Mr. Brunner:
Mr. Brunner, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, is the title character’s Latin teacher at the Yancy Academy. But secretly he is the director of a summer camp for Greek demigods, Camp Half-Blood. If that didn’t blow your mind then how about this, he is an immortal centaur who passes himself as a human by fitting his horse body into a magical wheelchair, son of the titan Kronos, half-brother of Zeus, and trained heroes like Hercules and Achilles. He is wise, patient and understanding. Percy is a kid suffering from ADHD and Dyslexia. He performs poorly in his studies and always gets in trouble with his teachers. This made him rather underconfident and self-depressed. But Mr. Brunner always believed in him and encouraged him to push himself. He was the only teacher Percy believed in and he worked hard to prove Chiron right. Chiron supported Percy throughout his journey teaching him and being there for him always, even forgiving Percy for his rash decisions by understanding the good intentions behind. He cares about his students and only hopes the best for them. Not convinced that he is a great teacher, hear this, when the gods granted him a wish, he asked to be alive as long as he could train demigods. That was eons ago and he still continues to do so. Can you imagine being stuck teaching obnoxious and annoying teenagers for eons.
Professor McGonagall:
Minerva McGonagall is the transfiguration professor at Hogwarts and also transfigures into a tabby cat (don’t get relieved when you're late to her class and she isn’t there). Strict and tough, she is hard on her students pushing them to give their best and doesn’t tolerate rule breakers even if it’s ‘The Boy Who Lived’. But she was fair to everyone unlike some of her colleagues *cough* Snape *cough* Umbridge. Under all her toughness she was soft in her heart displaying kindness to the needed and always cared and protected her students. If all these aren’t enough, who didn’t get goosebumps when she used ‘Piertotum Locomotor’ and brought the Hogwarts statues to life to defend the school. Being a great teacher, a powerful witch and inherently a good person she rightfully deserved to become the Headmistress by the end of the seires.
Mr. Miyagi :
“Never put passion in front of principle, even if you win, you'll lose”. Passion is a wonderful thing, but it destroys everything if left unchecked. This is where principles come in, they keep a person’s passion in check and make sure he doesn’t lose himself in the process. True to his words Mr. Miyagi is a man of principles, which earns him the respect of his student. Throughout the film of The Karate Kid, he never misuses his talents. Only using it to help Daniel LaRusso, when he is unfairly bullied. And only agrees to teach him after failing to resolve the conflict peacefully. However, in his training with Mr.Miyagi, Daniel not only learns Karate but also important life lessons such as compassion and personal balance. His training starts in a rather underwhelming way where it seems his teacher is only using it for personal chores like scrubbing the floor and painting the fence. After a few days, Daniel becomes frustrated and chooses to leave the training. But in an unexpected turn of events it is revealed, in the now iconic scene, that the chores were a way to build his muscle memory to defend himself. Showing in order to learn a greater skill first you need to learn the smaller skills that make it up. Mr. Miyagi started as a stranger and then turned into a teacher and finally became a friend to Daniel helping him navigate his life.
Yoda:
In ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, Yoda wants Luke to levitate his X-wing out of the swamp using the force. Luke tries and fails and later tells his master, ‘You want the impossible’. In an iconic moment Yoda calmly raises the starfighter out and Luke says, ‘I don’t believe it’ and Yoda replies, ‘That is why you fail’. And teaches Luke and us that belief is what it takes to make the impossible possible. Yoda is a great teacher with immense wisdom gained from training the Jedi for more than 800 years. He is compassionate, humble, and playful. He recognized the potential in Luke when others couldn’t and helped him reach his full potential by making him believe in himself. His teaching methods don’t follow a rigid framework but it is the journey and the discovery that allows Luke to attain his wisdom. Education is not a way to acquire a skill but a way to better ourselves as a person.
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