Yellow school buses have started rumbling down my street. Across the country similar scenes are playing out. Another school year is awakening. Children are making memories that will stay with them throughout their lives. What do you remember about your school years? Betcha there’s a teacher or two entwined in those memories.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies. – Robert Frost

Because we’ve all had experiences with teachers who lifted us or quashed our dreams, literature about the teacher/student relationship resonates. How many of these notable books featuring memorable teachers have you read?

Fiction
Villette – Charlotte Brontë
Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Goodbye Mr. Chips – James Hilton
Good Morning, Miss Dove – Frances Gray Patton
To Sir, With Love – E.R. Braithwaite
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
Up the Down Staircase – Bel Kaufman
A Lesson Before Dying – Ernest J. Gaines
Dancing in a Distant Place – Isla Dewar
The Woman Upstairs – Claire Messud

Non-Fiction
The Water is Wide – Pat Conroy
Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi

If we believe that children are our greatest treasures and we entrust most of the hours of their formative years to teachers, perhaps we should offer teachers exceptional salaries, thereby attracting more of the best and the brightest.

For a great quote about the lifelong impact of teachers and books, check out this week’s Book.ed Blog Quotable.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. – John Steinbeck