So
In my ninth school year we had a fascinating German/PE-teacher (this being in Sweden), who was raving mad. He was big and brutish and everyone was scared of him (he also had a very manly moustache). Not that he would beat anyone who didn't deserve it (although apparently he once threw a pupil down some stairs).

He always wore PE-clothes, even when he was having German classes, and he decided the standard curriculum wasn't for us and instead taught us advanced grammar that we, as far as I can tell, weren't supposed to learn in "base school" at all (with "base school" I intend to mean school before University-level, in Sweden 12 years, so I had 3 years left).
It was god-awful hard work and most of it didn't stick, of course, but it is still the most advanced grammar I've ever learnt of(in?) any language, even my own. And to some of the more successful students that was the best thing ever. If you understood what he was teaching and could answer his questions he was your friend and ally.

He also slept in the teachers break/dining-room at nights (homeless? see further down) and didn't get along with ANY of the other teachers.

And then one day he just disappeared. As in disappeared. The teachers and the school didn't know either. Fucking awesome.

And these were not just schoolyard rumours, we were told this by another German/French-teacher we had at the time (she was a really really great teacher btw. She would have deserved to have me studying harder). Another teacher noted, very diplomatically, that it was a shame he (the mad one) had quit/left/scarpered/zipped it because he probably was a linguistic genious.

Fast forward at 8x speed quite a few years, he turns up in my television. It was a section of the national news (public service, like BBC) about the shortage of houses and apartments in Stockholm and he was being interviewed as "Mr. X, in search of housing" (they had caught him at some housing agency). I think that was the most unlikely event I've experienced so far in my life and so, out of shock I didn't catch what he said. But I think he was quite upset. And as he was at a housing agency I guess he, at least, didn't sleep on the streets. As he probably was extraordinaly good at languages I doubt he would end up like that anyway.

Too much detail? I can never tell.

Oh, and much earlier, somewhere between my first and third school year, my class managed to make two separate teachers cry. That still baffles me, I mean we were only nippers. And most of the class ended up as good, productive, law-abiding christian citizens*.

All in all, I've had a lot of good teachers. Most of them I never told. I hope they know it anyway. A good teacher is worth a lot more than most citizens. Teaching is one of the most respectable professions of all.**



*That christian part was a lie. Thank fuck. Or my master Satan, the dark prince of lies \../o_0\../


**I would like to end this broadcast with a special message to Californians everywhere(but mostly those in California): The world is laughing AT you, not WITH you.

I just came to think of that now that Arnold Schwarzenegger had his union- and teacher-hostile suggestions PWN3D. So, on second thought, good work, Californians everywhere. I am proud of you :)


Edit: I just remembered this is my first qotw. Thank you for reading, I hope I have been able to entertain you.

Edit edit: I realize this whole "Teachers are the best thing Ev4R!" thing of mine goes in sharp contrast to the whole theme of the QOTW. It was not my intent that it should turn out this way, it just happened.
(Heretic Penguin. With a hint of garlic. - Living in filth, Thu 10 Nov 2005, 22:40, Reply)