It's The Axis of Weevil “Excellence in Primary and Secondary Pedagogy Edition” of the Thursday Three!

1. What three teachers did you have in grade school or high school who had the greatest impact on you, either for good or bad?

I had a lot of good teachers and a few pretty crummy ones.

I guess the first one that had a big impact on things for me was one of my second grade teachers who noticed that I was in regular math and advanced reading classes and stayed after school for a while to work with me and get me up to speed in math, because she was sure that I could handle the advanced work in both subjects. Many teachers wouldn't have taken time out of their day for that and even though I never really liked math all that much, up through and including calculus, I did make it through calculus, partly because she set me on the right course.

Then there was the teacher I had as my main teacher in third grade and again for reading and English in fifth and sixth grades. She also taught my older brother's PE class and eighth grade biology class one year. She wins a prize for versitility. Plus, she was a really good teacher.

Finally, the teacher with the most lasting impact has to be my dad. And I get to count him, because I took physics from him when I was a sophomore in high school. Of course, he's been teaching me stuff my whole life -- from tales of "atom cookies" and showing me the stars, to physics and listening to me wail about the horrors of calculus, to cooking and all the other stuff I wouldn't have picked up without him around. My high school had a deal with the local college though to allow students to take classes there. I wound up taking physics from my dad and getting an A-.

2. Which teacher do you wish you could go back and apologize to for your terrible misbehavior?

Well, besides my father -- and I was perfectly well behaved in class -- I don't think I have much to apologize for. There was my first grade teacher who wrote my name on the board for rolling my pencil -- I cried the rest of the day thinking she'd never like me again. I suppose there were a few teachers I thought rather uncharitable thoughts about, but I still did the work and behaved. I never understood kids who would hate a teacher and therefore decide to stop doing their homework and get bad grades.

3. What do you think is the best thing to happen to grade school since when you were there?

I don't really know much about the current state of grade schools, since my children aren't quite there yet.