What he said.
(My mother taught biology in an urban school for a few years decades ago; she still has a few letters from parents and students. These things mean a lot to teachers.)
Oh, also: Mrs. Yoder, Mrs. Bednar, Ms. McDonald, Ms. Smith, Mrs. King, Miss Sheerin, Mrs. Gordon. (kindergarten through sixth)
If you wanted (and I had a minute to think) I could name every academic teacher I’ve ever had. how could you forget?
Mrs. Manty (the wife of the police chief at the time), Mrs. Eskuri (who came into my home to tutor me and help with tests and such after a very severe case of pneumonia left me homebound for much of the school year), Mrs. Ausland, Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Caroline (who is the superintendent now, I believe), Mrs. Rodysill. And those are just my “home room” teachers. I could name all of my science, reading, and math teachers, as well as every teacher from every school in my junior high and high school years.
Nice letter, Inigo.
My first grade teacher suffered me thrice.
First in kindergarten-1.
Then in 1st grade (by which time she already knew enough to bring 3 newspapers to class every day to keep me off her hair)
Then in 4th grade (the year I missed half the classes because of tonsillitis and still managed to get an average of 7.something, pass being at 5 on a 0-10 scale).
My second grade teacher is still THE second grade teacher at the nuns. There are two second grade groups now and have been for over 20 years, always with the same two teachers, but everybody in town refers to the “newer” second grade teacher at “the nuns” as “the other one”.
Inigo dear, you realize you’re seriously damaging your reputation and that of parents the world over, right? Way I hear my teacher friends and my parent friends talk, you guys are supposed to be unappreciative assholes who think Their Precious can never do wrong and every evil under the sun (from failing grades to measles) is the teacher’s fault. Bad Iñigo!
Me too. Haha. I had to wipe my eyes to clear them.
By the way, Mrs. MacNeil (who said thank-youp! with a P on it for some reason, sometimes shortened to “kyoop!”), Mrs. MacLellan (who always called me Lynn Marie), Mrs. Nickelo (who always let us play with Lego), Sister Patricia (who was missing a pointer finger and always wrote 100 Very Good because she believed no one was excellent), Mrs. Fraser (who was just hilarious), Mrs. Kazmel (who scolded me for accidentally interrupting one day), and Mr. Murphy (who was kinda funny in a goofy way, but had horrible breath) I remember you all too, among others.
This was very nice to read. Thanks, Inigo.
That’s a really sweet letter.
I made a teacher cry once.
But only because the entire class failed a VERY important exam.
Kindergarten: Marilyn (English) and Lucie (French)
Grade 1: Woolerton ( Prah for French)
2: Ross (my mom for French)
3: Keeley (McKenzie - yes, for French, married name)
4: Haliday (don’t remember the French teacher - this was in Germany and being from Québec and already bilingual, I spent most of the French classes in the library with another student, wasting time)
5: Arnason (Sylvestre)
6: Johnston (Sylvestre)
7-11: Multiple teachers, but homeroom was Smith, King, and 3 years of Marlin (Brain Cramp!) I probably could name most of them, though. Same with Cégep, though there are some university profs I’ve forgotten. I didn’t like a lot of my uni profs.
Inigo, you’re wonderful.
Pretty cool. It is nice to see people offer praise when it is due - the good lord knows that too many are quick to offer critisism.
Now y’all have me thinking about my teachers. I only remember the really good ones or the really horrible ones.
Maybe I need to track down the ones I know aren’t dead and send them an email or something. There’s a big handful of the good ones I’d like to know of now, and a few REALLY superior teachers I’d like to make SURE they know I think of them twenty five years later.
There was only one really super bad evil one, and I didn’t get him until high school. If I had known then what I know now, or was even close to the person I’ve become, I would have had him fired so hard, he wouldn’t be able to get a snow shoveling job in Siberia.
His name was Mr. Vandermer, and he taught Algebra 2 at Cajon High School in San Bernardino. I tell you this, because if you ever have the displeasure of meeting this jackass in person, you need to know who your dealing with. He was a hardcore misogynist and spent countless hours telling the class how we girls didn’t belong in there because we were all stupid, and none of us will ever be able to grasp the concept of higher math. We should all have stopped banging our heads against the mathematical wall and taken accounting so that we would know how to balance our checkbooks. We would need extra help with that, dont’cha know, because we were stupid, stupid, stupid. I shit you not, this guy would pontificate on our stupidity all. the. time. In class. Every day.
Unfortunately, I had to drop the class. I DID struggle with math, and no thanks to him, I didn’t have anyone to help me see the light. I hope he dies. I hope he’s dead.
Um, cough Sorry. Got off on a bit of a rant there, din’t I?
Oh yes, and Inigo, you did a good thing:)
True, and I was coming in to give him shit. The sneaky bastard.
A terrific letter, for someone who really deserved it! Good on you.
Mrs. Davis; Mrs. Bridges; Mrs. Clyburn; Ms. Teague; Mrs. Bonner; Ms. Fountain; and Ms. Landon. Strinka, people do remember. I didn’t even have to think hard.
Inigo, what a thoughtful gesture. You are so kind.
Great letter-- I write to teachers that my kids have had and that have been great for them–I have written 3 or 4 to date.
Here are my teachers: Miss Champlain, Mrs Arvin, Mrs Walsh, Mrs Rial, Mrs Worthington, Mrs Schlay, Miss Masel. I won’t bore you with the middle school and HS ones, but there were several who were fantastic to me.
Thank you, teachers.
Gee, didn’t anyone go to Catholic school?
1 Sister Charles Loretta
2 Sister Grace Marian
3 Mrs. Gessinger
4 Sister Marie Josetta
5 Sister Marie Josetta (two years of grief)
6 Mrs. Dennis
7 Sister Dorita
8 Sister Frances Raymond
Charles Loretta?
Nice job, Inigo. I have a friend with a “problem child”, and that poor kid’s teachers usually just make him sit in the corner. Ms. K. obviously knows what she’s doing, and good on you for CCing her supervisors to make sure they know it, too.
Hmm, my teachers … K: Mrs. Bernardi, 1: Mrs. Jaeger, 2: Ms. Baldwin, 3: Mrs. Dallavalle (who made me redo a book report for the sin of saying I didn’t like the book), 4: Miss Williams (who once kept me after school for almost an hour with the door locked, berating me because she told me to pick a poem I liked and read it to the class, and I did–it just happened to be about kids playing hide and seek in a graveyard), 5: Miss Heilig, 6: Mrs. Edwards. After that, I had different teachers for every class. But I do remember most of their names.
I had Sister Sylvester in second grade.
Nuns take names of saints, iirc, and many saints are male.
Were kids kinder back then than they would be now? 
Good for you, Inigo. That was a great thing for you to do.