Here's what my comment was on this topic:
mysticalfairymagic wrote:
ah yes, teachers are wonderful. I've got a few good ones at my school... well... what use to be my school :( I want highschool back :(
Ah, but Mrs. Gibly (as we called her for short) was amazing! she always threatened to give us knuckle bumps and all, mainly to the kids who zoned out. And, one time this kid named dakota in the AP Cal class (he had the other teacher for pre-cal, so didn't know her like the rest of us) got all confused 'cause she didn't put "dots" on her graph. So then on after, everytime he was confused, she put dots somewhere on the board, even if the problem didn't involve dots, like putting a dot circle around the answer. heck, she even had plato for some of her lessons, and an "easy button"
Also, my English teacher... she was amazing... they called her the Hermanator... 'cause she'd hard. She's had several students come back and say that she was harder then their college english teacher. But, she sure was intertaining. We always got off topic in class discutions, but there wasn't one book we went over that I didn't feel like I really knew it after her class. And, she always choice interesting reading material, like Roman Fever, Hills are Like White Elphants, Huckleberry Finn, Pride and Prejudice. She refused to teach us Charles Dickson, 'cause she couldn't stand his writing. and, if we thought it boring, she'd always find a way to make it interesting... until those darn essays.... she's never given a 100 on an essay. Her feeling is that there's always room for improvement. Kids who've never had her before, use to getting 100, are always suprised with their first essay grade: 70. some are lucky and get 75, or 80. There may have been a really lucky bugger who got an 85 even... but, still...
But, yes, a really good teacher can make a difference. Mrs. Gibly was the only math teacher my mom had that she actually learned anything from. My mom couldn't understand math not one bit, but when she had Mrs. Gibly in her first year of teaching, my mom was actually able to learn. I think it's kinda funny how I love math and am good at it...
While on the topic of Go vs. Chess (http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/go-vs-chess) we seem to stumble upon an interesting subject towards the end. Several got to talking about some of their greatest teachers and the impact they have had in our lives, or at least in that area that the teacher taught, whether it be chess, go, math, english, history, or whatever came to mind.