‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I am currently reading Brain Rules by John Medina, a great book about how the mind works (at least based on current research which he says is still somewhat limited). This got me to thinking about memorable teachers and memorable teaching moments in my own life.

I can recall every teacher I have had at least during primary school and many of my junior high school teachers but start to forget those in high school (boarding school for me). To paraphrase Woody Allen, “I can remember their faces but not necessarily what they taught” except for a limited few. By college… well as we say in Brooklyn Fughedaboutit! Only a handful come to mind, and I had many more teachers (professors more properly) then as I did during high school.

The common thread with those I do remember the most was that they had a passion for what they were teaching, they brought what they taught to life, made it relevant to our world, were excited about the subject, be it mathematics, computer science, history, or English. One of my memorable quotes from a friend in high school derived from extremely negative feedback from our English teacher who was rather draconian. He received a paper back from him with no grade on it, just the written statement that the paper “was not fit to wrap fish in”. Well, that got the message across.

One of the reasons I think that I remember my primary school teachers so well is that we are still developing our emotions, behaviors, our essential knowledge of ourselves, although this most certainly ramps up in our teens and continues through our lives. We focused on the heart first, then the hands, and finally the head. Perhaps old school, perhaps novel in today’s age.