To Sir With Love.  Why Mr Guppy was so 👍 great

What makes a teacher great?

Todays blog topic is making me reflect on Mr Guppy, the most truly wonderful teacher he was , and his lasting impact on my life.

Mr Guppy was my social studies teacher in year 9 at the tech school that my brothers had gone to, and I followed in their footsteps.   Looking back, the tech school was never a good fit for me because my talents were academic and literary based .I was never going to become a tradie.   I was being bullied at the time, by some particularly nasty girl’s.   I came into Mr Guppys radar as he could see my very obvious talents and wanted to nurture them and also was concerned of what the bullying of me would mean for my future

He was an inspiration as a teacher, challenging us to think outside the box and also to think about the world 🌎 and our place in it.  I will never forget the class in which Mr Guppy wrote the lyrics to the John Lennon song Imagine 🎵 🎶 on the Blackboard and asked us to think about what those lyrics were about. He tried to educate us about social justice and inequality to help us learn and make the 🌎 world a better place.  He had checked out a number of good academic secondary colleges in the area and approached my parents with his desire that I try to get into Strathmore Secondary College, the best government school in the area.   He helped me to do the entrance criteria for Strathmore and was delighted for me when I got in . I can remember him buying fish 🐟 and 🍟 chips for a great lot of students when we travelled to Sandringham beach by train during our end of year program.

He was a teacher who performed above and beyond the classroom.   He brought out the best in us, and nurtured the talents of different students, he modelled empathy and compassion 🙏🏽 and taught us about the realities of life and to question things, instead of just blindly believing what we are told.

Just like the line in the song 🎵 To Sir With Love, he took me from crayons 🖍 to  perfume.   He was a role model,  a leader, and a compassionate man, and he was the greatest influence on what my life was to become.  Thank you, Mr Guppy. You were outstanding.

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