At my high school, we had an annual week long science trip, fully paid for by fundraising. Only 4 people were selected to go each year. My sophomore year, I was chosen. I knew there was no way I was going to be allowed to go. I had never been out of the state, never been on a single vacation, never been on a plane and never been away from home for more than 24 hours. My parents were incredibly conservative and immediately said no. I had a science teacher who just didn't accept the no. Instead of just giving up and selecting someone else, he called and tried to convince my parents. When that didn't work, he came to my house and had dinner with my family to convince my dad that I would be an asset and he would be doing me a disservice by not letting me go. He sat and ate my mom's terrible cooking and talked to my parents for over 2 hours until he got a "we'll think about it". Then he just kept following up.
When I was in 5th grade in 1975, my parents were divorcing and I was living with my abusive father. If I didn't get B+ or better on my report card, I got the belt. Not a little, mind you. A full-on beat down, and probably denial of meals for a while. The '70's with an abusive parent were a very different time.
A girl in our High School English Lit. class was talking too much, so the teacher moved her next to me because I was quiet. I thought this little chatterbox was cute, so I asked her out. We've been married 54 years.
I faked my way through 4th and 5th grade math. I never understood how to do long division, but managed to hide that from the teachers and answer test questions by reverse multiplication - basically guess a number and multiply it out and see how close I would get, and keep doing it until I got the answer.
Sixth grade my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I was caught copying my friends homework because my dad had a treatment the night before and I was unable to do it - that’s how my teacher learned he had cancer. Throughout the year she was so supportive and reassured me that I could submit assignments late if needed. About a year or two later I saw her again and she asked about my dad. I told her he had sadly passed away and we cried together. It was so heartfelt and I realized how much she cared.
Senior year I was placed in a Freshman typing class. Everyone Else was chatty and goofed off, but I wanted to learn to type, so I really put in a lot of effort. I only had two classes in the morning, and the rest of the day I was a waitress, as I was pretty much on my own in my senior year. I got called into work on the day of our class final, so I went to work and missed the final. When I showed up to class the next day, I apologized to the teacher for missing the final. He asked me “do you want to know the grade you got?” When I replied yes, he said “I gave you an A because if you had been here, that’s what you would’ve gotten.” I never forgot that. Thank you Mr. Wyatt.
Had a highschool art teacher who would let me stay in his classroom during lunches. Always gave me half his sandwich and other extra food because he knew I didn't eat much otherwise.
My first grade teacher bought me clothes, got my doctor to recognize my epilepsy and diagnose it, and sent me to another school for highly capable students. I lived in a bad situation but she gave me my life back and now I have been accepted into college as a student athlete, with a nearly full ride scholarship. My epilepsy is still with me, I work two jobs now, but I have a future because of her. Thank you Mrs. Trudeau for believing in me.
In 5th grade I had this teacher who was very... gruff. Most of us didn’t like her because she was such a hardass. Like military style with discipline and homework completion. She wasn’t mean, but she wasn’t nice either.
3rd grade-Mrs Jones. My dad had just deserted us and we were suddenly destitute. She bought my school pictures for us and paid my lunch bill all year. She never said a word about it. Only found out later. Bless her
My physics teacher in high school hosted an annual trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando for 15-20 kids for over a week. I was one of the better and most interested students in his class. He was an incredible teacher who found examples in physics everywhere. He also used to work for Disney prior to teaching.
Called my mum while she was at work to tell her I'd written one of the best things he'd ever seen as a teacher.
In 1st grade I struggled really hard with reading, I was very far behind where I was expected to be comparatively. I wanted desperately to read this book series called the magic tree house because...magic. She told me I needed to read some easier books at the time and assigned me 3 frog and toad books to read completely through, when I would finish the book I had to tell her what happened and I got to start the next one. Each book took me weeks to get through but eventually I finished all 3. Finally, I got to read the magic tree house books and by the end of the year I had read through book 5 and was incredibly proud of myself.
I called somebody stupid once when they got a question wrong and the teacher instantly made me stand up and spell “stupid” backwards. Got it wrong with the pressure and learnt a lesson that day.
Grade 4, Mrs.Campbell.
I was anorexic when I was in school. She took me aside after class and told me that if I didn’t stop doing what I was doing to myself I was going to die. That my body was going to start shutting down, my organs would fail, that it would not be beautiful and I was going to die an awful and painful death.
My High School English teacher helped me get an IEP for my dyslexia. Yes I found many coping skills but still had trouble.. She also also helped me in so many more ways like had me take a paper to the office every day just to give me a 2 minute break. Would ask me if I knew all the words for the matching on my spelling tests. Got me a comic book of the book we were reading in class to help me. She would proof read my papers before they were due even for other classes. Most of all she helped me with all my paper work for my rank of eagle scout and talked me in to going to college because I could go for free. Because of her I have 2 degrees and earned my rank of Eagle scout. I owe the world to this teacher.
I was having a crisis of faith.
Senior year of high school. I was on the wrestling team and I had cut about 30lbs that year, from 170 down to 140.
Mr. Lyons was my English teacher for all 4 years of high school. My Freshman and Sophomore years he worked along side another English teacher in my school’s Independent Study (IS) program. I met him in that program as a deeply depressed and suicidal 13 year old who was given the option to enter IS, or be put in juvi, as a criminal, for truancy (I had stopped going to school).
I had just gotten out of an emotionally abusive relationship around 16 and was worried about my ex hurting herself (abuse really f***s up your mind), so I confided in my English teacher. He listened to what I had to say and express, then secretly got in touch with my parents, school administration, and her school's administration to make sure we were both ok. My parents told me about this about a year after graduation. I was really taken back by the fact that he did all of that to make sure we were ok.
In high school one of my teachers had this duck-bill whistle (literally shaped like a duck's bill and it made a quacking noise). She used it to get the class' attention. One time I guess we were being extra rowdy and she blew the everloving s**t out of it and the class went stone-dead quiet. She got this shocked look on her face, and then took her hair pin out and dropped it and the whole class heard it hit the ground and she got this big grin on her face and we all just busted out laughing.
Told me I was smart and could succeed. I had spent the past couple years at a private school, trying so hard to prove myself. Despite doing well academically, I didn’t fit their cookie cutter mold, so I was looked down on by other students and administration. When I told the guidance counselor that I wanted to be premed and go to medical school after college, she pretty much told to lower my expectations because I wouldn’t succeed. At the end of my college math class my senior year of high school, I ended up in my professors office to look at what I had missed on my final. He told me that I had done well, and that I could my PhD in math if I wanted. That was not what I wanted to do, but when I told him I wanted to be premed, he looked at me and said you’re going to well in that. I know you will succeed. 6 years later and I’m halfway through my second year of medical school, and his words still ring in my mind.
I broke up with my boyfriend the night before my final and as I was walking to class to take it, my teacher seeing me, told me that I could take it the following day with his afternoon class without me even saying a word. He was a really great teacher!
My 9th grade English teacher asked me if I could write a creepy short story. I did it, gave it to her, then she retyped the first page and submitted it to her teacher in her Master's program. I found out about it because when I asked her what she thought of it, she said "oh, it got an A." I said "what do you mean? You graded it?" She said, "no, look." And she handed it back to me with her name on it as author and an A on it. I said, "You turned it into your teacher as if it were you own work?" A friend of hers was sitting in the classroom too, and this look passed between them that said, "She knows about plagiarism."
“Accidentally” left paperwork on my desk that showed government grade projections based on family income which meant I should have failed the class knowing full well it would trigger me to make sure I got the best grade in the entire school year.
one time i ran into my fourth grade english teacher on the subway and she went on and on to my mom and i about how good of a writer she thought i was. really inspired me to be the writer i am today.
made us make paper cranes for hall passes...20 years later i can still make a top notch crane
In fifth grade I had a math teacher that would actually staple a McDonalds application to your test if you failed. Thankfully she has since retired.
Told me to stop dating my boyfriend when we were 13 because “It’s not like you’re gonna marry him”. We stayed together and got married.