Today is the 91st birthday of the greatest teacher I have personally known.  I was not a pupil of John Morris, but a colleague at a school in Sydney.  I learned more about teaching from John than from any book or course.

John Morris, left, and this blogger

So why was he so great as a teacher?

Firstly, he was an enthusiast and loved spreading knowledge.  The way he spread knowledge was mostly by encapsulating a lesson and its aims within stories.  Everyone loves a good story, and none more so than young people.  If any teacher wants a class's full attention, just tell them a story that highlights your point.  Granted, there are subjects where story-telling seems impossible to use, e.g. Maths and I.T., but these are rare exceptions when it comes to worthwhile subjects.  'History' is a gift to teachers of it, yet far too many history teachers manage to transform an already compelling story into something dull and meaningless.

Secondly, John told stories in a comic-dramatic way and knew how to create suspense.  Pupils would not let him go to lunch until he had finished the tale.

Finally, he was so encouraging of his pupils, so interested in them as people, and made schoolwork such a pleasure, that his pupils shone and many still stay in touch with him.

John's effect on his pupils is best summed up by the mother of a boy he taught.  I bumped into the boy's mother in a shop one day, many year after he had left the school, and asked her how her pleasant (but academically average son) was doing.  She told me that he was running his own eye clinic in Sydney, having become a brilliant ophthalmologist.  Then the mother said: "Before John Morris, there was nothing.  After John Morris, everything!"

Happy Birthday, John !