Ms. Frizzle

Prof. Umbridge

-

-

It! chooses the best and the worst of the teachers it never had

Date published: 8/28/2008

AS YET another school year begins, many students reflect upon their previous instructors, comparing them with one another and with those they will have for this year.

Inevitably, some of these memories will be better than others, with at least one teacher on each end of the spectrum, from "perfectly wonderful" to "horrendously awful."

During this back-to-school season, it! takes time to remember another set--the noteworthy educators of fictional universes.

Though teachers, in various forms, make many appearances in books, movies and television shows, we have limited our descriptions to four each of the best and worst teachers we never had.

THE GOOD

Henry 'Indiana' Jones 'Indiana Jones' series

Guys want to be him. Girls want to be with him. But when he's not dueling Nazis or having close encounters with aliens, the adventurous hero has a very different side that people often overlook.

"Indiana Jones" is actually Dr. Henry Jones in his everyday life, teaching a class on archaeology at Marshall College. Unfortunately, he never reveals the fact that he moon-lights as a treasure hunter to his class, leading to lectures that are often stale and uneventful. Still, the super-stud's alter ego makes him a shoe-in for one of the best teachers of all time.

--Elliot Hay

Valerie Frizzle 'The Magic School Bus'

Ms. Frizzle, the eccentric redhead sometimes referred to as "the Friz" by her students, takes her class on wild but extremely informative adventures, often with the class pet, Liz the Lizard, on her shoulder.

None of this could be possible, of course, without The Magic School Bus, a vehicle with unlimited supernatural abilities (including the power to shrink down to the size of a red blood cell and travel around a student's sick body) and technology that NASA would envy--namely the ability to reach Pluto in a timely manner.

With her unconventional lesson plans and frequent field trips, combined with very few disgruntled students, Ms. Frizzle is the ideal teacher, and could single-handedly start a scientific education revolution.

--Brinkley Sharpe

George Feeny 'Boy Meets World'

Date published: 8/28/2008