Too many good to count, and only a handful of bad
I'm from Texas where these unsung heroes are taking an especially brutal beating lately. It's unfortunate the witch hunt that's currently going on here. Most of my academic life has been spent in Texas, minus a stint in grad school out of state, and it's definitely not as bad as the media lets on. We've got some brave souls who teach fact and reason regardless of laws or insipid textbook specifications. Here's a list of the brightest spots:

Mrs. Gillespie, third grade - Encouraged my love of art and especially Van Gogh. She taught me the depth of the brush stroke was as important or even more so that the accuracy of the reproduction.

Ms. Alice Smith, fifth grade - Taught that learning is fun if you go about it in a fun way.

Mr. Chris Strzelecki, seventh and eight grade, Texas and US history - Had such a love for history that it was impossible not to feel similarly.

Mr. Joseph Johnson, ninth through eleventh grade, speech and debate classes - Barely older than the kids in the class he taught. He had a still unbridled passion for the process of learning. He encouraged us to think freely and to use our brains to reason through complicated issues to arrive at issues that we had to inevitably conclude were inconclusive due to relativism.

Dr. Joel Lebsack, ninth grade, Algebra - Presented the information to me for the second time (failed it the previous year - by fail, I mean just a hair below 80%) in a way I finally understood. He took the time, when asked, to explain how certain theorems actually worked. To this day, I still understand the mechanics of the quadratic equation.

Mr. David Yost, tenth grade, English GT - Wow. Never have I had a teacher before or since that refused to accept any level of mediocrity, and required the absolute best from his students the way he did. Every lesson was in critical thinking and intellectual exploration. In the nine short months of his class, we'd read through about a dozen books, including the 1,500 page Les Miserables, The Grapes of Wrath and Catcher in the Rye. To this day, I credit this one teacher as having the strongest influence over my life.

Mrs. Horton, tenth grade, Geometry - Never had I met a numbers person more concerned with a person's ability to grasp a concept over the ability to regurgitate formulas before I took her class.

Mr. Chris Davis, eleventh grade, history - Threw away the textbook, Dead Poets Society style. We never used it once, not once, during the school year. He balked at every convention and rewarded his students who did the same. He taught us real history, not the whitewashed garbage we'd been force fed up to that point. We learned about the world, zits, scars, pockmarks and all. It was a truly enlightening experience, one that I'd not experience again until college.

Er... so... first time poster but long time lurker. I'd apologize about the length but {joke}.
(AtticaFlinch, Fri 18 Mar 2011, 4:11, 2 replies)

Fine lurking.
Good post.

Great teachers!

Have a click!
( sir_spicious2000 Crap I've watched: www.filmplop.blogspot.com/, Fri 18 Mar 2011, 7:28, closed)

Teachers? In Texas?!
I thought the only thing they taught down there was that God made the Universe 4000 years ago, and the best way to sort a problem was with a big gun!
(erewhon, Wed 23 Mar 2011, 15:41, closed)