I am supposed to write about a teacher who has influenced me greatly and made me who I am today. That is difficult for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as a teacher, I look back and see how much the profession has altered since I was at school, and secondly, a lot of the teachers I had looked up to previously, I now realise weren’t actually amazing teachers.
It amazes me also that, even though I spent a year being taught by them, I can’t name all of my primary school teachers. I have no idea about may of them at all. Which is a shame as I’m very sure they were good teachers!
In the end, though, my two main loves in life – maths and music – do stem from having good teachers throughout my life. My violin teacher, Mr Hardy – the husband of my main school teacher at the time I took it up – was brilliant and I spent a long time with him, he taught me roughly seven years altogether. Then there are the music teachers at high school with Mrs Jones being the one person who had the most passion and enthusiasm for everything she did. I recall how she was coming towards the end of her first pregnancy and still bouncing up and down while conducting, trying to inject that energy into our performances. It worked.
The maths teachers are many. I don’t remember all their names, but they all had an impact. The tutors at university too really pushed my knowledge further. I wish my brain wasn’t quite so terrible with names so I could acknowledge them – but if you ever taught me maths, you definitely shaped my life a lot.
Thank you!
