Great teachers vs fun teachers

On Facebook, my high school fan page had poll asking who was your favorite teacher which usually means which on was the most fun.  It was interesting to see how the responses varied.  I wonder if the results would change if the question was which teacher had the most impact on you as a person or which teacher did you learn the most from. 

At the risk of offending teachers who were important to me in different way I want to talk about a couple that really stood out,  Mr. Tam and Max Whitlock.

Mr. Tam taught advanced math and computer science back in the day of the Apple II. He made learning interesting but was also a tough teacher. He challenged us and made us earn his respect and our grades.  You might think that because he taught advanced math that we didn't have  fun. Mr. Tam had the amazing ability to be writing on the chalk board (yes I am dating myself) and if you were talking when you weren't supposed to he could break the chalk, throw one piece at you (and hit you 9 times out of ten) catch the other piece of chalk and keep writing with out turning around to look at you. He also invited his Sr. Advanced Math Class to his house every year for dinner. For the reason mentioned above I think most of my classmates enjoyed these classes because these teachers lead us into adult hood where respect was earned and given in both directions.

Another teacher that I think a lot of my classmates underrate is Max Whitloch.  While I'm sure that being a legally blind band teacher had many challenges but knowing music and kids weren't among them for Max. He knew all the pieces we played to the note for every instrument. One of the things I don't think we appreciated about Max was how much he loved music and wanted to share that love with his students. It was a big part of his life and teaching a love of music to high school kids was what he did and did very well.  Max could sit down at the piano and play just about any song you could name by ear.  We played tough music especially when you consider we were a small school and almost everyone in the school was in band so Max had a wide range of talent to work with.  Despite the talent mix, Max often had more musicians in the All State bands than most schools several times our size. One things I am glad I had the opportunity to do was after graduating coming back for a concert and introducing a march that was commissioned in Max's name so that his commitment to music and teaching high school kids would be remembered.  

There were other teachers who were just as dedicated and maybe more fun. All the teachers I had in school were important in one way or another.  Thanks to them and every teacher like them who make an impact on kids.