I don’t think I had any teachers like that.
This was at university.
And, at university, one could assume some degree of interest on the part of the students in what you taught as they had chosen to study these subjects. This means that one of the key problems at school - trying to arouse the interest of the student in the subject - isn't usually an issue at university. You assume that they are interested in the subject to some extent: They wouldn't be there otherwise, they had made a decision to choose to study this subject, this was an active choice that they had made.
Moreover, at university, one could assume passion and interest (fascination even) with their subjects on the part of the academic staff; this was not always the case at school, where I knew people - we all did - who had drifted into teaching certain subjects because they were qualified, available, and a post came up which they were offered and accepted but in which they had no real or abiding interest.
Sometimes, they - the students I used to take for coffee - simply wished to be able to get something off their chests, talk stuff through, with a sympathetic (perhaps respected) adult they trusted who was not family. A surprising number were male; I seemed to get on well with alienated, occasionally awkward, bright young men and - it was wonderful to see them come into themselves - they blossomed, although it took some time.
In any case, I was young enough at the time not to be too distant from them in age, yet was an academic who happened to be female, - there weren't many women teaching at universities at that time, in fact, in every department or faculty I ever worked in, we never numbered more than two or, perhaps, three - and thus, I suppose they felt safe with me.
When I was a student at university, some of my teachers (lecturers and professors, almost all male) used to have coffee with me, and would sometimes offer support or talk stuff through, or engage with me intellectually, which I always thought marvellous, - a respected adult taking you seriously as a fellow scholar - as I was awestruck by them.
I will also add that if these academics - the gods of my life at that time - had not taken me for coffee, and, to be candid, I now know, in that way mentored me, and taken the time and trouble to do so, I wouldn't probably have known to do the same thing, or something similar, with some of the troubled - and/or enthusiastic - kids whom I, in turn, taught, when they approached me.
Mind you, nothing would have persuaded me to want to teach at primary or secondary level, although I greatly admire those who do, and who do it well.
Having said all that, my maths teacher at school, who was an excellent and passionately engaged teacher - who had been an outstanding scholar at university (which I only discovered years later), - and who had also represented the university in hockey, captaining the team to national trophies - who always strongly insisted that there was absolutely no reason girls couldn't achieve excellent grades in maths, and who - I learned later - was also a strong supporter of the Labour Party and was exceedingly active in the teaching union, she was an amazing role model, my mother had great time for her, and they got on well together - is someone I still see for a coffee and a chat sometimes.
