Everyone has a favorite teacher. Whether it’s someone who pushed you to work hard, or someone who let you slack off in class and still gave you a good grade; let’s be honest…we all had one of those, right? In addition to the teachers we experienced in the classroom, we can’t forget about the fictional teachers that we watched growing up. They taught some of our favorite characters and maybe at the same time we learned a thing or two. Let’s take a minute to look back at some of our favorite fictional teachers.
- Mr. Feeny, Boy Meets World:
The gang from Boy Meets World simply couldn’t escape Feeny. Despite the fact that he taught them for about 10 years (junior high through college), he also lived right next door to the Matthews family. As Corey’s problems evolved from childhood to adulthood, Mr. Feeny was always within arms reach. His advice never seemed to fall short, and his love for his students was overly obvious despite his uptight demeanor.
- Ms. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus:
Say what you will, but there was no way that the bubbly Ms. Frizzle wasn’t making her way to our top 10 list. After all, what other teacher brought her class into an actual human body for a field trip and still managed to get them home by 3:00? Talk about going above and beyond the curriculum. Despite being a cartoon, her advice still remains relevant: “take chances, make mistakes and get messy.†Couldn’t have said it better myself.
- Mr. Keating, Dead Poets Society:
Mr. Keating is every student’s dream: a professor that rips chapters out of textbooks. Keating took the students of a stuffy, uptight boarding school and taught them to think for themselves. He moved them, challenged them, and dared free thinking. Despite the problems that his radical teaching methods raised, his impact on his students is impossible to over look.
- Ms. Rain, Precious:
Every student in Mrs Rain’s classroom is fighting an ongoing battle. Teen pregnancy, poverty, and abuse to name a few. She handed each of them a notebook and told them to write what they felt, an assignment that wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. As we see the characters grow and continue to struggle, the words on their pages tell tragically beautiful stories.
- Mr. Collins, The Wonder Years:
Majority of The Wonder Years episodes start off with Kevin Arnold narrating. One of the most memorable episodes starts off with the words “teachers never die.†For those of you who are familiar with the show, you already know which episode this is referring to. After helping Kevin to improve his struggling math grade, Mr. Collins passes away unexpectedly; leaving Kevin with a much greater lesson than just Algebra.
You could probably sit down for hours and write a list of your own. Maybe you would even think back with warm recollection and a smile on your face. Wether it was a connection with the characters, or simply an envy to sit in the back of their classrooms, they became a part of our lives. Great teachers are incredibly valuable, and they tend to show up when you most need them. So whether it’s National Teacher Appreciation Week or any day out of the year, be sure to let your favorite teacher know how much they’ve made a difference.
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