Yes, but not in the way you might expect. As a high school senior I was among the top students in my class. But, as my family had no money, college was a distant dream. Ms. Bruner, whom I never had for a class, approached me in study hall one day, and asked me to fill out an application for a scholarship. I declined, saying that I probably didn't have a chance. But, Ms. Bruner persisted -- a number of times -- until I said yes (just to get her to stop pestering me). So I filled out that application.

At that time, there was also a state program offering a state teacher's scholarship for the top scorer on a state test in each county. I took that test simply to get out of a day's school.

Then in May of my senior year, I was notified on the same day that I had won both scholarships.
Without them, I do not know if I would ever have gone to college. So, I thank Mrs. Bruner.

I love this story. High school was a rough time for me. I made a lot of bad decisions and hated being at school. I was fortunate to have a band director who really made a difference in my life. He cared about his students, and held us (and himself) to high standards. In 4 years in his classroom, he taught us values that are core to my identity.

Years down the road, when my son was approaching high school at the same school, he casually expressed an interest in playing the saxophone. My parents and I made sure he could be part of the band with the same teacher. By the time he was a senior, he was taking 3 different band classes. Now he is in college, majoring in music education - He is going to be a music teacher!

Lost my 1st comment but in college-the head of the Sociology Department, a real liberal progressive, Ethan Tolman was my favorite professor and savior. An honors in my major student I was having trouble with a Behavioral Research professor and Tolman came to the rescue. The teacher committed suicide before the semester was over. He later encouraged me to take an intersession architectural class that would bring us all over New England and I later worked as a marketing asst for a solar architectural firm. Hope hes still on this earth. He left the college when he was replaced as head of the Dept.

Not really, but I remember one or two teachers from different levels in my schooling. One was a kind of arts teacher, and one was a lit teacher. One was in junior high school. She was nice and we would always watch movies and dissect the movies. We would point out when movies lost continuation where maybe a clock on the wall says 5pm in the beginning of a scene and then 7 seconds later it says 7:30pm. We would discuss the message of movies or whatever social impact they had. Stuff like that. Because she was nice and kind of eccentric, kids would make fun of her sometimes. She wouldn't hesitate to give it back to them though. The other was in college. She gave us like 15 essays and a paper to do in a semester. So why did I like her? Lol She was also a nice person and she loved baseball and I was on the baseball team. She was just cool to talk with. She was strict when it came to school work, but I admired her being able to separate the two. I remember some others, but these two are freshest in my mind. I remember the ones that are just good people. I learned more from their demeanor and actions etc. than I learned in books. I used to hate when people would try to take advantage of them or make fun of them.

There was a history professor in college who was a retired lieutenant colonel from the army and had spent time in Germany shortly after the war and he was a fascinating teacher. He told us that some of the German cities had so many men killed that the women outnumbered the men as much as 25 to one and that was a great place to be as a young man.

There was one, whose name I've forgotten, who taught me a very valuable lesson - never trust anyone in authority!

Mr Stevens my biology teacher ... actually all my science teachers were good but he was particularly inspirational. I lost touch with him for 30 years but quite by accident bumped into him and our old lab-technician walking on my local nature reserve and we had a bit of a catch-up. When I told him that I now worked at the Natural History Museum in London the smile on his face was priceless.

I had the same English teacher my junior and senior years of high school...when she would read passages, she would act them out and bring them to life...I remember her jumping from students desks and throwing her shoe across the room to emphasize what she was reading...when she read poetry it would bring tears to my eyes...she instilled a passion and appreciation in me...she pushed me harder than any other teacher I'd ever had, because she believed in me...thank you mrs manning

My 7th grade reading teacher was someone that spoke to me in a way different than anyone else. We connected on a personal level after she had the class do a questionnaire to help her get to know a little about us. We shared a deep passion for reading and she introduced myself and the entire class to the book The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton. She and I would speak of the characters as if we knew them personally because we felt we did after reading it so many times, especially when the movie came out. My heart broke when she passed from an auto accident and my phone buddy I had from age 11 to my adult years was taken by an irresponsible driver, yet her influence still lives in my passion for books I can disappear into.

there was an English tutor at college who was quite eccentric but taught me so much more than the teachers at school. it was the first time I enjoyed it and I still learn using his methods.

I've had a few who made a positive impact, but ironically the teacher I remember who made the biggest impact was one where it was very negative. My 5th grade English teacher was certifiably crazy. She had us do wacky projects with impossible due dates and was extremely neurotic and critical, and I wasn't the only one who felt that way. First time I realized that someone could be nuts and it had everything to do with them and nothing to do with me.

My first grade teacher, Miss Wilson. She was a mean old bitch of a woman. She instilled in me a great dislike of the educational system that stayed with me into college.

Yes there was one teacher in my 2nd year at college.he was the maths and English teacher,with his tuition my maths and English improved immensely,except I cannot remember his name.Their was another teacher at the same college who was the Deputy Principal,he also took English lessons,but what made him different he had been a POW ie prisoner of war,captured by the Germans in Africa in WW2,so whenever he took the English lesson in our class we would ask him how he got captured and that was the end of the English lesson as he would talk about the war.,he was also an alcoholic and sometimes he would have a bit of a drink before a lesson this was in 1959.

In 7th grade, I lost all respect for teachers. I had a science teacher stand up in front of class and say, "I'm a Christian but have to teach you evolution." At that point, I realized that teachers can be stupid and this person had nothing to teach me that I needed to learn.

There were a couple of them one was my geography teacher, who when challenged about why I would ever need to know that Bristol's main import in the 18th century was tobacco, spent some time explaining that I would probably never need to know this, but his mission was to teach us how to learn and that it was the process of learning that was important. (And 6 months ago was the answer in a pub quiz that gave us the extra point over other teams to win!).
The other teacher was the worst and the best - as a history teacher he was crap - I hated history at school, it was so dull. Then as I went into the sixth form he taught logic and critical thinking as part of general studies and his passion and enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and I caught the bug.

I had a few great school teachers. I left school over 40 years ago and I still remember them and their names. I was a 'difficult' youth and more often than not would truant school. One teacher dame up to me in the street when I should have been at school and asked to please come to his class. I didn't have to study whatever the rest of the class were studying - I think it was kings and queens of England -but as long as I wasn't disruptive I could do whatever I liked. So I went along. It was a history classroom and there wasn't much to do but read. So I did. This guy had lots of stuff about with 20th century social history and I found all that really interesting. I still don't know anything about the kings and queens and I didn't pass his class BUT I did learn a lot AND for that time every week he knew I was sat safe at the back of his class and not running around unsupervised and vulnerable.
He was a clever fella

There are a few teachers that I remember, although I don't remember their names. There was one class though that I will always remember. The only class that I was part of, that operated as a team of friends. No exceptions. It was only one year, but it was the best school year ever.

My fourth grade teacher Alberto Vargas who taught me to love books assuring me they would take me from the limits of a vast and mysterious universe and bring me back to the infinitesimal world of atoms in a voyage that has lasted my whole life.

Professor Maria Lugones. Philosophy professor at Carleton College. One of the most intelligent, insightful, and logical people I've ever known. Very intimidating in her brilliance. One of the biggest regrets in my life is not working as hard as I could have in her classes.

I can't really say that any one teacher changed me or inspired me, I was always very self motivated when it came to my studies. But I do have a special teacher that I think about alot even after being out of school since 1999. His name is Mr. Dinkheller , he taught history, geography , the U.S. Constitution, and German. Also was the coach of the track long distance running team. The summer vacation between my junior and senior years of high school, he was in his car and had some sort of diabetic seizure and somehow his car caught on fire and he got burned on like 35% of his body. When my senior year started, everyone was told he probably wouldn't be back to teach. But that tough stubborn assed German recovered and came back to teach for the 2nd semester. Then, not 48 hrs after my classes graduation, he passed away. RIP Mr. Dinkheller. It was like he recovered just to be able to return to teaching just to see my class graduate.

Mr Faron standard 4 did reading in groups , I improved . Mr Grouby did science at year1 intermediate I got 24 / 25 with generous spelling

His name was Paul O'Connor. He made his tenure...and didn't give a damn. He brought in a cup of coffee, a lit cigarette, and a hell of a lot of wisdom. He made teaching matter. Economics.

Two teachers made a big impact on me. My chemistry teacher who told me to always be open minded and question everything. The other my my Physics teacher who told me to try to figure things out and understand things instead of just memorizing and reciting lessons.

Most were average, but I did have some awesome inspirational ones, but the one that had the greatest effect on me was my year 10 English teacher. In summary she was called up by the student guidance counselor in response to my poor grades in her class. Her response was that I was basically stupid and shouldn't even be in the class. She was then shown my results in all my other subjects which apart from business were all hard sciences and advanced maths. I aced every subjects except hers. Finally she admitted she had assumed I was stupid (obviously red hair, freckles, big nose) and therefore never took the time to read my work. English was the only compulsory subject, without it, the other results were useless. Despite the principals attempted intervention, within a year my parents terminated my education. In my opinion, the world worst ever teacher.

The most influential person in my life was the VP of my middle school. I was a strong willed child, which I’m sure is a surprise to anyone who’s read my posts and comments. In 8th grade, I had this slovenly English teacher who insisted we do vocabulary homework once a week. The homework was to write a sentence using the word, the definition and then to write the word 10 times. I would turn in the definition and the sentence and patently refuse to write an 8-9 letter word 10 times as a 12-13 year old. He’d send me to the VP’s office every Thursday and it was the last class of the day. The VP engaged me in a discussion and then he said, “I have the perfect punishment for you.” From that day forward, I got sent down every Thursday and I tutored this kid in math for 45 minutes. The change in this kid’s attitude toward math, then school, then himself was so dramatic, that I hold teaching to be a pleasurable and honorable “hobby.” I now work in ed-tech because I want to be part of the education world, but don’t want to deal with the parents and the politics. At the end of 8th grade, going to high school, my English teacher pushed to have me placed in “alternative school” which was approximately special ed plus very simple trade skills(they spent a year running an in school post office). The VP and all the other teachers laughed at him and he genuinely had no idea that I wasn’t an idiot with a behavior problem. He wasn’t the only influential educator, not by a long shot, but tutoring someone is the most important thing I could have done at that point in my life.