In grade 10 I had an English teacher who thought I was smarter than what my grades were showing. He kept telling me I didn’t apply myself, and pressured me to do better.
He made us memorize a soliloquy from Macbeth and perform it in front of the class. The day that we were to perform it, I was sick. (No really.) So, I had to do mine the next day.
So, I get up there in front of the class and launch into a full-blown:
I did this with correct tone and gestures and everything. When I finished the class erupted in applause and my teacher gave me the only A+ for the assignment. Afterwords I learned that everyone else just stumbled through a reading of it. I was the only one who actually performed it.
My self confidence in public speaking was greatly improved. Now, in my career, I’m forced to* perform* a number of times a year. I still remember how great it felt that day when I nailed Macbeth.
In seventh grade our teacher told us that theses were a huge deal and if we even had one typo in it, it would be rejected. I started to panic about it starting then, until senior year in college when I had to write it. It’s a wonder I finished it at all from the fear that was instilled.
Wow…as a teacher, I can tell you if I said anything like what is in these posts, I’d be explaining myself in the principal’s office. Quite a few of the things posted here could easily get a teacher fired today.
I did have my share of really tough teachers that I worked hard to impress. I still take classes now, and I notice I take them for myself, i.e., not to impress anyone else. I wish I had been like that as a kid; I would have gotten more out of school. I try to impart those feelings to my students.
The teachers that I respect and admire to this day aren’t the ones who necessarily said anything important. It was what they did. They modeled what they taught. They worked hard. They genuinely liked what they taught and teaching. They were smart and funny and witty. Two of the best were Mr. Dant and Mr. Berg. Both were English teachers. I still use methods they used. It’s hard for me to think that those two are probably in their 70s now and are long since retired.
I don’t know that it motivated anyone (it probably just pissed them off) but my 7th grade English teacher assigned his class (a few years after I was in his grade) to read “To Kill a Mocking Bird.” Some of the parents thought this was inappropriate and so the school required parents to sign permission slips permitting the students to read the book.
Those kids whose parents did not sign? The teacher had them read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (or some other children’s book, I forget which) instead.
Since I was not present, I don’t know whether it played out that he was punishing the students for their parents’ close-mindedness, or whether it was a shared “we’re-all-in-this-together-let’s-respond-to-those-morons-with-a-bit-of-sarcasm-shall-we” sort of thing. In any case, it was breathtakingly … edgy. I loved that teacher, but he sure knew how to push the envelope.
8th grade History teacher also coached football at the High School. One of the boys started acting up about history being a bunch of crap. Teacher did the Terminator thing; one hand around collar lifting the kid up from his desk and holding him at arms length about two feet off the floor against the blackboard. “If you act up again, any of you, I will erase the board each day with you.”
No one acted up, we learned Greek and Roman Mythology through classics, plays, performances, and even comic books. We divided into teams for quizes and debates. Even finished the materials early and did some Norse Myths/Gods. He said at the end of the year, we were his favorite group of kids. Scared out of our pants at the start but very attentive.
“If you can’t learn to write properly, nobody will ever marry you.”
That’s from my favorite English teacher, in 8th or 9th grade. And the best moment associated with this mindset was when she was handing our papers back in class:
Teacher: “Fred, are you dating anyone right now?”
Fred: (confused) “Um… no…”
Teacher: (Hands him his paper) “I didn’t think so.”
Poor guy blushed as red as the marks all over his paper, and we all cracked up.