What's the best thing a teacher has ever said to you?

“Don’t sell yourself short.”
“Art is a business.”
and
“David Stolte, GROW UP!”

I was in my first year of college (ECON 201) and the teacher told us to get into teams of four. I don’t really do well with crowds and asking to be part of a team. I just sat in the back hoping to be ignored. After a few minutes Mr. Burrows said, “The guy with glasses in the back needs a team, people with glasses are smart, he will probably save your ass.”

I just thought that was funny.

“School’s out. Have a nice summer.”

You can do anything that you want to do in life.

My 12th grade english teacher called me his favorite underachiever.

My 8th grade English teacher accused me of plagiarizing a paper that I actually wrote because she said it was just too good to be from an 8th grader.

I took it as a compliment (after I cleared up the whole possible F and detention thing).

So, here I am, I am a housewife, and a mother of 4, 5 if you count the husband.

“Whatever you do try not to touch this Dry Nitrogen Triiodide.”
“You guys are my favorite 3rd period class this year.”
“Who wants to drink the most dangerous chemical in the world, Dihydrogen Monoxide?”

The other teacher in my life, my mother, said that necessity is the mother of invention. How true is that?

“You are one of the most entertaining people I have met” – My history, AP Chem and AP Physics teachers told me this at the end of the senior year (independently of each other). I mean, most teachers say something motivational so there’s no novelty in that. But I thought that statement was interesting.

Edit: Ohhhhh and second best has to be when my AP Chem teacher came up to me with a beaker that had a transparent liquid (looked like water) and ice in it and showed me how the ice had sunk instead of floating. And then she said very grimly to me “When you go to college, and a guy offers you “water”, but you notice the ice isn’t floating, you know something is wrong. So don’t accept that glass from him”

One of my 8th grade teachers told me I would just be another statistic. That gave me the motivation to work hard, and prove them wrong.

I was having some trouble with my business teacher trying to get me expelled*, and was explaining the whole thing to my usually quite reserved art teacher.

It didnt really help, but it certainly cheered me up: “Between you and me, Andy** is a real miserable dick.”

*I handed in a paper late
**“Mr Coles”

I cruised through high school without trying too hard. Graduated second in my class without exerting too much effort.

First week of art college, group critique, professor walks the length of the wall, rips my drawing from the wall. While crumpling it in a ball he says, “CRAP” and moved on.

This went on for two months as my grades plummeted. Finally, through a lot of hard work, I figured out what I was doing wrong and managed a ‘C’.

Just the humbling experience I needed.

“Victoria, sit down or get out!!!”

(now guess what i did…)

The aged English teacher I had in my sophomore year of high school actually delayed her retirement for two years so she could teach until I left. She was awesome!

Now, if only I had written that Great American Novel she expected of me. What a disappointment.

@elchoopanebre, had that same thing happen with my junior history teacher. It was pretty cool.

My AP Psychic teacher didn’t think I should have made it into the class. I had to petition to get in – she just thought I wasn’t ready. At the end of the class, after gaining full credit and really doing a great job, she said, “Thank you for proving me wrong!”

That was a great moment.

My freshman, highschool English teacher was one of the best ever. Her name was Mrs. Reshenk and she had on her wall “Self control is better than Reshenk control.” She said that to us a lot. She also had a little dance and song she would do when people would tell her to wait for them. She’d clasp her hands over her head and sing “I’m a human taxi, and my light is on…” to the tune of “I’m a little teapot, short and stout.”

Sophomore year, we were talking about Benjamin Franklin’s sex life in Ancient History (couldn’t tell you why) and Ms. Mannion just came out with, “Benjamin Franklin had se with more women in France than you can shake a stick at!” That was four years ago and I still remember it perfectly.

You’d think someone would remember something good if it happened, right? That kind of thing stands out in memory, doesn’t it?

I don’t recall anything from my school days that would be appropriate for this question. Nor since, for that matter. Either I discount all praise, and have been doing so all my life (I know I do the discounting; I don’t know how long I’ve been doing it), or, well, that’s not worth saying.

hehehe….one should never answer a question before they wake up…physics and psychic…two totally different things! (laughing at myself, here) Physics, I did well in, being psychic…not so much! :)

Funny. I totally read that as physics, and never for a second realized the word was mispelled. Hah!

6th grade: “I hope to read some of your published works some day.”

@Daloon;
Since you have reminded me of my son since I met you on askville, I will give you the same assignment I have given my son for the last 24 years. Try every day to find 1 good thing. Make it your mission to be a “good finder.” People who discount by nature have to work really hard at being optimistic. It’s not impossible, it’s just deliberate work. Lurve to you!
if you’re more disciplined than my son you could even keep a journal of your “good findings.” Then you can go back years later and see all the good you have found over the years.

@Judi – what a cool thing for your teacher to say! :)

@daloon, I’m thinking it’s just that thing with the mind…we don’t always see the things that are truly written.

@cak;
I wish I would have lived up to her expectations. Now with the advent of the word processor, I may decide to take up the dream again. :-)

@judi…go for it!!

@cak, but I did see it as you meant it. So which is the more true: what it says, or what it really meant to say?

I love you.
(My wife is a teacher.)

@ daloon – Physics – good. Psychic, bad. (meant to say, not what it said)

There was some email that floated around a long time ago, asking people to read it, as written and pick out the flaws. Most people didn’t find the flaws, because their their mind saw certain letters of a words and took it as what it was supposed to mean, not as how it was written. I forget how many flaws were in it, but it’s a neat experiment.

mine was… :you studied really hard for this test and you passed with flying colors”( i had a 99) :)

My senior comp. teacher, who was also my homeroom teacher, told me I was the most talented writer he had ever given D to. I was a constant ditcher, and rarely turned in my assignments, but when I did, he always gave me the most wonderful comments.

@tinyfaery, I had a math teacher like that. I got a solid D in that class from getting straight 100%‘s on every single test, but not turning in a sheet of homework, or attending a straight week of class the entire year.

But he always smiled at me so fondly, and even said that I reminded him of himself when he had been my age.

In my first year at college I wrote a physics paper entitled “How to Escape from a Black Hole.” My professor wrote: “Welcome to the ranks of Einstein and Hawking.”

I think that was the best comment I ever got from a teacher. Didn’t go on in physics, though.

In a letter to my Mother, my thrid grade teacher wrote: “I tolerate her slowness because I admire her intelligence.”

I am a bit of a procrastinator, and my motto has been something like, “You want it fast, or do you want it done right?”

That teacher used to tease me and say I was as slow as molasses in January. She taught my 4 brother before me, and said it was a family trait.

One of my college professors told me, at our end-of-the-year critiques, that I was “an outstanding citizen of the department”. It was really great to be acknowledged for the effort I put into helping out the people and department as a whole, and not just for what I was doing in class – that’s something that often goes unnoticed…

Also, when I graduated from high school, my English teacher gave each of us a copy of Polonius’ “This above all: to thine own self be true” speech from Hamlet – some of the best advice you can give someone about to go out and make their way in the world…

I spent the entirety of last semester at loggerheads with one of my professors. When I got my final paper back, though, it had “brilliantly argued” written at the end. There were comments on how it could be improved, of course, but I certainly didn’t expect any sort of blatant compliment from him.