Ask HN: Best teacher you ever had? Why?

18 points by nexus6mike 6 years ago | 10 comments

Personally, I have a few.

Professor in college who ran my honors program. Awesome guy, approachable and laid back. He didn't teach to a textbook; everything was immersive. Instead of reading about Tesla, we visited the factory, for instance.

AP English teacher in HS. Kind lady that took no prisoners. Made for a funny combination. She was sharp as a whip and would call you out if your writing wasn't up to snuff. I learned more in this class than any other.

9th grade Honors English teacher in HS. The first class where I felt challenged in school. The teacher had been teaching the same class at the school for 40+ years. He was a moderate celebrity in our town by the time he retired. Didn't bother to learn a single student's name that year - nor was it needed for him to teach well.

3rd grade teacher. She would let me read Harry Potter all day. Very cool at age ~8.

There are a few others but these are the standouts that come to mind.

What about you?

nemacol 6 years ago |

I had a professor from college who recently passed away. He was an unconventional teacher. High energy and sort of rambled on about the subject, his experience, and how non-tech folks experienced and reacted to tech.

His stream of consciousness communication style plus his decades of industry (steel mills) experience and expertise of the subject matter made him an excellent teacher. Computer Programming and Logic and Database Design classes were my favorites.

Also, he rewarded unconventional solutions to projects and test questions. One memorable example - I turned in a project and before he gave it back asked me to explain my thinking. After I defended my work he complemented my "creative" solution and followed it up with why, while it might work, was sub-optimal.

I really learned a lot from him.

DrScump 6 years ago |

John "Jack" Minnick, higher math professor at De Anza College and author of multiple higher math texts.

I had to take the calculus sequence for my later B.S. in C.S. requirements. I entered Calculus I with some trepidation, but he structured his course so that you couldn't fall behind and stay in at all: lectures were daily, M-F, and most days began with a quiz based on the prior night's homework.

His lectures were thorough and just flowed.

He must have been in his 50s (based on when he joined the faculty) but looked 30s. He tragically died a few years later. I actually went to his memorial in SF; he had a broad base of friends spanning both arts and sciences. I recall one segment where a speaker read from "The Tempest". After the passage concluded, a member of the audience stood and proceeded to recite the next several passages from memory with the sturdy voice of a skilled Shakespearean actor.

octokatt 6 years ago |

Mr. Andrews, high school computer science. I got bullied terribly in his class from other students[1], and he made sure I still got to take his classes.

He let me hide in his classroom and work on programming projects during mandatory pep rallies.

He taught me programming fundamentals like object-oriented programming and functional programming, database structure, and bug hunting I still use twenty years later.

He encouraged me and told me good classes he taught to take at the same time so I could work on skills in the right order, and when I had two of his classes at once he let me do work from the harder class during the easier class.

He wrote me a recommendation letter that showed he knew me, and I still have it framed in my office.

[1] I was the only girl, a year or two behind the majority of the students, and a sarcastic little thing. Kudos to him to telling me being aggressive and female at the same time was ok, and showing me how to do so in a better manner.

LeoTinnitus 6 years ago |

I've taken Galileo's quote to heart:

>I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

I think a lot of what this says too is that life experience is the best teacher, especially when it's shared among other people.

smarri 6 years ago |

I was on a year abroad exchange and had a professor on his 80s (who was also on an exchange). He was teaching a class called Organisational Change. On the first day he said to the class, "what is the most important problem facing the world today?" After much discussion, the class settled on climate change. He then proceeded to tell us Organisational Change was not important in the context of real problems, and as we decided on climate change, that's what he would teach us. And he taught it well.

banjodeluxe 6 years ago |

I'd say the best ones for me were the teachers in high school that understood we were too old to play the whole authority game any more - school with them became a place were I wanted to go learn from people who had more experience than me. Be it chemistry or an anecdote about their life, there was a lot to learn and a lot of teachers never forged that connection or taught us well because they still thought of us as mindless children. The ones that respected us were the ones I learnt from most and the ones I still appreciate to this day.

anotheryou 6 years ago |

Any tips on how to find a good teacher?

I do product management at startups, but often there is nobody more senior in product than me. For now I just jumped in to new jobs maximizing my responsibilities. I did this every time my learning rate dipped (usually after 1.5 to 2 years). I learned a lot from colleagues, but finding a more senior mentor in my field seems hard.

I also don't want to spend my free time going to meetups. I have the internet for democratic discourse and to learn from others experience.

40acres 6 years ago |

I don't remember his name, but he was my history / home room teacher in 7th grade. In terms of pedagogy he was pretty good, probably not the best. But I'll always remember him for being the first black male teacher I ever had. Previously my teachers were all white women. It really meant something to have someone who looked like me in that position of authority. I even considered becoming a teacher before coming to my senses. ;)

sosborn 6 years ago |

It was an English teacher in high school. He was notoriously brutal with his grading, but always consistent and fair. The most important thing he taught me was that a two-page essay can say more than a 10-page essay, and it can do so in a way that maximizes impact.

It wasn't a lesson I truly appreciated until I joined the workforce.

taloft 6 years ago |

I had two exceptional teachers in college, in history and philosophy. As a compsci major, I hated both subjects before taking their classes, but ended up loving both subjects due to the professor’s passion for their field and for teaching.