re: Why was your favorite teacher/coach your favorite?

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Thank you for sharing a great memory for us.

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One more short story:

We had a racial incidence where 3 black guys beat up a white guy in the locker room after football season was over. White kid's parents were not happy, to say the least. I'm talking loading guns and vowing vengeance! The next school day, the word was out. Full on race fight at school. Ineffective principal and vice-principal were shell-shocked. They called in coach. He sat down with the principal, white kid and his parents. Listened to them rant, gave some advice, calmed them down....then walked out into the hall and asked the white kid he liked his attitude and wanted him to come join the wrestling team. That's all it took. I have no idea what he said to the black students, but not one fist was thrown that day, and it was all over.

Like I said, toughest guy I ever met, he had a way of making you want to live up to his standard. The kind of motivator that was a combination of drill sergeant and philosopher.

Sarge was a high school history/psychology teacher who was a legit bad arse. Served in Vietnam and for a time was a DI. He’d show “Full Metal Jacket” and would complain that the R. Lee Ermey character was too soft compared to him. Then he’d rip into a more insane version of Ermey from that film to prove his point. Just for poops and chuckles he kept a disarmed hand grenade in his desk drawer with the pin pulled out propped up against a book and would have disrespectful students get a stapler or something else from that drawer just to keep kids on edge thinking he was insane. He was but he wasn’t. He just wanted to establish a pecking order of “don’t eff around with me” type of vibe.

He spent three years institutionalized before he became a teacher. He never followed a lesson plan and his classes were the type where you never knew what in the hell he was teaching but you learned the subject and a plethora of life lessons. You never ever felt like it was a class. It was just more of hanging out with someone who admittedly killed people in combat.

His college advisor was the same college advisor I had since I pursued a history degree at the same university like he did, We’ve stayed in close contact and I’ve hung out with him as an adult and it’s been nothing but insane. His collection of historically significant firearms is mind boggling. US Navy pistols from 1804, 8mm Japanese pistols with Pearl grips that were only issued to officers, plus tons of other really cool stuff. The most insane stuff are the Vietnamese flags, papers, weapons, etc. that he quite possibly scavenged off of the dead bodies of Viet Cong soldiers.

I found myself as an educator for awhile before I had to get out because of BS political reasons but what worked for me is similar to what worked for Sarge. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and let students see you as a real person. Setting boundaries is essential so that you don’t get yourself fired but giving students a glimpse of who you are allows them to connect.

One was a man that was solid as frick but had a great sense of humor.

The other was a whore that fricked the football team. If you were one of the lucky ones it turned into a threeway with her very curly headed girl friend that also taught chemistry at the highschool.

Another great remembrance. Thank you. There are good people in this world. It just is hard to find them, but keep looking.

If you're getting into education I've got a few tips for you. I'm finishing up year 16.


1. Before you can teach them anything your classroom atmosphere needs to be right. Some teachers are hardcore / no nonsense. Other teachers are way more laid back. The part that matches is that when it's go time there's procedures to get things started.

2. Get to know the kids. It doesn't take much to make a small connection. Are they band kids, what sports they play, or if they draw/sing.

3. Be patient. I'm currently teaching 175 students. Multiple have parents in jail, a few have lost family members, parents going through a divorce, and I'm at one of the best middle schools in the state (public).

4. Work with the faculty. A team is always better than doing everything yourself. We make our lesson plans together. Help set up labs. If someone is super busy I'll grab a lunch duty.

5. Be at events. The kids love when you show up to a game, music performance, or art show.


6. They will frustrate the living hell out of you. Parents can be a lot, and the state pushes themselves to make things difficult at times. It's totally worth it though.

I had a superb French teacher in high school who was incredibly passionate about teaching. He was actually a French native so it brought an added perspective to learning the language. This teacher would come up with creative, unorthodox ways to learn. One thing in particular that I remember is that he had a friend that worked at the French consulate so he called him one day during class and had us speak to the guy in French.

Mine had the crazy ability to realize when the class was about to lose focus, throw something out there that required your attention (hey, look at the squirrel in the window), and then bring everyone back to attention without ever raising her voice. I knew what she was doing, but it still worked. She never had to yell, and the class was always under control.

My all time favorite teacher had the most perfect articulation. I loved listening to her crisp, perfect diction, hitting every point of articulation just so for every sound. Weird? She also coached us for public speaking events in 4-H. I just admired everything about her.

The next favorite teacher was transplanted from New Jersey. He just pushed us. Also, maybe I liked him because he saw something in me as a student that I don’t think other teachers saw, which gave me more confidence.

One year in basketball we lost the district championship by one game in the last regular season game. Everyone on the bus was pretty sad. Coach went around to everyone to have a little word, even the guys who didn’t play. I was the main shooter and for the first time all season i had an off night. I was a soft spoken type of kid and was beating myself up inside, and he could tell. He came up to me and said, “Just want you to know that I’d spend a lot of money to watch you shoot alone in an empty gym.” Gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked off. 15 year old S needed that and we all came together and made it all the way to the elite 8.