“Mr. Desjardins! He was my teacher back in elementary school, and the coolest guy ever. He was a huge guy, near seven feet tall, and his girlfriend was a powerlifter from Canada. Right before summer break would start, he would reach out to the parents of kids who struggled with subjects and offer to tutor them in his own free time. He also made sure we all had a firm understanding of reality, and how things actually worked.
I remember he would put up posters he made from tabloid covers (‘Batboy discovered in a cave,’ ‘Hollow earth people attack North Pole base’, etc.) in order to teach us the difference between pseudoscience and actual science.
He would end the day by holding up a picture or reading us an article, and asking us if we thought it was real or fake, and having us explain/discuss why we thought what we did.
He also got the school to let him start a garden, and would invite us to help him with it after school or on the weekends. He and a bunch of parents showed us how to plant everything from flowers to corn.
Looking back, he definitely didn’t just follow the normal teaching syllabus or rules. He was a shining example of a teacher who truly enjoyed watching kids learn, and wanted to prepare us for our futures as best he could.”
