years ago in second year uni:

"There are two things you need to know in mechanical engineering: F = ma, and you can't push on a rope."
 
My dad taught me patience, by example. In all the years I had to learn from him, I never heard him raise his voice in conversation, even if he was angry.
He really listened to people also. He didn't just wait to throw his opinion out there, relevant or not.

I also had an english/creative writing teacher in high school (my senior year) that got me to a place that I realized that I am/was a poet.

Then, there was a girl. She taught me that I needed to give voice to my feelings. I told her about 3 weeks before I was to go off to navy boot camp that I had liked her for a long time (about 2 years), but I didn't have the "stones" to say anything for fear of rejection. She hit me! Hard! and then told me near tears that she wished I had said something, cause she'd felt the same way about me.

Lastly, there's my wife. She taught me to lay low in new/strange situations, rather than clowning. She taught me to slow down and think before I speak so as not to put my foot in my mouth. She has taught me the art of being content, though I forget this one way too often.:lol:
She also flatters me by being just a little jealous of some of my female friends. (I'm a nurse, so most of my friends are female). I'm fat, going gray, not as strong or healthy as I was when she met me, but she still thinks I look good enough for someone else to be interested in.:lol: If that ain't unconditional love, I don't know what is.
 
After a professor of mine had found out about the accident, he sent me an e-mail. Although this teacher and I had never really talked unless I was asking questions, he had a lot to say to me.

I'd rather not share what he told me, which is sort of opposite of the thread purpose. I just feel that Dr. Jones needed to be given some credit on a board with over 100,000 people.

Thanks Dr. Jones.
 
Another one that I was just reminded of while working on a design project... This came from a second year engineering design professor of mine, Dr. Britton. He said, "You cannot design stupidity or ignorance out of the end user. Trust me on that"

This is a truth that has only become more and more apparent to me as I've progressed through university and earned engineering work experience through summer employment. It goes hand in hand with the line I keep above my avatar.
 
I continue to learn:
Doctors want what they want, when they want it. If they don't get it, they whine.

Patients want what they want, when they want it. If they don't get it, they complain to their doctors, who whine at the nurses.

Nurses, start their careers hoping to make a difference, and care for the world.
They end their careers as cynics/pragmatists, that believe that if the shift ends and no one has coded or died we can chalk up a day in the "win" column.
 
Gil
I continue to learn:
Doctors want what they want, when they want it. If they don't get it, they whine.

Patients want what they want, when they want it. If they don't get it, they complain to their doctors, who whine at the nurses.

Nurses, start their careers hoping to make a difference, and care for the world.
They end their careers as cynics/pragmatists, that believe that if the shift ends and no one has coded or died we can chalk up a day in the "win" column.
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From what I know of doctors, your description of nurses applies to both.
 
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