Teachers obviously have a huge impact on their students, and some leave lasting impressions that their students hold onto forever.
So recently, redditor u/ApacheAirCover decided to ask the question, "What did a teacher do that made you automatically gain respect for them?"
And here are some of the purest and most wholesome responses they received:
1. "In my small middle school, our English teacher was brand new to teaching — I think she was only 22. She always did her best to be so cheerful and make learning fun. But what truly solidified her as my favorite teacher was that for every student’s birthday, she would give them a personalized mini notebook."
"It was just a simple small composition notebook, but she had filled the first couple pages telling me how much she loved having me as a student, how far she knew I would go, and with other affirmations. It seems small, but as a 13-year-old who had a crappy home life, it made all the difference in how I acted the rest of the year." —u/Voiceisaweapon
2. "In first grade, my mother gave me one of MANY awful haircuts. Kids picked on me so horribly that I ran out and hid. The principal found me, and we went back to the classroom. He asked me to wait outside while he talked to the class, then walked me to his office and bought me a Coke. Our whole school had an assembly the next morning, and he walked on stage with his head shaved completely bald and talked about bullying."
"Some twenty years down the road, he had retired. I ran into him at the local college, shook his hand, and said, 'You probably don't remember me, but—' He interrupted and said, 'Yes, I do,' before saying my name and the event. The man was and is a hero in my eyes." —u/hopgeek
3. "I had a teacher in elementary school who was prone to outbursts. For instance, when several of us weren't listening, he'd throw a piece of chalk against the wall to get our attention. Honestly, we just thought he was crazy. A year later, the school had a big talent show. One classmate wanted to play a drum solo. Our teacher had mentioned off-hand that he used to be in a band and played drums, so my classmate asked (dared) him to play a solo in front of the school."
"And he did. He fucking rocked it. But that's not what made me respect him. Turns out, the band he played for was very successful and, at the time, quite a popular rock band.
He left just before they became popular because he wanted to be a teacher. He chose to teach kids over the chance at fame and fortune, and he didn't regret it." —u/dasoberirishman
4. "I had a physical education teacher who organized basketball, volleyball, handball, and football tournaments. He also organized an 'Olympic games' for the local kids and taught us dancing on weekends."
"On his own. Just for us kids, because we lived in a remote place without many activities and things going on. He was more than a simple teacher." —u/remote_peach
5. "When I was a kid, we had to purchase these red punch cards to get lunch at school. Unfortunately, we didn't have that much money. There were times when my punch card would run out, and I wasn't able to eat until we got enough money to repurchase one. I had one teacher who noticed I wasn't eating every day, and she would bring an extra sandwich and offer it to me whenever she saw that."
"I really didn't understand how kind that was when I was a kid, but obviously as an adult, that was such an amazing gesture of kindness." —u/sk8erguysk8er
6. "Not take my shit. I was a pretty decent writer in school. I'd pop stuff out pretty quickly that was superficial but sounded good. This teacher handed my work back, pointing out that I managed to compellingly fail to say anything."
"It was sort of a slap in the face that I didn't realize I needed." —u/AvogadrosMoleSauce
7. "She was our AP English Language teacher for our senior year of high school, and she used to teach kindergarten. She had always seen off her cute and happy kindergarten kids. But as they grew up and came back to visit her, a lot of them were troubled and dissatisfied with their lives. So she changed curriculums and started teaching seniors."
"She had become emotional about how people had treated these kids that she loved so much, how she couldn't afford to see kids so disconnected with life, and how she didn't want them to suffer as they headed out towards college and their adult lives.
If I remember right, it always came down to sending her kids off with a smile, prepping them for the real world. I respect the hell out of her, and she'll always be one of my favorites. Truly like a mother to all her students." —u/NuluProton
8. "I had a professor once state that she doesn't believe in trick questions. Students trick themselves up enough without the professor helping them along."
"She never did put trick questions." —u/Nicholi417
9. "Junior year of high school, English class. We were discussing a story we had read. One student (let's call him Carl) made a point. The teacher was dismissive and basically said Carl was wrong. The next day, after we took our seats, the teacher said, 'Before we begin, I was thinking about what Carl said yesterday. I was wrong to dismiss it so quickly. Let's take a look at that again.'"
"He then went on to repeat Carl's point and initiate a conversation with the entire class. After the conversation, it became apparent Carl's point was indeed off base, but I was impressed the teacher publicly owned his mistake and went down the path he should have." —u/AndreasNYC
10. "My professor said she wasn't going to have a textbook for the class. She basically didn't respect the textbook representatives trying to take the pharma approach and force kids to buy a $170 access code."
"Instant respect. You just had to show up to the lectures, and she'd teach you what you needed to know." —u/enchiladacheese
11. "A math teacher of mine went to the hospital several times to visit a student who had been seriously injured in an accident."
"The teacher offered companionship, free tutoring, and genuine encouragement." —u/Back2Bach
12. "He told us a joke about his name (before we could) and allowed us to eat during his classes, as long as we did it quietly, 'because kids your age can't help being hungry all the time.'"
"Great guy. His whole attitude made all of us actually pay attention and do our best." —u/Mom_is_watching
13. "My fifth-grade teacher had every student circle one book from the Scholastic Book Fair flyer. On the day of the fair, if you didn't go to the library to purchase that book for yourself, she would buy it with her own money to make sure every student got to take a book home."
"I wouldn't have had any books of my own if it weren't for her." —u/banhbohap
14. "A math teacher told us, 'I don't care if you have good grades or bad grades. If you work hard, I will work harder to make you pass.'"
"He worked hard for me; I passed." —u/Thesorus
15. "I gained respect for him when he saw some kids going to skip, and he called them into his class. He told them, 'If you're gonna skip class then come to my class and do whatever you want in the back. I'd rather have you inside the school than outside.'"
"He would let us be who we were, listen to our iPods in class, and encouraged us to think 'outside the class.' Everyone loved that teacher, while the other teachers couldn't stand him. He had everyone's respect." —u/Raw1213
16. "In school, I was in a special needs unit for kids with Aspergers and autism. The kids there ranged from having mild Aspergers to severe autism. Most teachers treated everyone there like they had severe mental health problems. But one support teacher — whether he was talking to kids who had severe autism or mild social anxiety — wouldn’t talk extra slowly or call you 'bud' or 'pal' at the end of a sentence. He would talk to everyone like they were real human beings."
"He was genuinely just a nice dude. It might seem like a small thing. But when that’s how pretty much all teachers talked to you and treated you in every class, it was very refreshing to talk to someone who would talk to you based on who you were as a person rather than treating someone differently for being labelled as autistic." —u/mild_salsa_dip
17. "An English teacher in high school asked for my homework. I responded, 'I forgot to do it,' and he said to the rest of the class, 'Why can’t you guys be like [my name]? He doesn’t come up with some excuse, he just tells me he didn’t do it.'"
18. "I had a business studies teacher who used to be a mental health professional. So she recognized when my depression was particularly bad. She would always make sure I had eaten, offered me coffee, and generally made her classroom a safe space for anyone."
"Sesstein, if you're reading this, you're amazing!" —u/Spooky_ShadowMan
19. "Instead of shouting at my class for not shutting up before a lesson began, my history teacher quietly told the story of a pink elephant that wanted to be an astronaut. After a few seconds, when everyone was silent and listening, he stopped mid-story."
"As much as it made me respect him, WHY DIDN'T YOU FINISH THE STORY FFS!? That cliffhanger!" —u/Cae1us
20. "I'm epileptic and had a large set of seizures not long before finals in high school. My seizures tend to mess with my memory, and those multiple seizures had devastated my memory of everything I'd learned that semester. I was doing reasonably well in chemistry but absolutely bombed the final. I ended up just shy of passing the class, and that chem teacher gave me a bonus question that passed me."
"I didn't expect it, but the empathy was nice to see from a teacher. Still, the whole situation sucked. My math teacher told me I should have studied better. He then offered for me to retake the test — which seems reasonable enough but there was no point as it was just all gone." —u/Early_or_Latte
21. "It was small, but he told us he was going to be in a bad mood that day because someone stole his bike."
"Just treating us like people was something that was rare in that school." —u/Taneatua
22. "I moved out of my home during high school. It was stressful, to say the least. I fell behind in assignments, I was absent for days at a time, I missed tests, etc. I ended up explaining the bare minimum of my situation to my English teacher, and their response always stuck with me: 'Just do what you can.'"
"It may not seem like much, but right then and there, for a 16-year-old kid who felt like simply living was a burden, it was everything." —u/jodehleh
23. "In my freshman year, my class played a prank on our English teacher by laughing when he faced the board, then stopping when he turned to face us. After a few minutes of this, he left the classroom without a word. We all sat there confused. A few minutes later, the assistant principal comes in and explains that we've really upset our teacher. He made us believe we'd seriously fucked up. Then our teacher walked in and pretty much went, 'Gotcha!'"
"That son of a bitch had our respect from then on." —u/bitchtits93
24. "I told my English teacher about my unfortunate experience at my last school (people treating me like crap). He approached me after class and said, 'Hey, I'm sorry that happened to you. Y'know, there is a phrase in the English language that I think you ought to know: F*ck them.'"
25. "In high school, my science teacher paused class to rip a student apart for bullying another student — called it out as soon as it happened, in front of everyone."
"That bully never went near that other kid again. I will always remember that." —u/Mariospario
26. "In high school, we were doing an out-loud reading in history class. One boy in our class wasn’t a native English speaker and was struggling with some of the more complex words. Some people started to laugh at him, which is when the teacher stopped the class and openly tore them a new one."
"She never once raised her voice in doing it, but I’d never seen such a thorough shredding before and haven't since. Mad respect for her standing up for the kid who was trying his hardest — because that’s just not seen enough." —u/RooshunVodka
27. "I had a high school chem teacher who bet us all $100 that if we passed his class, we would pass our first college chem class. He used to give out quarters for correcting him or for anything done really well. I will never forget the time he ate chalk to prove to us that it was the same stuff as in milk. He was brilliant, hilarious, and just a really incredible human being."
"He was really awesome all around. He told stories about traveling the world over breaks, would get absurdly off-topic to teach us random stuff, and had a physics lab where we got to throw eggs at him. Occasionally, we had a class where absolutely nothing got done because we were having a discussion.
He put up posters about his trips and gave us extra credit quizzes about them because he said being observant was really important in chemistry. Actually, there were a few really weird activities in that class. Later, I also had a sociology professor who gave us a 'Do Not Fail Checklist.' Complete it, and you were guaranteed to pass." —u/HylianEngineer
Did these make you think of any memorable teachers in your life? Let us know in the comments below!
Are you a teacher interested in using BuzzFeed Community as a tool in the classroom?
Find out more here and check out our handy guide!