Saturday Six – Teachers

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Teachers

If there’s one thing everyone has in common, it’s the experience of going to school. We all have had a whole slew of teachers in our lives. Most of them were perfectly serviceable and followed their lesson plans just fine. Some of them sucked terribly and should never be allowed near children. But there were a few who excelled at the position, who went above and beyond, and whose wisdom will always stick with you. This list is dedicated to those teachers who never get the recognition they deserve.

1. Mr. Keating – Dead Poets Society – Pretty much the quintessential teacher in movies. He was the type of teacher everyone wanted, he just happened to be at the wrong place and the wrong time. Because really, while it’s great that a teacher can impart their subject matter onto the kids, isn’t the whole point of school to teach kids how to be fully functioning members of society? It’s great to get some history in literature, but learning how to be your own individual I think is the far more important goal. And you can’t do that through wrote memorization and mindless regurgitation. So a kid ended up dead, is that really his fault? He was pretty much dead inside anyway. I can guarantee you one thing. Those kids in his class will never forget him or look at the world the same again, and that is truly the mark of a great educator.

 



2. Mr. Bergstrom – “Lisa’s Substitute” – The Simpsons – This is the episode that cemented The Simpsons as the powerhouse it was to become. Dustin Hoffman guest starred as the eponymous substitute, while Ms. Hoover was out with Lyme Disease. Mr. Bergstrom is the most influential male in Lisa’s life, except for maybe Paul McCartney when she became a vegetarian, or Richard Gere when she became a Buddhist. Even though he was only around briefly, he was able to impart to Lisa that even if her famiy doesn’t understand her, all she’ll ever need to be OK is just to be herself.

 



3. Mr. Moore – Head of the Class – Mr. Moore had the difficult task of watching over the IHP, Individualized Honors Program, which is a difficult enough task in itself, because I can tell you from experience, a group of gifted kids all together can be a real nightmare. But he also did a bunch of crazy stuff with them, like put on a musical every year, and take them to Russia in the height of the Cold War to play chess. I can understand why he just kind of ran off in the middle of their senior year. Non teaching aside, how crazy is it that Dan Schnieder, the fat guy bottom left, is pretty much in charge of Nickelodeon, having created almost all of their most popular live action shows for the last 20 years?

 



4. Mr. Feeny – Boy Meets World – They may have started with an adversarial Mr. Wilson/Dennis the Menace type relationship, but as timed passed, Mr. Feeny grew to be a mentor to the gang of Corey, Shaun, Eric, and Topanga. He always seemed to know just what to say. Plus, he was the voice of god damn Knight Rider. That makes him like 12 times cooler. He could say anything he wanted to in that voice and it would be inspirational.

 



5. Señor Chang – Community – Pretty much all the teachers at Greendale are pretty fucked up. Dr. Kane just got out prison and doesn’t understand Legos anymore. Professor Bauer actively attacks students with her weapon made of other weapons. Dr. Sheffield claims to know emphatically just who was the boss. But I’m gonna go with Chang, because he is cuckoo bananas, and the idea of a Korean teaching Spanish is just naturally funny. The fact that he didn’t have any qualifications and was just making it all up as he went along makes it doubly so.

 



6. Coach Cutlip – The Wonder Years – Kevin Arnold had a bunch of great teachers. Mr. Collins, the hard ass math teacher Kevin learns to respect only after he dies. Mr. Cantwell, his middle school science teacher, being all Ben Stein-y. Like Kevin, I was partial to Miss White, or Mrs. Heimer. But of all of them, I think I have to go with Coach Cutlip, if only for the Star Trek Voyager link. I too was taught Sex Education by a gym teacher in my school, and it pretty much went about the same. He may have been tough on his students, but deep down he was a softie, as we learned in the christmas episode. He didn’t really teach Kevin a lot in terms of physical fitness or anything, but he taught us that you can’t always judge someone just based on how they appear.

 

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook