Secondary School
Whilst the majority of them were intolerant arseholes, I respected a few of my teachers, and even liked one or two, but the first one that always springs to mind whenever I think about my time in secondary school is Mrs Liptrot.

She used to teach me maths, with varying degrees of success, from third year onwards. Every now and again she would just stop the lesson (which we were always grateful for), tell us to put our stuff away and spend the rest of the time talking to us. Subject matter varied, from her then teenage son and his world to social etiquette to the joys of academic achievement.

To be honest, I was generally too busy daydreaming to pay much attention but her intentions were not lost on me, or at least aren’t now. School is meant to be a preparation for life, and she was attempting to prepare us in a way that didn’t fall within the remit of maths tuition. She made an extra effort when frankly most of us were woefully undeserving of it. For that, I respect her most of all.

I’ve always wanted to track her down and say ‘nice one’. Actually, I saw her in Safeway a couple of years ago, before I moved. Didn’t have the bottle to approach her though. Maybe next time.
(thatblokeoverthere not quite as much an arsehole as I thought, Fri 11 Nov 2005, 11:24, Reply)